Why Dusty Rhodes Got Upset Over A Specific Cody Rhodes Match In WWE, Explained
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On the January 11, 2014 edition of Raw, The New Age Outlaws walked out on their tag team partner CM Punk during their match against The Shield and turned heel for the first time in 14 years. Later, they defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust, the WWE Tag Team Champions, in a non-title bout. At Royal Rumble, The New Age Outlaws defeated the brother-duo to become the new Tag Team Champs. They had a few matches together, and during one of them, Road Dogg did a spot with Cody that really upset his father, Dusty Rhodes.
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Road Dogg Didn't Catch Cody Rhodes Properly After A Moonsault From The Top Of A Steel Cage
Their championship victory at Royal Rumble was also their first since 1999. After the pay-per-view, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn continued feuding with the Rhodes brothers, who invoked their rematch clause. They failed to win the titles back from Dogg and Gunn on the fallout episode of Raw when Brock Lesnar attacked them because The Authority shot down his demands which he made earlier in the night. A week later, Rhodes and Goldust received another rematch for the titles inside a steel cage. The match was decent, but towards its end, Rhodes performed a risky moonsault from the top of the cage. Dogg didn't catch him properly, and Rhodes landed on his sides. Then Gunn hit him with Famouser for the pinfall victory.
When Dogg went backstage, Dusty Rhodes was pretty mad at him. The moonsault spot with Cody had ticked him off because Dogg couldn't catch him safely. On his Oh...You Didn't Know podcast, he talked about this in detail. Road Dogg had already told The American Nightmare that he wouldn't be able to catch him from that distance, but Rhodes still insisted on doing the spot, saying he would do the majority of the work.
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"I told him I'm not going to catch you in a 69, I'm not going to catch you perfectly. He said all 'I need you to do is stick your arm out there,' and I said I'll do that. They cut to a different camera, it looked great but Dusty was pissed." (H/T WrestlingInc)
The New Age Outlaws soon lost their title belts to The Usos on an episode of Raw, despite beating them at Elimination Chamber. They later teamed up with Kane to battle The Shield at WrestleMania 30, where Dogg got injured and didn’t return until the following year. Although both wrestlers were still active in WWE with their backstage roles, Dogg was producing matches in NXT, whereas his tag partner was a trainer.
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Dusty Rhodes Later Apologized To Road Dogg For Losing His Cool
On the podcast, Dogg revealed that Dusty Rhodes apologized for flipping out on him, but the former tag team champion told him there was no need to. "When I went to NXT not long after that, he apologized to me. That's the truth, Dusty said 'hey man, that's my baby boy,' I said 'Dusty, you don't have to apologize to me, I totally understand.' That's what it is, I had no problem with Dusty wanting to protect his child and being interested in his child's safety."
Following WrestleMania 30, The New Age Outlaws wrestled one more match which happened at Royal Rumble 2015 against The Ascension. Dogg hasn't wrestled a single match since this loss, whereas his tag partner, Billy Gunn, still competes actively in All Elite Wrestling.
