As a coach and co-owner of the Nightmare Factory, Cody Rhodes is focused on shaping the next generation of professional wrestlers. To do that, he implements some material from the past in the school's training sessions. On a recent episode of "Hot Ones," Rhodes revealed which two classic matches he regularly shows students of his school as well as one he'd hypothetically add as a "required" watch.
"We watch two and I actually have to kind of think. There's so many you could use as a third. The first one we watch is Sting versus Ric Flair from The Great American Bash. Second one is we watch Bret Hart versus Mr. Perfect from SummerSlam. I might say WrestleMania 40, which I'm in. I went from being the guy who was away from there, trash talking it, started a whole another thing, and to come in, earn my place back, and then them say, 'Hey, it's all yours.' Like literally, how? So it might be 40 [as a third watch]."
Sting vs. Ric Flair took center stage at WCW's Great American Bash in 1990, with the former dethroning the latter for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs. Mr. Perfect followed one year later under the WWE banner at SummerSlam. In it, Hart defeated Perfect to claim the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Together, though, their efforts convinced WWE to name it as the third best SummerSlam bout of all time.
Regarding WrestleMania 40, Rhodes and Seth Rollins fell to Roman Reigns and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on night one of the festivities. The following night, Rhodes bested Reigns in Bloodline Rules for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship the first WWE world title of Rhodes' career.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Hot Ones" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
