10 Best Stories Of First Time Wrestlers Met Vince McMahon

5. Cody Rhodes' Emotional First Meeting

Vince McMahon Daniel Bryan
WWE.com

For Cody Rhodes, his first time properly meeting Vince McMahon came after the 2007 Hall of Fame ceremony, where Dusty was inducted as the headline act.

As he explained to WWE.com back in 2014, Vince requested to speak to Cody after his speech inducting the American Dream into the HOF.

“I went into Vince’s office and that’s when I knew I had a place here. He said, ‘For your age, the amount of composure you had was just wonderful and I enjoyed watching it. I hope to enjoy watching it more in the future.’ I was uncomfortable, so I ended the conversation even though it was his job to end the conversation. Instead, I shook his hand, slapped him on the shoulder really hard and said, ‘You sure will!’ and walked out of the room."

Rhodes then realised he sounded like an arrogant ass, but he became emotional at the realisation of the pressure that was now on him by McMahon's faith in him and by having the last name Rhodes.

In that '14 interview, Cody - who was under his Stardust gimmick back then - also added how all he's ever wanted was to be "Vince’s star player".

Skip ahead to 2016, the American Nightmare saw that he wasn't even going to be afforded an opportunity to be that "star player" and thus left the company. It's almost like Cody realised the proverbial brass ring was all just as load of VKM bullsh*t.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.