MJF says ‘Cody Rhodes loves a good white lie’
Recently recalling an incident from almost a decade ago, MJF revealed how Cody Rhodes lied to Ethan Page about his dating life.
Almost a decade ago, Cody Rhodes parted ways with WWE and began his reinventing journey on the indies. While Rhodes was already a big name, MJF was still trying to make his mark.
On a recent episode of Shut Up And Wrestle, MJF revealed his first meeting with Rhodes, and how it was because of a lie Rhodes told Ethan Page.
“The very first time I met Cody Rhodes was at Alpha-1 in Canada. He had told the promoter, who may or may not be Ethan Page, that I was hitting on his sister. Granted, I wouldn’t put it past me, but I actually wasn’t. The sister of Ethan Page.”
“Ethan Page walks up to me and goes, ‘Hey man, are you f***ing hitting on my sister?’ I said, ‘Buddy, if I was, you would know, she’d be my girlfriend by now.’ Then we got into it a little bit, and I was just like, ‘Who told you this?’ He goes, ‘Cody [Rhodes] told me this.’ I had two options. I could just eat it, which 99.9% of talent in my position at that point at 19 years old, who was an absolute f***ing nobody would have done. Or, I could confront this guy, who at the time and also now was a big f***ing deal in the business,” MJF recalled.
After his interaction with Page, MJF decided to go straight to Rhodes and confront him.
“So, because I’m an unwell person, I chose the latter. I walked into his locker room; he had his own locker room at this f***ing place. I didn’t knock on the door, I just opened it, and I said, ‘Hey.’ He’s looking at me in disbelief. I go, ‘Why the f**k did you tell the booker I’m trying to bang his sister?’ He was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I go, ‘Dude, please don’t make me bring Ethan [Page] down here, he’ll collaborate.’ He starts laughing, and he goes, ‘Who are you, man?’ Then we just started shooting the s**t.“
The current AEW World Champion further expressed how Rhodes lies all the time and “loves a good white lie.”
“From that moment on, I could tell he got a kick out of me because, especially on the independent level, was probably not used to people talking like that. He’ll be the first person to tell you, Cody Rhodes loves a good white lie, he says it all the time.”
MJF’s interaction with Cody Rhodes helped him get booked for All In
In the same interview, MJF also shared that particular interaction and another future interaction with Rhodes helped him secure his spot at the inaugural All In.
“What ended up happening was a couple weeks after that, we were at NEW, Mike Lombardi’s promotion. He sees me, his eyes bulge out, and he goes, ‘I don’t get it.’ I go, ‘What don’t you get?’ He goes, ‘You’re f***ing booked everywhere. I guess I’m gonna have to watch you tonight.’ After that, we always stayed in touch and that’s legitimately how I got booked for All In, just because Cody was so shocked. I had no right to be booked for all the shows I was booked for, but I was everywhere.” (H/T Fightful)
Shounak Chakrabarti is an experienced sports journalist with a lifelong passion for athletics and storytelling. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and joined F4WOnline in 2025.
Shounak takes particular interest in soccer, closely following top clubs like Real Madrid and Arsenal. Beyond sports, he enjoys fiction writing, photography, gaming, and cinema.