The Nightmare Family tattoo that Cody Rhodes got on his neck in 2020 was met with a polarizing response, but Rhodes never intended it to be as big as it turned out to be.
“The American Nightmare” was a recent guest on Logan Paul’s IMPAULSIVE podcast to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When Paul commented that he looked like a President, Rhodes admitted his two dreams growing up were to be WWE Champion and run for President, although he’s no longer interested in the latter.
“The only dreams I had growing up I wanted to be WWE Champion, and then I wanted to run for President,” Rhodes said. “I don’t want to run for President anymore [laughs]. That seems like a terrible thing. Also, the tattoo on the neck…, so the dude drew it, and I’ve always liked the design. The American Nightmare design was what it was.
“But I powered through because I have one tattoo on my chest for my dad. I don’t have a lot of tattoos. He’s like powering through. He’s like, ‘Do you want to take a break? You probably want to take a break, right? You want to take a break.’ I kept thinking, ‘Nah, I’m good. I’m good.’ I wish I had taken a break. I didn’t know it was like double the size of the drawing I saw. I thought, ‘Oh my god, I’m wrestling in two days.’ He said either do it months out or just two days before.”
When asked if he thought he made a mistake, Rhodes admitted he didn’t know but recalled an All Elite Wrestling production meeting after getting it and having Jim Ross staring at it the entire time.
“I don’t know if it was a mistake, but I wasn’t paying attention,” Rhodes said. “A lot of people were like, ‘Neck? Neck?’ My boss at the time, this was when I was at AEW, he just thought, ‘No way. It’s not gonna be your neck.’ Then I walked into the production meeting, and I remember Jim Ross, a legendary wrestling announcer, literally just [mimics Ross staring]. He, the whole meeting, was just staring at it, not listening to anything.”
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What do you make of Cody Rhodes’ comments? Has his neck tattoo grown on you over the years? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit IMPAULSIVE with a link back to this article for the transcription.
