Cody Rhodes Had The Idea To Give His Soul To Simone Johnson (Ava) When The Rock Wanted It
On the February 21, 2025 episode of WWE SmackDown, The Rock famously asked for the soul of Cody Rhodes, who was the Undisputed WWE Champion at the time.
Cody did not give Rock his soul, telling him to go fuck himself.
But he did have another idea.
Speaking with Simone Johnson on What Do You Want To Talk About?, who was NXT general manager Ava from January 2024 to January 2026, Cody revealed his idea to give his soul to Simone.
Cody: “When the Final Boss asked me for my soul, I thought, you know what would’ve been funny, is to relent and give my soul, but not to him. This is at a time when you were the NXT General Manager, to you. I thought, ‘That’s got legs. I’ll never say a word again. She’ll speak.”
Simone: “I think we would’ve crushed that.”
Cody: “We would’ve crushed that. People are often like, ‘You don’t want to be a bad guy.’ I’m open to all things. Whatever is the best. I thought that would’ve been a real good spin.”
Simone: “I would’ve loved to have done that.”
Cody: “How would he have felt?”
Simone: “I think he would’ve been all for it. Absolutely.”
Cody: “I can’t believe you never told him.”
Simone: “I don’t think it ever came up because I think he was beating you up, asking you for your soul. I don’t think I knew he was coming back that day. I had no context of what the promo would be. I just saw it and was like, ‘Soul is crazy.'”
Cody: “I think we might have had something. Who knows, we might still have something. I thought it was such a fun spin. My soul goes to you and we would’ve wreaked havoc. Sold out every night. That was our idea. It never happened.”
Simone: “Who knows, maybe it could still happen. Never say never.”
John Cena ended up aligning with The Rock at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025 after Cody turned down his offer.
Simone left WWE at the end of January.
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