All Elite Wrestling star Brandi Rhodes’ reality television show, “Rhodes to the Top,” premiered this week on TNT.
However, during the season premiere, viewers saw Brandi get into a heated exchange with Cody’s sister, Teil, over her using the Rhodes last name as part of her wrestling persona.
During her time as a ring announcer with the WWE, she was known as Eden Stiles. She then started wrestling consistently in 2016. Since then, she tied the knot with Cody Rhodes, the son of wrestler Dusty “American Dream” Rhodes.
“I feel like Teil and I are pretty small talk-y just because Teil was and has continued to be the most difficult family member for me,” Brandi says in the episode.
“The day that I was supposed to have my very first wrestling match on live television. I see a message from Cody’s sister Teil, it’s a book about this long — about how I didn’t ask her if I could use the Rhodes name. [She wrote] ‘You’re not a Rhodes. By marriage only.’ Dusty and I were always close. I absolutely asked his permission to use the Rhodes name. So that was a very souring opening experience for me.”
Teli didn’t share her feelings.
“My family, they still kind of look at Brandi as if she’s not fully in. And nothing will let you know she’s fully in like a baby show, folks. She ain’t going nowhere,” she said.
The couple has been married since 2013 and share a daughter, Liberty.
Brandi took the tension in her stride. Later on in the episode, Brandi is seen burying the hatchet with fellow wrestlers Jade Cargill and Red Velvet. She jokes, “if only I could do the same with Cody’s family, then we’re good.”
“Rhodes to The Top” will air each week on TNT.
