Cody Rhodes has offered a candid and entertaining reflection on his relationship with “Kingdom” by Downstait — the song that has defined The American Nightmare character since he left WWE in 2016 and followed him back when he returned in 2022. Speaking on Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, Rhodes acknowledged the strange psychological effect of hearing your own entrance music so frequently while also making clear that the bond between performer and theme is essentially permanent.
“The trick with a wrestling song — all the greatest wrestling music, it doesn’t need to be a good song. It needs to be a catchy song. I like ‘Kingdom’ but the issue is, I hear it so much that, especially at the end of the night when I’m doing the rounds, just playing that one song, it gets you,” Rhodes said. He then delivered a detail that perfectly captured the song’s earworm quality in the most relatable possible way. “I heard my daughter the other day — she doesn’t know the words, but she’s saying, ‘something, something, Paw Patrol.’ As long as you get to the Woah! It’s a pretty interesting song by WWE standards.”
The moment with his daughter speaks to just how deeply “Kingdom” has penetrated the Rhodes household — a toddler approximating the melody by substituting the only words she knows well enough to fill the gaps, landing on Paw Patrol as the closest phonetic match her brain could produce. It is the kind of detail that only a performer living with their entrance music on a daily basis could experience.
Cody Rhodes Says “Kingdom” Is Permanent Unless a Heel Turn Forces a Change
Rhodes was equally clear about the future of the song — it stays unless the character changes so fundamentally that keeping it would no longer make sense. “It can never change. Unless I was to go bad guy, then that song is out, I suppose, but I’m locked into it. We’re married together.” The caveat about a heel turn is an interesting one given that Rhodes has flirted with darker undertones during the WrestleMania 42 build — Stephanie McMahon telling him he needs to go to a dark place, and Rhodes himself acknowledging he has been hearing voices in his head — though nothing has indicated he is actually turning. The song’s bright, anthemic quality is so tied to the American Nightmare persona as a triumphant babyface that a genuine heel turn would almost certainly require a complete sonic overhaul.
Rhodes defends the Undisputed WWE Championship against Randy Orton on WrestleMania 42 Night One on April 18 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — a night when “Kingdom” will play in front of one of the largest crowds of his career, Paw Patrol approximations and all.
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