Dusty Rhodes' impact on the direction of the career of his son, Cody, is often spoken about. Cody followed in his father's footsteps as a professional wrestler and as an executive of a professional wrestling company.
However, the relationship between Dusty and his daughter-in-law, Brandi, is one more commonly kept close to the vest. On a recent episode of Chris Jericho's podcast, Brandi discusses leaving WWE twice and the impact that Dusty played in her initial return to the company.
"I'm real popular [in WWE]," she said with a laugh. "so, the first time I left really was because I did get the absolute, 'you're only going to ring announce. So, we're not gonna change that. You're not going to wrestle. We're not going anywhere else with this.'"
Brandi then spoke about Cody's supportive nature throughout her initial separation from WWE, "You know, Cody and I had started dating, and actually we were engaged. And he had said, you know, 'what do you want to do here? Is this working for you or not?' And I said, 'no, I don't think it is, because I don't think this is what I thought I wanted to do. Maybe I'll go back into news,' because, you know, I love to flirt with news over and over again. So, you know, I said, 'if this is the top of it for me in wrestling, I'm I think I'm good.'"
Brandi would wind up getting the wrestling bug after watching her family wrestle The Shield at WWE Battleground in 2013 and shortly wound up in NXT giving wrestling another shot. Dusty Rhodes, often seen as a father to NXT talent, would take Brandi's time training as an opportunistic chance to bond with his daughter-in-law, something Brandi remembers fondly, "It was really fun. He always treated me like one of his daughters. Like you would say, this is my daughter. He wouldn't say this is my daughter-in-law," she recalled. "So it was just-- it felt like I needed to be there when I was there. And I think that without that, Dusty and I wouldn't have known each other very well. We went to had like a close bond at all because we lost him shortly thereafter. So I think that that time to work with him, it was very valuable to me."
The CBO of All Elite Wrestling would also recall some advice given to her by Dusty and discuss the long road to finally seeing her efforts pay off.
"Basically, [he told me] to just keep doing what I want to do until I get my way, which doesn't work nearly as quickly as you think it would. Especially with Dusty telling you, because he has all the confidence in the world," she said. "Then you're like, gosh, three years later, here we are. What's going on? I'm doing all the things I'm supposed to do here and not getting anywhere. But then, you know, here's the epic payoff where I'm right where I want to be and really happy with everything. And I feel like my work's paid off. It's amazing."
All of Brandi's attention now is focused on the TNT debut of All Elite Wrestling on Wednesday, October 2.
Please credit Fightful if any portion of this transcription is used.
