Cody Garrett Runnels Rhodes is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE since March 2022, where he performs on the SmackDown brand and is the Undisputed WWE Champion, recognized as both the WWE Champion and WWE Universal Champion in his first reign with each, as well as the inaugural WWE Crown Jewel Champion. He is also known for his time in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he was an Executive Vice President and co-founder when the company was founded in 2019 until he left in 2022.
The son of wrestler Dusty Rhodes and the half-brother of wrestler Dustin Rhodes, he rose to prominence during his first tenure with WWE from 2006 to 2016. He adopted various gimmicks under his real name before being repackaged as a melodramatic spin-off of Dustin's Goldust character named Stardust. He also wrestled for promotions such as 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.
After an amateur wrestling career that earned him two Georgia state championships, Rhodes joined WWE in 2006 and was initially assigned to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he became a Triple Crown Champion. He joined WWE's main roster in 2007 and throughout his WWE career, became a two-time Intercontinental Champion and a prolific tag team wrestler, winning eight world tag team championships (three World Tag Team Championships, four WWE/Raw Tag Team Championships, and one SmackDown Tag Team Championship) with five separate partners; his fourth Raw Tag Team Championship and one SmackDown Tag Team Championship were held together as the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship.
Following his departure from WWE in May 2016, Rhodes began wrestling on the independent circuit and making several appearances in TNA, where he wrestled under the mononym Cody due to WWE owning the "Cody Rhodes" name until giving it up in 2020. From early 2016 to early 2017, he competed at WWE's WrestleMania, NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom, and ROH's Final Battle events, as well as appearing for TNA's Bound for Glory event. In September 2017, he wrestled in ROH, where he became a one-time ROH World Champion. He would later become a one-time IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion in NJPW and a one-time ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion (with Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). In 2018, Rhodes, along with the Jacksons, promoted an independent pay-per-view event called All In that took place in September, where he won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, marking the first time the championship had been won by both a father and son. This event marked a significant moment in professional wrestling history by becoming the first non-WWE or World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promoted event in the United States to sell 10,000 tickets since 1993. The success of All In was instrumental in inspiring the formation of AEW in January 2019.
In January 2019, Rhodes was named as an executive vice president of the newly formed AEW, where he would also wrestle. While there, became the inaugural AEW TNT Champion. After failing to negotiate a new contract, he departed AEW in February 2022. Two months later, he returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38 and defeated Seth "Freakin" Rollins. He then won both the 2023 and 2024 men's Royal Rumble matches, becoming the fourth wrestler to achieve back-to-back victories at the event and the first since "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (who won in 1997 and 1998). At WrestleMania XL, Rhodes won his first world championship in WWE: winning two world heavyweight championships simultaneously; as well as ending Roman Reigns' WWE Universal Championship reign of 1,316 days, in the process becoming a WWE Triple Crown winner. Rhodes topped Pro Wrestling Illustrated's PWI 500 list of top 500 male wrestlers in the world in 2024.
