Cody Rhodes

Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes (né Runnels; born June 30, 1985) is an American professional wrestler and actor.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand.

Rhodes was born Cody Garrett Runnels on June 30, 1985, to the highly successful professional wrestler Virgil Runnels Jr., known professionally as Dusty Rhodes, and his second wife Michelle Rubio.

In addition to half-brother Dustin, he also has a half-sister from his father's first marriage, and a full sister, Teil.

When he was a teenager, he legally changed his name to Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes.

Rhodes attended Lassiter High School and had a successful high school wrestling career.

He placed sixth in the 171 lb division as a sophomore.

As a junior, he won the Georgia state tournament at 189 lb in 2003 and repeated as champion his senior year.

He had planned to wrestle collegiately at Penn State University, but decided to become a professional wrestler instead.

During his time in high school, Rhodes also acted as a referee in his father's Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion.

After graduating high school, Rhodes attended an acting school.

Rhodes credits his father, Dusty Rhodes, for starting his wrestling training when Cody was 12 years old; this was limited mainly to simple fundamentals and taking bumps.

From there his training was provided by Al Snow, Danny Davis, Randy Orton and Ricky Morton.

Rhodes rose to prominence during his first tenure with WWE from 2006 to 2016, where he performed under his real name, as well as under the gimmick and ring name Stardust, an overly deep, dramatic, and sparkling spin-off gimmick of his half-brother's Goldust character.

Rhodes has also wrestled for various other notable promotions, including Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH).

Outside of wrestling, he served as a judge on the competition series Go-Big Show, and starred with his wife Brandi Rhodes on the reality show Rhodes to the Top.

Rhodes is the son of wrestler Dusty Rhodes and the half-brother of fellow wrestler Dustin Rhodes.

After an amateur wrestling career that resulted in him becoming a two-time Georgia state champion, he followed his father and older brother's footsteps into the professional ranks and joined WWE in 2006, initially being assigned to the company's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) where he became a Triple Crown Champion.

Using his birth name Cody Runnels, Rhodes began wrestling in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in May 2006.

Runnels formed a tag team with Shawn Spears in mid-August 2006 and won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship twice.

He also won the OVW Heavyweight Championship and the OVW Television Championship.

Rhodes joined WWE's main roster in 2007 and would remain there for nine years, becoming a two-time Intercontinental Champion and a prolific tag team wrestler, winning six world tag team championships (three World Tag Team Championships and three WWE Tag Team Championships) with four separate tag team partners.

On the July 2, 2007, episode of Raw, Runnels made his television debut, using his family's wrestling last name, Rhodes, in a backstage segment with his father Dusty Rhodes and Randy Orton, where Orton introduced himself to Rhodes and then slapped Dusty as a sign of disrespect.

Cody Rhodes made his main roster in-ring debut losing to Randy Orton via pinfall on the July 16, 2007, episode of Raw. Rhodes appeared at The Great American Bash to prevent Orton from further attacking his father.

The next night on Raw, Rhodes challenged Orton to a rematch from the previous week, only to lose again.

Orton followed this up by kicking Rhodes' father in the head.

On September, he began a feud with Hardcore Holly and lost three consecutive matches to him.

Later, they would work as a tag team and they defeated Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch on the Raw 15th Anniversary special episode for the World Tag Team Championship, marking Rhodes' first championship in WWE.

Rhodes left WWE after requesting his release in May 2016.

In the time frame spanning from early 2016 to early 2017, he competed at WWE's WrestleMania, NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom and Impact Wrestling's (formerly TNA) Bound for Glory events, as well as appearing for ROH's Final Battle.

In September 2017, Rhodes wrestled in ROH, where he became a one-time ROH World Champion.

He would later become a one-time IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion and a one-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson).

In September 2018, he won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship (due to ROH's partnership with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), with he and Dusty becoming the first father and son to win the title. All totaled between WWE, AEW, NJPW, NWA, and ROH, Rhodes has held 15 championships, including two world titles, and in early fall 2018, held the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, IWGP U.S., and ROH Six-Man titles simultaneously.

He is also known for his time in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) from 2019 to 2022, where he served as an executive vice president and was the inaugural and record-tying three-time AEW TNT Champion.

In January 2019, Rhodes was unveiled as an executive vice president of the newly formed AEW, where he would also serve as a wrestler.

While there he would have critically acclaimed matches with his brother Dustin, Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara in addition to becoming the inaugural and a record-tying three-time AEW TNT Champion.

After failing to negotiate a new contract with AEW President Tony Khan, Rhodes relinquished his executive position and he and his wife departed AEW in February 2022.

He returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38 that April, defeating Seth Rollins.

In 2023, Rhodes won the men's Royal Rumble match, and also won the match again in 2024, becoming only the fourth wrestler to achieve the feat of back-to-back victories at the event and the first since Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1997 and 1998.

Following his departure from WWE, Rhodes began wrestling on the independent circuit, also making several appearances in TNA; he wrestled under the shortened name Cody, due to WWE owning the Cody Rhodes name, until 2020 when WWE surrendered their trademark.