Cody Rhodes's Real Name: Cody Runnels

Quick answer: Cody Rhodes's real name is Cody Runnels. He was born on June 30, 1985, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cody Rhodes is the ring name he has used for most of his wrestling career, taken from his father, WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes. He is also billed as the American Nightmare. He has been a WWE Intercontinental and Tag Team champion and later a top star after returning to the company (ESPN; WWE).

Real name and early life

ESPN has written that he "was born Cody Runnels." Sports Illustrated gives the date and place as June 30, 1985, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and says he is the son of Dusty Rhodes and a nephew of wrestlers Jerry Sags and Fred Ottman. The Library of Congress files him as "Rhodes, Cody, 1985-," with variants including "Runnels, Cody Garrett, 1985-" and "Runnels, Cody, 1985-." A book copyright line cited in that record uses Cody Runnels.

Sports Illustrated says he attended Lassiter High School, where he competed in amateur wrestling and won the Georgia state tournament in his weight class as a junior and as a senior. ESPN says he entered WWE's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in 2006, at 21, hoping to follow his father's path.

Career highlights

WWE says he made his mark in the company from 2007 to 2016, winning two Intercontinental Championships and six Tag Team Championships. After leaving, ESPN reported that he wrestled on the independent circuit and, for a time, could not use his full ring name on television because WWE had trademarked it.

Sports Illustrated says that when All Elite Wrestling was unveiled on January 1, 2019, Rhodes was announced as an executive vice president. At AEW's first event, Double or Nothing, he defeated his brother Dustin in a match Pro Wrestling Illustrated called match of the year. He later entered the tournament for AEW's inaugural TNT Championship, won the title, lost it, and later regained it in a Dog Collar match. After leaving AEW, WWE says he returned at WrestleMania 38 as Seth "Freakin" Rollins's surprise opponent, beginning a new chapter in his career that included a Hell in a Cell match he wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle.

Name notes for searchers

Cody Runnels is the name under which he was born. Cody Rhodes is a ring name drawn from his father, Dusty Rhodes. The Library of Congress also records the fuller form Cody Garrett Runnels. Searchers looking for Cody Runnels, Cody Rhodes, or the American Nightmare are pointing to the same wrestler.