Cody Rhodes steps up to face The Rock in tag team action at WrestleMania next month, and his brother has an explicit three-word message for The Great One.
Cody will stand across the ring from the legendary wrestler turned movie star on April 6 as the first night of WrestleMania 40 is main evented by a high-stakes tag team match.
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Rhodes partners with Seth Rollins to meet The Rock and Rock’s real-life cousin, Roman Reigns, the undisputed Universal WWE Champion.
While the big picture appears to be WWE’s establishing Rhodes as its top star and fan favourite, there’s no doubt Dwayne Johnson has been dominating the headlines.
As part of the on-screen feud between the four grapplers designed to hype WrestleMania, where Rhodes and Reigns will wrestle each other in the main event of night two, there have been some strong words spoken.
Monday night saw Cody blast Johnson an "a******" in response to The Rock labelling his foe as a "mistake" at birth and issuing a thinly veiled threat to the American Nightmare’s mother.
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While all things may be fair in love, war and professional wrestling, the tough talk has certainly caught the attention of some outside of WWE.
Rhodes’ brother, Dustin, is one of the most controversial stars of WWE’s famed Attitude Era in the 1990s – he wrestled as Goldust and was a former Intercontinental Champion.
A veteran of the business, Rhodes is still part of rival organisation All Elite Wrestling, and took to social media to take a pop at The People’s Champion.
Starring in a promotional video staged by his Rhodes Wrestling Academy, he hyped matches, stars and championships, before turning the tables and directing his attention to The Rock.
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"One more thing," he said at the end of the video on X. "Zoom in here a little bit."
Rhodes, Cody’s elder sibling, then looked into the camera and added: "F*** The Rock!"
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While wrestlers talking smack about one another is far from a new sensation, the sight of one Rhodes publicly weighing in on a feud involving another may raise an eyebrow or two considering they work in competing companies.
As Goldust, Dustin Rhodes was no stranger to controversy during his WWE run.
The character pushed the proverbial envelope of sexuality at a time when very few did on screen, as a sinister and theatrical superstar, clad all in gold and regularly making suggestive remarks and gestures to the company’s top male stars.
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He held the Intercontinental Championship three times in WWE, once defeating the legendary Scott ‘Razor Ramon’ Hall at the 1996 Royal Rumble.
He ended his most recent stint with the company in 2019 before linking up with Tony Khan’s AEW.
That Spring, he battled brother Cody in a stellar match at Double or Nothing, with Cody coming out on top in a match rated as a five-star encounter by noted wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer.