Former TNA talent Cody Deaner recently appeared on the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling Podcast. Here are the highlights.
The Cody Deaner character being completely changed by TNA and Vince Russo’s direct involvement:
When I finally came in and was hired it was actually right when Jeff Jarrett was leaving and losing power. So to my understanding I was going to be brought in more as the Cody Deaner character that I was doing on the Independent circuit. I was still a character like an obvious red-neck hillbilly but I was a wrestler not a bumbling buffoon idiot. I was a red-neck but I was a tough red-neck. I was going to come in as a “rassler”. At some point that changed and I was going to be brought in as ODB’s love interest and a crazy wild hillbilly fan who was in love with ODB and had never wrestled a day in his life. So that drastically altered what I was able to do work wise in the ring and yes Vince Russo was the guy the whole time I was there who was writing for me and who I was involved with in terms of pitching ideas and getting things done. It was all Russo.
Origins of the Cody Deaner persona:
It was from people that I grew up with. I grew up in a very small town. It’s so tiny that there aren’t any street lights only two stop signs in this small village that I lived in. With a population of about 50-100 people year round but in the summer time the population was about 1000 people and in the summer time the three trailer parks in town were full. So I grew up around trailer park red-necks and a lot of the inspiration for my character simply came from the guys that I grew up around.
You can check out highlights below, and the full podcast at this link.
