Cody Rhodes may once again be feuding with old foe Randy Orton, but a promo he cut on "SmackDown" this past Friday has some wondering about Rhodes and Paul Heyman, specifically whether the two could one day form an alliance. That was the topic on Bully Ray's mind during Monday morning's "Busted Open Radio," where the two-time Hall of Fame speculated that maybe Heyman wouldn't side with either Bron Breakker or Oba Femi, but would instead join forces with Rhodes. If that did happen, Bully feels WWE would need to treat it the same way WCW treated Hulk Hogan's defection to the nWo in 1996."Cody's heel turn has to be as precise and effective as Hogan coming out at Bash at the Beach at Daytona, and dropping the leg on Savage, and turning and becoming a part of the nWo," Bully said. "Otherwise, it's all for naught. That's got to be the goal. Cody has to become...you know, we always talk about heels in the WWE. The lack of heels. GUNTHER is a heel, but this your opportunity for Cody Rhodes to become a monster heel when the time is right. In the mafia, we have the boss of all bosses. Cody Rhodes can become the heel of all heels."Bully further compared a Rhodes heel turn to Roman Reigns' alliance with Paul Heyman. He was emphatic that WWE do all they could to emulate that, and avoid the issues they fell into when turning John Cena heel in early 2025."I think that would have to be the goal," Bully said. "This would have to be the be all, and end all of alignments and turns. And you're getting one crack at it. And you can't have another Rock moment or Cena moment that didn't exactly go perfectly."
Part of the reason Bully feels so confident in a Rhodes heel turn working is because it would involve Heyman, who Bully has full confidence in given their long history in ECW and Heyman's long track record of success. Even still, the former WWE Tag Team Champion continued to stress that everything needed to come together perfectly in order for the turn to work, from the timing of it to having the proper babyface for Rhodes to turn on."Knowing what I know about Paul Heyman, this trigger would never be pulled unless the timing is absolutely perfect," Heyman said. "Zero room for error. No plan B, because if plan A doesn't work, we're all screwed. It ain't going to happen, and like I said, and I've been saying it from day 1, who's the babyface? Who's the babyface? You need...[Cody] doesn't have to leave somebody bloodied, he needs to do something to turn his back on somebody who is loved."And Paul Heyman needs to be the one that stirred him up to do it. And maybe we don't find out about him and Heyman until after its done. We saw Heyman sit next to Roman, and that started the progression. Maybe Cody does it all on his own, and when its all said and done and he drops the proverbial leg and joins the nWo...it's only after the fact do we see him and Heyman together."If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
