AEW Star Brandi Rhodes Won’t Encourage Her Newborn Daughter Liberty to Become a Wrestler Too
All Elite Wrestling execs and performers Cody and Brandi Rhodes recently welcomed the birth of their daughter, Liberty. Liberty’s arrival also coincided with the filming of their new reality TV series, Rhodes to the Top. The Rhodes spoke with the Television Critics Association in a Zoom panel on Sept. 23 and answered questions about Liberty’s future prospects in AEW.
“As far as pushing her towards the wrestling ring, I’m going to push her away from a wrestling ring, as far away from a wrestling ring as I possibly can,” Brandi Rhodes said. “Not because wrestling’s bad. Of course not. This is what I love to do. I don’t want her to feel pressure to go that direction.”
Cody Rhodes, the son of WWE superstar Dusty Rhodes, said that his earliest memory was entering the ring as a three-year-old. Even though they have AEW in the family, Brandi wants to give Liberty more time to decide for herself.
“I don’t want her to have the memory that he will share which is ‘My earliest memory at three years old was my feet touching a wrestling ring,’” Brandi said. “When you do that to a child, you set them on a course I feel like. So I want her to decide her course.”
Brandi said she will also share her other passions with Liberty. AEW isn’t everything to her.
“And I have a huge history in figure skating,” Brandi said. “Would I love for her to figure skate? Absolutely. Those were some of the best years of my life, too, and my experiences and camaraderies and friendships in that sport. But I have to be very careful not to push her at that.”
Cody may have gone into the family business starting AEW, but Brandi paved her own path to the ring. She wants Liberty to have the same options.
“I want her to try,” Brandi said. “The sky’s the limit. No one in my family figure skated or wrestled. These were all things that happened on my own and I appreciate that. My dad was a basketball player. He was great. He did not push me to play basketball and I don’t think I could play basketball. I could hit some hoops in a game of Horse, but that’s about it. So I’m going to try to take the same approach as my family did. Just let me try everything and what sticks, sticks.”
Cody admitted he would be tempted to use his clout to bring Liberty into the AEW ring should she express interest.
“My dad completely detached from me,” Cody said. “He got off the writing team at WWE, he got a different job. He never once did anything that would be seen as nepotism or favoritism with me. And that was the right way to do things in my opinion. I will not have that same self-control. I’m going to be a complete stage dad. If she decides to get into wrestling, I’m going to ask Tony Khan to make her the women’s champion of every company and every place and put her on every show and Liberty to the top.”
Rhodes to the Top airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on TNT.
