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When Cody Rhodes asked for his release from WWE in 2016, fans weren’t quite sure what to make of it. Sure, the overwhelming consensus was that the son of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes had been grossly under-used throughout the decade or so that he’d been signed with the world’s biggest professional wrestling company. But where else was he going to go? WWE hadn’t had a legitimate rival stateside since WCW folded in 2001. In Rhodes’s mind, though, the path was clear: He was going to go everywhere.

Six days after WWE formally granted his release, Rhodes posted a hand-written checklist of dream matchups on Twitter that included some of the biggest, brightest names that wrestling’s independent scene had to offer at that time. Over the next two years he became omnipresent, popping up at promotions like Evolve, New Japan, Ring of Honor, PWG, Northeast Wrestling, and Impact. But it wasn’t until September of 2018 that Rhodes’ true ambition showed itself.

Despite the buzz Rhodes was creating, the common belief was that independent wrestling was still far too niche to sell out an arena. Wanting to prove the doubters wrong, Rhodes linked up with Nick and Matt Jackson of the popular tag team the Young Bucks to start planning a crossover pay-per-view extravaganza called All In, which would bring together wrestlers from just about every major promotion in the world—except WWE. It sold out Chicago’s Sears Centre Arena in less than 30 minutes. 11,263 fans were in attendance—it was the first time a wrestling event not run by Vince McMahon sold more than 10,000 tickets since 1993.

The logical next step was creating their very own wrestling promotion. The paperwork started almost immediately, and by October 2019 the new All Elite Wrestling had debuted their own weekly television program, Dynamite, on TNT, with nearly 1.5 million viewers tuning in. The brand’s popularity has only grown since then, so much so that this past March, it was announced that AEW would begin airing a second weekly show, Rampage.

For the first time in 18 years, a legitimate challenger to WWE’s monopoly of the pro wrestling business has emerged, and Cody Rhodes is smack-dab in the center of it all—not just on screen as a performer, but behind the scenes as one of AEW’s executive vice presidents.

“I’ve been around wrestling my whole life,” Rhodes tells GQ. “I’ve seen the promise it has, and I’ve been made promises in wrestling, by wrestling. I’m kind of the eternal pessimist. So just the idea that AEW is now expanding and has had this continued growth, it really puts things in this vein of, This is such a big responsibility. We built this, people have come, people have come back, and now the hardest work really begins.”

So how exactly does one of wrestling’s most influential names juggle the weight of all that responsibility while staying in tip-top shape to step in the ring with everyone from Chris Jericho to MJF to...is that Shaq’s entrance music? We dove deep with Rhodes to discuss not just his diet, but the lessons he’s learned surrounding fitness while growing up in one of the most physically demanding professions there is.

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to high-performing people about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: There has been a shift in the professional wrestling industry these past few years where we’re starting to see careers extend longer and longer. You’ve been in the business yourself since 2006. What has been the key to staying on top of your game when you’re living the very insane life of a pro wrestler?

Cody Rhodes: You can’t over-motivate. When you over-motivate, it almost discourages you from doing all the work. I have always found that the key is somewhere right in the middle. Especially if you’re overseas where the food and dietary restrictions change. I know if I go to the UK, there’s not a lot of late-night options but there are the kebab shops where I can get protein and rice. I don’t have to get cheese and chips, and I can walk away from that feeling like at least I did my part.

At the same time, the more you get into this, the more you realize we are pro athletes in addition to being performers. And if you don’t treat your body like a pro athlete, if you don’t make those investments, you’ll regret it. There’s a book called Eat This, Not That. When I was with WWE, that book was a big thing because meal prep wasn’t as prominent yet. Eat This, Not That was so helpful in terms of, Okay, if I have to go to this fast food place, if I take the mayonnaise off this, if I remove the bun, if I ask for no oil in the hashbrowns. It’s these little hacks that really show people’s commitment.

You mentioned meal prep, which is something I hear about constantly from wrestlers and other combat athletes. Does that play a major role in your diet?

It is a godsend to what we do, because otherwise you’re improvising and you’re not totally sure what you’re putting in your body. It’s definitely the common denominator amongst wrestlers who have stayed in good physical shape.

One key obstacle for pro wrestlers is maintaining their diets while traveling constantly from show to show, but the pandemic halted the touring aspect of your industry. I have to imagine that one of the few positives of that situation was the opportunity to eat and train like a normal person for the first time in a long time. 

When the pandemic started, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I think everyone assumed it would be a couple months, and of course it ended up being far longer than that. We at AEW basically had a residency in Jacksonville at Dailey’s Place and you really saw a lot of people get into the best shape of their careers. (Same with WWE at Amway Center and their performance center.) Being able to just kind of stay in one spot—if you didn’t get in good shape during the pandemic, I think it was on you.

Your schedule still has to be pretty hard to deal with. You’re not just wrestling anymore, but you’re an executive vice president of AEW. So what does a typical day of eating look like for you?

A big thing as a wrestler is you have to allow yourself the time where you’re not just jamming a protein bar into your mouth on the way to the gym. As soon as I’m up, I always eat breakfast. I’m an egg whites guy. Basic, dry wheat toast guy. I don’t really have any breakfast meat because of the sodium and added salt. And then after breakfast we hit the gym.

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As you mentioned, I’ve been on the road and doing this since I was 20. I’m 35 now and that means I’ve got the body of a 50 year old. My pelvis is out of line, I have a few herniations in my back. So when it comes to workouts, typically that means a little bit of HIIT training, but more than likely it’s going to be one big principle lift—squat, bench, or deadlift—and then it’s going to be two monster sets with three sets. So three different exercises, three sets. It’s not going to feel like I did a whole lot outside of that principle exercise. Then it’ll just be the elliptical for 14 minutes. 40 seconds moderate, 20 seconds sprint. That’s been my go-to workout throughout the pandemic on a workday. Then I come into my office and it’s all day. As soon as I shut the door, there’s a knock. 

Which I’m guessing makes it tougher to just sit down and eat, when you’re in executive mode and you have a revolving door of people coming in and out of your office. 

I love it, but I’m not able to do the EVP thing unless I’m able to do the wrestler thing. So I eat every three hours. And I’ve got to hit the two-hour window before I wrestle. So before Dynamite goes on the air at 8 p.m., I need to eat by six o’clock. If I don’t, that’s where I feel really off. It’s part of my whole process.

Honestly, wrestling is the healthiest it has ever been, and I love that. Post performing, our trainers are adamant that right when you come back through the curtain, there’s a bottle of electrolytes waiting for you. I’ve never seen a wrestling company do this. You can do a whole cooldown, there’s an ice bath. It’s so important that you just don’t sit down. If you do, it’s going to be the worst night of your life. You’ll lock up and you look like you’re walking on a saddle when you leave. At AEW, I’ve only had “hurts,” I’ve never been injured. And I’m going really hard.

So you’re eating every three hours throughout the day—what do those meals consist of?

It’s got to be white meat. For me, I’m not able to do, like, Korean beef or a steak. It just feels too heavy on me. It almost feels heavy in my chest. So it’s almost always white meat. Charbroiled chicken, perhaps. I’m fine with any type of rice. I feel really comfortable with just classic rice. If it’s not rice or sweet potatoes, I get really out of my comfort zone and I’m not sure what I’m eating any more. It’s boring, but it’s almost always white rice, grilled chicken, and Thai peanut sauce from [the meal prep company] Eat Clean Bro.

The food that’s tricky for me is broccoli. I always have it, but sometimes it has to be disguised for me. We did, like, a cauliflower rice with shredded broccoli in it at one point because I hate vegetables. Not to be another statistic, but I hate the taste of them. My trainer tries to trick me into eating vegetables quite often. I know their value, especially if you don’t want that heaviness in your stomach all day, but I hate vegetables.

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What’s the best way to go about disguising vegetables for your fellow vegetable haters out there?

Either shredding it where, you know, I’m not feeling like I’m eating a whole tree or I just douse it in that Thai peanut sauce. But that’s an area where if I need to make a little sacrifice… Like, if we’re getting ready for a pay-per-view and you want to dial it in even further, that’s where I start taking sauces out and that’s where [eating] becomes a little miserable.

Is there a point in your career that you can look back and point to where, from a health and fitness standpoint, you were totally dialed in? 

One thing that’s helped me even more than diet is consistent wrestling. I was really in a good spot in 2011 where I had as low of body fat as I’d ever had and it was just because I was consistently wrestling 20-plus minutes a night when I was on the road and on TV. It was hard to put any weight on. Since I’ve been at AEW, I’ve tried really hard to put weight on. At one point, I had this silly goal of getting to 240 pounds. Not going to happen. But I felt particularly good at the weigh-in we did recently on TV before our Double or Nothing pay-per-view. I felt really good there about my physique and everything. You know, at 35 I’m still natural. I was lucky and smart enough early in my career not to get into anything performance-enhancing that I would then later depend on as I got older. I will say, though, at 35 it’s getting hard.

Your father, the legendary Dusty Rhodes, was famous for portraying an “everyman” character in pro wtrestling and didn’t have the stereotypical physique most people think of when they hear the term “pro wrestler.” For you growing up around the wrestling business and seeing your dad perform, did that shape at all the way you thought about how a wrestler could or should look?

I knew guys like my dad and Harley Race were athletes who perhaps didn’t look that athletic, but I was absolutely mystified by guys like Sting who were a little bit of old school meets new school. They weren’t zippered up so much like a Lex Luger, but it was big chest and big legs. Sting was probably the number one example of, I want to look like that. Road Warrior Hawk. Even Ric Flair, who maintained his body in a great way. And it was just because I wanted to be different. I know that athletes all come in different shapes and sizes, and my dad was a prime example of that, but I just couldn’t imagine what I would be like if I was gonna be big, round, robust, and dancing and moving like him. It just wouldn’t have worked. It’s not who I was. I’m so much more like my mother than my dad.

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The thing I wish I got from my dad was that he had these massive calves. Massive! Every pair of shoes and boots I borrowed from him, they’d fit my foot but not my calves. You’d have to like, triple sock it. My mom always talks about what great calves he had. I don’t know, I just didn’t get them. I wish I did.

They’re hard to grow!

Yeah, I think for me, the ship has sailed on calves. I’m a tights guy now. I do train my legs and I train them hard, but when the guys start talking about the teardrops and the calves, I just quietly see myself out.

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given when it came to your health and nutrition?

I was a tag partner with Bob Holly [in 2007] and we didn’t have anything in common at all, but he was the first guy who explained to me that I needed to sleep six-and-a-half hours minimum and that we needed to go to the gym on workdays. He was a high-volume guy and he was big on not being afraid to eat. That was really helpful.

The other piece of advice: Triple H actually asked me once to write down what I eat over the course of a day. I wrote it down, gave it to him on a little yellow legal pad, and he just circled what was good, what wasn’t, and why. Both of those guys were really helpful for me because they could tell I had never really worked out. If you’re wrestling 15 minutes each night plus you’re at the gym and cardio is part of your workout, you’re going to have to eat. Otherwise, by the time you get through a loop on the road, you’ll have lost, I’m not kidding, 10 to 15 pounds. You don’t want that, and they were both very helpful about explaining that you can’t be afraid to eat.

On the flip-side, what was the worst advice you were ever given?

The same exact advice: Don’t be afraid to eat. Except it was from Randy Orton. Randy Orton’s idea of “Don’t be afraid to eat” was… Having pancakes wasn’t the way to go. He had a different body. The mesomorph-type body he has, trying to model what I was doing after him was never going to work. So it was the same exact advice, but someone abusing it and someone not.

Roman Reigns once told me that another fellow wrestler, Big E, subscribes to something he calls the “sugar window” where basically you can eat anything you want after a workout—cookies, sweets, whatever—and your body will use it for good.

John Cena was the same way. One morning, Cena was calorie counting, doing the numbers in his head. I remember he ate an ice cream cookie sandwich and I just thought to myself, That’s just you. The rest of us can’t afford that. Just a genetically gifted, super-strong individual. I think it comes down to our DNA. You have to really look at your parents. Anyone who has seen my dad should know that I’ve got an uphill battle if I want to have any abs. 

But if you’re discussing it and you’re debating it, well then you’re on the healthy side of the coin. That’s what I meant earlier when I said you can’t over-motivate. When you’re so convinced that you’re one-hundred percent right, that’s when you’re going to stress yourself out. You’re going to end up giving up. I’ve seen it a lot with CrossFit. People go hard on CrossFit, they burn so many calories, and then they eat a whole pizza afterwards. That ain’t it, guys. It’s somewhere in the middle. Really, that’s the story of my career: Somewhere in the middle.

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