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Cody Rhodes‘ has had a decorative history with WWE for more than a decade. His stint has been a roller coaster ride, including a number of changes throughout, both gimmick-wise and strategy-wise. In his current run, The American Nightmare is doing wonders with his celebrated babyface, but he was equally cool in his heel gears.

Back in 2011, Rhodes pulled off a weird gimmick where he used to hide his face with a mask. The disfigured Rhodes gimmick was a twist on his earlier Dashing Cody Rhodes character. Now over a decade later, this gimmick was brought to the fore by ex-WWE star Mansoor as he revealed his non-materialized storyline.

Released Mansoor revealed unsuccessful plan of bringing back Cody Rhodes’ forgotten gimmick

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A massive roster cut wave hit the WWE on Thursday (September 21). Many prized veterans, including the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Shelton Benjamin, Dana Brooke, and a few more, let themselves drift away by the sudden wave of layoffs. The under-used tag team of Mace and Mansoor, better known as the Maximum Male Models, was also among the victims.

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But they didn’t subscribe to the negativity, rather, the duo seemed pretty chilled out discussing their old memories with the company during their Twitch stream

Referring to the unique plan to use Cody Rhodes’ phenomenal gimmick to pitch a storyline, Mansoor noted, ”One of the ideas we had in Maximum Male Models. This almost happened, not this angle, but we did almost work with Cody Rhodes. I wanted him to hit me with the Cross Rhodes and it would break my nose. Then, I could do Undashing.”

I wanted to wear the mask like him and do the angle where I thought I was the ugliest person in the world and a horribly disfigured mutant. Everyone kept saying, ‘We want Male Models to have more edge. We need more aggressive and vicious. What can we do?’ I kept saying, ‘Break my nose. I’m this vicious goblin,” the 27-year-old added.

Read more: Released tag team Maximum Male Models revealed unsuccessful plan of bringing back Cody Rhodes’ forgotten gimmick

Mansoor and Mace were among the 18 talents let go by WWE after the TKO merger with UFC. However, the former WWE tag team duo surprisingly has no complaints about Vince McMahon.

Maximum Male Models experienced a different side of Vince McMahon

Recapitulating some of the fascinating experiences of working with McMahon, Maçé, and Mansoor noted their male model gimmick was solely Vince McMahon’s idea coming to life. He had been looking for it for nearly eight months.

In one of their particular fashion segment, Vince McMahon even guided them regarding how to turn and also gave them a couple of tips about fashion.

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However, despite McMahon’s personal interest, things didn’t go as planned. Eventually, the Maximum Male Models started to dwindle, and it finally culminated in the ceasing of their travel with the company.

Their tale is nothing but a live instance of how backing from someone as influential as McMahon doesn’t always suffice to carve out the path to long-term success.

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How do you view Maximum Male Models revealing their old plan to bring back Cody Rhodes’ iconic gimmick? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Shreya Nag

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Shreya Nag is a WWE writer at EssentiallySports, whose love for the sport began when she saw Cody Rhodes win the Royal Rumble in 2023. Since then, she has been an ardent fan of Rhodes and the world of pro wrestling. Shreya's writing combines her passion for the sport with her writing abilities, which she uses to provide readers with a nuanced analysis of WWE superstars.
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Edited by

Sherjeel Malik