Some of you might not know this, but I'm a huge wrestling fan. It started with the Smackdown games on the PS1, and it's run all the way to me watching Wrestlemania 42 live at 3am and waking up to watch Backlash this last Sunday. I would say that it's up there with my love of retro gaming, something that I share with WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes.
I've heard Cody talking about Nintendo games a lot in the past on interviews; the guy is a bona fide nerd just like you and me, and he loves the Legend of Zelda. In a recent interview on his podcast 'What Do You Wanna Talk About', he speaks with fellow WWE Superstar Kit Wilson about his love of Zelda, and the fact that he used the principles of the Triforce as the main ethos for his character, channeling 'the wisdom of Zelda, the courage of Link, and the Power of Ganon' into his on-screen persona.
Cody has the Triforce tattooed on his finger so he can think about these values on a daily basis, but it was after he put the Triforce on his wrestling boots in the earlier days of his career that Nintendo came knocking. Like Kit, many people saw those boots and thought, 'Cody is one of us!', instantly becoming fans. But it seems that Nintendo weren't a fan of Cody championing the power of the Goddesses of Hyrule on his boots.
'They sent me a cease and desist,' says Rhodes. 'It was very kind, they weren't coming after anybody.' It seems that even WWE legends fall foul of Nintendo's lawyers, and while you would have thought having some extra Zelda advertising around the world to millions of fans for free would have been a good thing, it seems Nintendo were more bothered about seeing the power of the Triforce in a wrestling ring while Cody delivered the Cody Cutter to his rivals.
I think if Sleep Token can get away with using the Fairy Fountain theme for their song Past Self, then Cody should have been able to wear the Triforce on his boots. He would have been a great choice to play Link as well as Guile in Street Fighter, and I hope we see him in more video game adaptations in the future!
What do you think about the Triforce boots debacle? Let us know in the comments below!
