8 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Tag Team Champion Stardust
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Stardust commands the spotlight. But he isn't just taking his closeup, he's creating a legacy. Well, technically he's continuing a legacy. While Stardust and his half-brother Goldust are WWE Tag Team Champions. They are also the sons of all-everything wrestler Dusty Rhodes. The American dream continues, down a new path.
Here are 8 things you didn't know about Stardust.
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1. Part of a wrestling family, Stardust, also known as Cody Rhodes, was born Cody Garrett Runnels. His father is hall-of-fame wrestler Dusty Rhodes, and his half-brother -- and tag team partner -- is Dustin Rhodes, who wrestles as Goldust. His uncles include professional wrestlers Fred Ottman and Jerry Sags.
2. Runnels won the Georgia State wrestling title for the 189-pound division in 2003 and 2004, his junior and senior years of high school. Plans to wrestle collegiately at Penn State were sidetracked by a deal with Ohio Valley Wrestling, then a WWE developmental territory.
3. In high school, Runnels worked as a referee for Turnbuckle Wrestling Championship, his dad's wrestling promotion, which operated between 2000 and 2003. He officiated matches for Disco Inferno and Big Ron Studd, among others.
4. For a time, Rhodes billed himself as WWE's best-looking wrestler, even going so far as to offer grooming tips for his less attractive fans (basically everyone else). In an early-2011 match, Rey Mysterio actually broke his nose in a match, forcing Rhodes out of the ring and seemingly ruining the narcissist character. But Rhodes eventually returned to the ring with a clear mask, which became a weapon... and then a prop for a new act.
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5. Rhodes, along with John Cena and Chris Jericho, did series of men's grooming ads with Gillette collectively called "Be a Superstar." Rhodes' videos focused on "Body Basics."
6. Rhodes is a big fan of comic books, reading them voraciously and incorporating them into his act when he can. His pre-Stardust robe, for example, was originally supposed to have a Mister Sinister theme. His favorite characters include Archangel, Thor and Captain America, not to mention Cyclops and X-Men.
7. Rhodes, as Stardust, is part of a tag team with his half-brother, as Goldust. The two recently won the WWE Tag Team Championship, defeating The Usos, another tag team of brothers.
8. Rhodes is married to Brandi Reed, a former news reporter and model. She also competed as Eden Stiles in Florida Championship Wrestling and served as ring announcer for WWE NXT and, more recently, WWE Main Event.
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Norm Elrod likes sports and other sanctioned forms of craziness.
