Cody Rhodes Gets Name Change For His Arrow Character, Booker T Talks Politics

Cody Rhodes made his TNA debut at Bound For Glory, and he’s set to make his debut on “Arrow” in the third episode of season 5 which will air on the CW on Wednesday, October 19. The episode is titled “A Matter of Trust” and the original synopsis for the episode referred to Cody Rhodes as a WWE star, and it also referred to his character as Garrett Runnels. You can read the original synopsis below.

WWE STAR CODY RHODES BRINGS THE SMACKDOWN TO STAR CITY — Now that Oliver (Stephen Amell) has his new team, they are ready to hit the streets but Oliver doesn’t feel they are ready. Headstrong Wild Dog (guest star Rick Gonzalez) defies the Green Arrow’s orders and sets out on his own after a new drug dealer, Garret Runnels (guest star Cody Rhodes), who is terrorizing Star City. Runnels proves more powerful than Wild Dog and it is up to the Green Arrow to go head to head with Runnels to save his teammate. 

The synopsis has since been modified, and there is no mention of WWE. It’s also noted in the new synopsis that Cody’s character will be Derek Sampson, not Garrett Runnels. You can read the new synopsis below.

WRESTLING STAR CODY RHODES BRINGS THE SMACK DOWN TO STAR CITY — Now that Oliver (Stephen Amell) has his new team, they are ready to hit the streets but Oliver doesn’t feel they are ready. Headstrong Wild Dog (guest star Rick Gonzalez) defies the Green Arrow’s orders and sets out on his own after a new drug dealer, Derek Sampson (guest star Cody Rhodes), who is terrorizing Star City. Sampson proves more powerful than Wild Dog and it is up to the Green Arrow to go head to head with Sampson to save his teammate.

WWE Hall of Famer Booker T recently spoke to Sports Illustrated about politics, the upcoming election and more. You can check out the full interview here along with some highlights below.

Thoughts on Donald Trump: “The election is definitely hanging in the balance. Donald Trump has said a lot of inflammatory comments that a lot of people don’t like, but people can sometimes speak from a racist standpoint and not really know they are racist. It’s like when white people want to speak on slavery, maybe they should take a step back and say, ‘Maybe I don’t understand what you’re going through,’ or have the empathy to look at race from a different position.

Not conforming to a certain party: “Personally, I’m not a Republican and I’m not a Democrat. People need to stop focusing on becoming part of a party and instead voting with their mind and their heart. If [Republican] Paul Ryan was running for president, there are some views of his that I like, so I could vote for Paul Ryan. If Bernie Sanders, who is a Democrat, won the nomination, I could have voted for Bernie Sanders. I’m going to vote because it is my duty. People fought for me to have that right.”