Cody Rhodes has reaffirmed that his Stardust persona remains firmly in the past, telling interviewers he would choose almost any alternative over putting the face paint back on, even briefly.
The comments came as Rhodes promoted Street Fighter (2026), the film adaptation that hit theaters on October 16. Rhodes plays Guile in the movie, while his WWE rival and former Bloodline leader Roman Reigns portrays Akuma. Speaking with Overtime, Rhodes was presented with a hypothetical choice: wear Guile’s distinctive flat-top haircut for an entire year, or put on the Stardust face paint for just one day.
According to Ringside News, the specific version of the question offered a side-by-side comparison of 14 days in Stardust paint against a full year sporting Guile’s haircut. Rhodes did not hesitate in his answer. “I would rather always do the Guile haircut,” he said, according to the outlet. “I mean, a year with the Guile haircut over anything with Stardust face paint.”
The response underscores how definitively Rhodes has moved on from the Stardust gimmick, a darker, face-painted persona he portrayed during an earlier stretch of his WWE run before reinventing himself as “The American Nightmare.” That current persona has become central to his main-event standing in WWE, built in large part through his high-profile program with Reigns.
The pairing of Rhodes and Reigns in Street Fighter adds a layer of crossover interest for wrestling fans, given their extensive in-ring history together. Both men stepping into iconic fighting-game roles, Rhodes as Guile and Reigns as Akuma, gives the film a built-in appeal to the WWE audience even as Rhodes used the press run to settle, emphatically, any lingering questions about a Stardust comeback.
Rhodes’ comments leave no ambiguity about his stance on revisiting the character, with both outlets reporting he framed the haircut-versus-face-paint scenario as essentially no contest. Street Fighter’s theatrical release on October 16 provided the backdrop for the exchange, tying the wrestling-adjacent promotional appearance directly to the film’s debut.
