Magazine Archive: Wrestler's Tribune With Cody Deaner (Patreon)

From FightfulMag.com issue 4 from Cody Deaner

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Change can be scary. Evolving can cause anxiety. Growth can be painful.

Change. Evolution. Growth. We all experience these at some point throughout our lives. These are all things I’ve experienced throughout my 20+ years in this crazy world of professional wrestling. Sometimes it’s been my choice to change. Sometimes the growth has been forced upon me. But no matter what the case was, the change, evolution, and growth I’ve experienced in wrestling has all been necessary. Necessary because if you aren’t willing to change, evolve, and grow, your career as a professional wrestler will be a short one. I’ve enjoyed over 20 years in this business that I’ve wanted to be a part of since the age of five. And all this changing, evolving, and growing has resulted in a hell of an interesting ride.

The Beginning – Change is “Completely” Necessary

When I had my first professional wrestling match in 2000, I wrestled under the name“Completely” Cody Steele. I claimed I was completely athletic, completely entertaining, completely sexy… and completely better than you! It wasn’t much, but it was something. I knew I needed something to stand out from my peers. And I needed something to sink my teeth into in terms of a gimmick that I could portray to a new audience every night. I thought what I came up with was totally awesome and I was going to take the wrestling world by storm! There was only one problem —I couldn’t back up my claims.

I was athletic. I played basketball and football at a fairly high level in high school as the quarterback of my football team and the point guard of my basketball team. But, on my first day of wrestling school I was 140 pounds soaking wet with a brick in my pocket. So, while I might have had athleticism, this wasn’t high school athletics. This was pro wrestling. And I needed to look the part.

My first major experience with change came with the process of changing my body to look the part. My trainer, “Dangerboy” Derek Wylde, sat me down and told me the truth. If I wanted to be successful in pro wrestling, I couldn’t look like the guy who bought a ticket to sit in the front row. I needed to look like a professional. Which meant I needed to work out and eat right. At the time, I wasn’t doing either of these things. I quickly learned that if I respected those who came before me, respected my profession as a whole and really wanted to make something of this dream of mine to be a wrestler, I would take my diet and exercise routine seriously. Within a few months, my body responded to the positive things I was implementing in my life, and promoters started to notice. I started getting booked more regularly for numerous independent promotions. And I started winning championships in many of those promotions.

So, this first major change in my career led to success. And it eventually led to my first big break in the business… with WWE.

“Be Different” – Change Can Get You Noticed

After all the positive changes I made in my career, it led to that one fateful phone call that all pro wrestlers wait for —the call from the “big time” —WWE.

Tommy Dreamerhad just started his role in the Talent Relations department there. He saw some tapes that I had been sending to the office and he appreciated my look and my work in the ring, and he offered me a tryout. All the hard work I’d put in had paid off. And it led to my first big break into mainstream television wrestling – I had a match with Kurt Angleon WWE SmackDown.

What I remember most about the experience wasn’t the fact that the crowd actually chanted my name during the match, which was an almost indescribable electrifying experience, for a young “nobody” wrestling in a WWE ring for the first time. Or the fact that the only Olympic gold medalist in WWE history almost knocked me out with a stiff kick to the teeth early in the match (it’s true, it’s damn true!). No, the most memorable thing happened in gorilla position afterwards. I’ll never forget walking back through the curtain and seeing Vince McMahonhimself stand up, walk out from behind his desk in gorilla and start walking straight toward me with that now infamous McMahon power walk.

Oh crap. What had I done? Had I screwed up? Did I not sell Kurt Angle’s moves properly? Should I have just stayed down after my teeth almost got knocked out of my face by Kurt’s stiff kick? I figured my career was done before it even got started. But before I could begin apologizing for some misdeed that I wasn’t even certain I’d done, all of a sudden, Vince stuck out his hand.

Like a dream, I realized I was shaking hands with the billionaire owner of the company I grew up watching as a young Hulkamaniac. And I heard him say, “Cody. Thank you for your hard work out there. You did an excellent job. Thank you.” I couldn’t believe it.

I went home on an immense high. That moment kept me high for days. Maybe even weeks. And I was absolutely certain that WWE was going to call and offer me a full-time contract. After such a positive experience, and a handshake from the man himself, I just knew that phone call and contract offer was inevitable. But that call never came. The contract offer was never presented to me.

Yes, I went back to WWE to do some more extra work. Many times actually. But that elusive full-time contract never came. I knew I needed to do something to change my fate. But what? I decided to ask one person I knew who would shoot straight with me and give me an honest answer… even if the truth hurt my feelings. That person was Arn Anderson.

After yet another appearance as “extra talent” on a WWE event (which eventually just led to me eating some really great ice cream in catering), I approached Arn Anderson. Whenever I did appearances for the WWE I paid close attention to how Arn interacted with talent as a producer. He was always a straight shooter and always told talent the truth even if the truth hurt. So, I humbly approached him and said, “I’ve been here numerous times, sir. I seem to always get positive reviews. But I’m not getting offered a job. How do I get hired here?”

“The Enforcer” turned to me and told me two words of advice that I’ll never forget: “Be different.” Mr. Anderson proceeded to educate me by telling me that I’d never be a giant physical specimen like The Big Show. I’d never be an athletic marvel like Rey Mysterio. But those things were outside my control. I could take something that was within my control and change it. And be different.

I took Arn’s advice to heart. In the words of the late great Owen Hart, “Enough is enough… and it’s time for a change.”

Mullets, Handlebar Mustaches, and Daisy Dukes… OH MY!

The next major change I made in my career was a drastic one. I took Arn Anderson’s advice and decided to take the one thing I had complete control over and completely change it —my look.

I cut my long hair into a luscious mullet. I grew a dirty handlebar mustache. I stopped wearing nice wrestling trucks and replaced them with cut-off Daisy Duke jean shorts and some duct tape on my wrists. And I changed my name. I was no longer Cody Steele. I became the trailer park redneck known as Cody Deaner.

I decided if I wasn’t getting offered a contract as the generic looking Cody Steele, I’d do a complete 180 and try something different. I’d take Arn’s advice and simply be different. And it worked. It led to my next big break in pro wrestling. It led to that ever-elusive full-time contract I’d been chasing. But not a contract with WWE. It led to a contract with TNA/Impact.

Change is scary. It’s a risk. I was risking a lot changing everything. I had built a name for myself as Cody Steele and this change was basically going to wipe my previous character out of existence. This wasn’t a slight evolution. It was a complete change. But the risk led to reward. The risk led to major players in the wrestling world taking notice of this new drastically different character I’d created and decided they wanted to put that character on TV. The risk led to a full-time contract with Total NonStop Action Wrestling and a two-year run on TV with ODB that was a hell of a lot of fun. But eventually that run ended and my contract with TNA expired. Now what?

Time to Evolve – Sometimes a Tweak (and Patience) is All You Need

After my time with TNA ended in 2010, I knew I needed to make another change. This led to a lot of experimentation. I experimented with different looks, personas, and numerous ideas in an attempt to take Arn’s advice to heart yet again and to be different.

However, sometimes a complete change isn’t necessary. Sometimes, you just need to tweak something. Rather than a total change, you need to simply evolve. And that evolution can take time.

I’ve had young wrestlers ask me what is one trait that is important to develop in order to succeed in wrestling? Perseverance? A thick skin? These are important. But my answer is a simple one… patience.

I evolved the mulleted, trailer park trash-bag persona of Cody Deaner into a long-haired, bushy bearded redneck renegade. It wasn’t a complete change from what I was doing before. It was an evolution. It still met the Arn Anderson recipe of being different. And again, it worked. But not quickly.

I continued wrestling for nine years after my first TNA run before the next big opportunity in my career came my way. That’s right — NINE YEARS. Almost an entire decade. During this painful process of evolution and growth, my patience was tested. But within this test, I eventually found a persona that felt real to me. Felt like it fit. I became the persona on my way to the ring. I was this persona. And it led to another full-time wrestling contract. IMPACT Wrestling decided to take this re-incarnation of the Cody Deaner persona I’d created and produce a fun-loving tag team of bearded beer-swilling farm boys known as The Deaners.

I had a blast with Cousin Jake —now known asJake Somethingon the weekly Impact Wrestling program. Jake is super-talented and has all the skills to be a major player in our industry. We were just starting to gel as a team and create a loyal following of fans who enjoyed our beer-chucking antics.  But sometimes something happens that forces change. Forces you to evolve. Forces you to grow. For me, that force came like a powerful locomotive. That force was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forced Change – “The Pandemic Era”

Like most people, I thought COVID was going to last only a few weeks. And like most people, boy was I wrong. What I wasn’t anticipating was that it was going to lead to yet another complete change for me in my wrestling career.

For the first few months of the pandemic, I was stuck at home. I’m a proud Canadian. And travel restrictions meant that I wasn’t allowed to travel outside of Canada for the first number of months while the world figured out what this virus was really all about.

During this time, IMPACT was amazing and allowed me to evolve my character and come up with some very unique ideas to keep me on television despite my travel restrictions. I made a short film of me stuck in my pop-up trailer on the side of a dirt road called “Cody in Kwaranteen” (which has made it into various comedy film festivals). IMPACT used footage from that short film and put it into the weekly show. I also challenged for the Impact Tag Team Championship against The North (fellow Canadians) in a cinematic fight on The Deaner Compound. If you haven’t seen this, I highly recommend watching it. It’s a testament to what a few folks with handheld cameras and some creativity can do in just one afternoon. It’s utter madness. And it was a blast to be a part of.

Eventually, travel restrictions were lifted and I was able to return to the IMPACT Zone (which was now Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee). But there was one major change —we were now wrestling in front of no fans.

I don’t know if it was the drastic change in the atmosphere while performing. Or the changing landscape of the business during a pandemic. Or my personal mindset about the business as I reached a two-decade long career. It was likely a combination of all of these things. But this combination left me thinking one thing… it was time for another change. A drastic one.

Time to Evolve & Grow… Violent by Design

The key to longevity in wrestling is the ability to evolve. Even if you’ve reached massive success with a particular character, you need to evolve in order to stay relevant (Chris Jerichoand The Undertakerare two great examples of this). But evolving while you’re seeing success is risky. A risk many wrestlers aren’t willing to take. I decided to take a risk. I decided it was time to evolve.

Some wrestling fans think that what I’m doing now as Deaner on IMPACT Wrestling as a member of VBD (Violent By Design)is something that was forced upon me. Nothing could be further from the truth. After years (15 years to be exact) of evolving the fun-loving redneck character of Cody Deaner, I had reached a comfort zone. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. I was Cody Deaner. I became Cody Deaner. Every time I came to the ring, it was easy. And with that comfort, for me, came the threat of complacency. I felt like I had reached a plateau. And if you’re not moving onward and upward, you are stagnant. And I decided that during this ever-changing landscape of wrestling in what has become known as the “pandemic era”, now was as good a time as any to force myself out of stagnation.

It was my idea to drop the first name Cody and transform into the Violent By Design member known as Deaner. The amazingly produced “transformation vignettes” (by Eric Tompkins and David Sahadi) of me in handcuffs and being brainwashed byEric Young were my idea —I suggest going out of your way to see these if you haven’t seen them. My entire drastic change —from the new hairstyle, to the new wrestling gear, new name, new body, new… well… everything —was all my idea.

I’ve known since the beginning of my career that reinvention in pro wrestling is important. It keeps you relevant. But for me, it also keeps me hungry. This newest reinvention of myself is different than all the others I’ve done in my career. For this one, I’m learning as I go. I haven’t had the luxury of “trying it out” on the indy scene in front of crowds before doing it on national television. There were no indy shows and no crowds when I made the change. The entire change is a work in progress. And every time I step in the ring or in front of the camera, there’s a renewed creative spark for me. I’m no longer in my comfort zone. I no longer have a safety net. But ultimately, I’m growing as a performer.

As I said at the beginning, change can be scary, evolving can cause anxiety, and growth can be painful. I’ve had my fair share of all of these throughout my career. Still to this day. But, with this change, evolution, and growth comes a renewed fire. And renewed passion for what I’ve loved since I was five years old. A renewed love for professional wrestling. I have no idea where this reinvention is going to ultimately take me. Which can be a scary, anxious, and perhaps a potentially painful experience. But, in the end, regardless of what it brings, it will be worth it. Why? Because it makes me more excited to lace up the boots today than even my first day of wrestling school over 20 years ago. And that’s saying something.

So whatever your passion might be in your life, consider a change. Consider an evolution. Consider growth. It’s a risk to reinvent yourself. But that risk is worth the reward. I know that’s true… because I’m living proof.

Change. Evolve. Grow.

Cody Deaner is a professional wrestler with IMPACT Wrestling and has made appearances with WWE and Global Force Wrestling. He is also a public speaker, traveling theglobe sharing his story with young people everywhere.

Twitter: @CodyDeaner