10 Fascinating WWE Backstage Facts About Cody Rhodes
9. He Won The OVW Southern Tag Team Championship With Shawn Spears
Despite leaving WWE to find himself, Cody Rhodes is still one of Vince McMahon’s biggest success stories. He’d always been around the industry, but under the name Cody Runnels the American Nightmare first wrestled for Ohio Valley Wrestling.
This was back when OVW was the 'E's breeding ground, so Cody was following in the footsteps of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, and future Legacy mentor Randy Orton on his way to a career in the business. He’d win the OVW Heavyweight Championship in 2007, then lose it a day later to Paul Burchill… but that belt changed hands like the Hardcore title sometimes.
The more surreal title reign to look back on is when Cody won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship with Shawn Spears, who eventually became Tye Dillinger before reverting back to his old name on the indies.
The future All Elite stars teamed up in a feud with The Untouchables who *checks notes carefully* joined the main roster as Deuce ’n Domino not long after. It’s interesting to see these two make a team knowing where they’d end up. When they made it to the main roster, Cody was thrown into a stable with Randy Orton, while Spears was superkicked by Shawn Michaels backstage, left the company, came back and lit up the best version of NXT then lost momentum on the main roster and departed one last time.