Stardust Talks Night of Champions, Cosmic Key, Tag Titles in Exclusive Interview

For Stardust, Night of Champions could be the culmination of a journey through a parallel universe.

He and Goldust will face The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championship, a prize he once acquired in a previous incarnation of himself. In between last year's edition of that pay-per-view and this one, Cody Rhodes has evolved.

He's traded in wrestling tights for black vinyl, normalcy for quirk.

Given a persona much like his brother's, he could have viewed it as gimmick purgatory. Instead, Stardust has become a career highlight for Rhodes. 

He's a captivating presence, whether he is speaking in riddles backstage or bouncing about the ring like some face-painted pixie. 

It would have seemed impossible for anyone to surpass Goldust in being bizarre, but Stardust has done just that. After morphing from the clean-cut Rhodes to the wide-eyed, quizzical being that he is today, he has become even more of an oddity than his tag team partner. 

Accomplishing that transformation has allowed him to show off an impressive acting range. Not many wrestlers can pull off being a self-absorbed braggart, a gutsy hero and a creature plucked from the stars.

Bleacher Report had a chance to talk with Stardust before his big bout. In the interview, he showed how deeply he has embraced the new role. It's a costume he never steps out of.

Bleacher Report: It's been quite the journey for you over this last year. In a way, you're kind of in the same place as you were then in that you are battling for the tag team titles and doing it alongside your brother. But in another way, you're in a whole new stratosphere.

Stardust: I love that you said "stratosphere." I feel that it's appropriate.

I think you're referring to the idea that Cody Rhodes and Stardust are one and the same as when you alluded to last year's Night of Champions. If you subscribe to that theory, then perhaps you're correct. You're also correct in saying that this year, as American citizens like to say, is a completely different ballgame.

Credit: WWE.com

B/R:  What's been the biggest difference in that ballgame?

Stardust: The biggest change would be that for The Usos. The Usos got the opportunity to wrestle Cody Rhodes and Goldust on many an occasion. They never got the true test that will be Gold and Star Dust.

And I think that will be one of the more intriguing elements of Night of Champions. You have so many championship matches. You have a very loaded live special.

B/R: In terms of star power, it is loaded. What would it take for you guys to steal the show? What's going to be your approach to this match?

Stardust: My approach is this match is the same as it is for every match. Our little backstage motto you might hear from time to time is "full speed ahead." I know of no other way. I wrestle very differently than a great deal of my brethren, my peers, then even Goldust wrestles. 

It's not a matter of trying to steal the show. I am very much simply trying to win the tag team titles. And that's the strategy.  

B/R: Is the winning the tag team titles the same as acquiring the cosmic key?

Stardust: Just an absolutely wonderful, wonderful question. The cosmic key can be so many things. Yet we never truly defined it on Monday Night Raw, on SmackDown or on Main Event. We never truly said what it is. 

But those in the know would know that the cosmic key is exactly that. If that's the first time I'm saying, and I'm not sure it is, then the cat is certainly out of the bag. The cosmic key is absolutely 100 percent the tag team titles.

B/R: Let's say you do win and you're on top of the division. What do you think about the depth and quality behind you? And do you think that tag team wrestling is getting enough spotlight right now?

Stardust: Now let me ask you a question. Do you know the average distance between stars? Just a ballpark.

B/R: I do not.

Stardust: Well, it's 20 million million miles. That's the average distance between a star, and I feel the same way about the tag division. I feel that even without that tag team title, without that cosmic key, the difference between us and the other tag teams is quite the Grand Canyon for them to traverse.

I certainly think that there is a great deal of spotlight on tag team competition, and I think that will only improve. I hope to have the same type of tag team wrestling spotlight as Cody Rhodes and Goldust had when they first had the tag team champions.

They were the main event. They were the hot thing. I would hope Gold and Stardust would be no different.

B/R: Should you have the cosmic key in hand, what would be next on your career checklist? What are your big-picture goals going forward?

Stardust: I think that depends. If we give into the idea that Cody Rhodes and Stardust are the same thing, the career checklist is still very large and quite the road that Cody Rhodes can't even see the end of yet.

But as far as Gold and Stardust's checklist, it's been cosmic key this and cosmic key that. I would think that maybe this would be the highlight, the largest thing in the career of this particular duo. 

All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.