“I Really Wanted To …”

Everyone remembers Stardust.

Unfortunately.

Cody Rhodes remembers those days well, too, and during a recent episode of his What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, “The American Nightmare” shared a story from his Stardust days that fans have not heard.

While discussing his initial run in WWE and his portrayal of the Stardust persona, the reigning Undisputed WWE Champion reflected on a four-page e-mail he wrote to Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque pitching a showdown between himself and “The Demon King” version of Finn Balor.

“I’ll give you a moment of vulnerability on my half that I thought, ‘I’m not gonna tell him this,’” Rhodes began when recounting the story to Balor on the new episode of his show. “He’ll think this is … but I’m gonna tell you.”

Rhodes then began his stroll down memory lane to tell the story.

“Right before I left, when I was doing Stardust, I wrote Hunter like a four-page e-mail, which you know how that goes,” Rhodes started. “Any time it’s more than a page, it’s probably already an issue. That’s a lot for someone to look at and sit down and give their time over.”

He continued, “I really wanted to wrestle ‘The Demon’ as Stardust, because Stardust had no legitimacy. It was all comedy. But there was one match or one moment away from providing it some credibility, even in a losing effort, and I remember I wrote this whole email about it and I don’t know what happened to the … I wouldn’t have read the e-mail … but it speaks to not just The Demon itself but also, NXT Black and Gold, and that entire NXT era.”