In the immediate aftermath of Spears hitting him, Cody’s wife Brandi, who was an on-screen character at the time, was meant to sell the chair shot and be scared of Spears. However, given that a large pool of blood started to form from the back of her husband’s head, Cody knew she wasn’t happy.

“I can tell she’s just furious, and she’s just mad because now I’m busted open, laying there after doing this stupid stunt, and we’re not in the narrative anymore. We’re not in the fiction, she’s just furious with Shawn Spears. Furious with me. Swing for the fences is the dumbest thing you could tell another wrestler–he was fine, he did nothing wrong. But the big thing I noticed is it wasn’t about whether the chair is real, whether the chair is not, it was about the optics of hitting one another in the head and what they’ve meant for concussions.”

Rhodes explained that he is all for having a little bit of grit and violence in his wrestling as that was he was brought up with given what his father, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, did in his own career. However, doing something as dangerous as that for the sake of a moment can often take away the efforts two performers have put into a match as the only thing the fans will be talking about is the chair shot. 

The Undisputed WWE Champion also stated that it’s a good thing that WWE holds itself to the highest standards when it comes to the safety of wrestlers because it prevents them from doing things like taking chair shots to the head. Rhodes rounded off by telling Chalamet that he would rather go through 55 tables, get hit with 20 Singapore canes, and roll around in thumbtacks than take another chair shot to the head as you can’t take one and protect yourself convincingly. 

Please credit “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.