Originally published to 8newsnow.com on August 1, 2023.

Cody Rhodes is the son of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, an iconic character in professional wrestling from the mid-1970s through the early 1990s. Dusty would later become instrumental in mentoring and fostering many personalities, leading to the modern boom period of professional wrestling. Names like Sami Zayn, Finn Bálor, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and the reigning WWE World Champion Roman Reigns consider themselves “Dusty’s kids.” But what of Dusty’s actual kid? American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes is his story.

A documentary about a second-generation professional wrestler as he takes on a career in the field in which his father was a legend, leading him to an exodus from the company he called home to find himself and become his own man, all while honoring the legacy left by his late, great, dad. It sounds niche, and to be fair, it may be. That doesn’t take away from the cinema that is Rhodes’s journey from “undesirable to undeniable.”

The youngest Rhodes began his career in World Wrestling Entertainment in 2007, but American Nightmare starts before that, telling Cody’s early relationship with his father, his transition to pro wrestling, and the unexpected death of his father. That loss would be pivotal to Cody’s career path and would lead him on an independent course, creating his own identity and All-Elite Wrestling, a viable competitor to WWE, before making his way back to the company in 2022 at Wrestlemania 38.

Understanding the professional wrestling industry is not a prerequisite for viewing American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. General knowledge of the art will suffice. After all, this doc isn’t so much about wrasslin’ as it is about a man discovering himself in the wake of tremendous loss. This is where the documentary succeeds. It’s an honest, sometimes raw look at one of the biggest names in sports entertainment and how he got to where he is. 

If there’s a flaw in the emotional documentary, it might have come too soon. As magnetic as Rhodes’s story is as it is replayed onscreen with commentary from some of sports entertainment’s biggest and most knowledgeable personalities, the tale centers around Rhodes’s desire to “finish the story” by obtaining the championship that WWE brass seemingly never felt the “American Dream” was fit to hold. As of the release of this doc, that has yet to happen. While the natural conclusion of the documentary has less to do with wrestling championships than it does with Cody Rhodes becoming worthy of the namesake, it’s hard to deny that “The American Nightmare” standing tall holding the WWE championship belt would have been a poetic ending. Alas, that wasn’t in the cards. Perhaps an epilogue will be added when Rhodes inevitably stands atop that figurative mountain.

American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes tells a human story of love, loss, recovery, and reinvention. It’s an inspirational portrait of a father and son relationship that is relatable to anyone, professional wrestling fan or not.