In the upcoming Arrow episode, "A Matter of Trust" -- which airs Wednesday, October 19th -- Oliver's new team is ready to hit the streets, even though he doesn't feel they're quite ready. Maybe his hesitation is due to the fact that wrestling star Cody Rhodes -- who Arrow star Stephen Amell faced off against in a WWE ring back at SummerSlam 2015 -- is guest starring as a drug dealer named Derek Sampson, determined to terrorize Star City and peddle his "Stardust" (I see what they did there!).

Amell and Rhodes may have never gotten their rematch in WWE, but fans can look forward to a ton of fighting in "A Matter of Trust" as the second-generation pro-wrester crosses over into the DC TV-verse to battle his nemesis. I recently spoke to Rhodes about his role on Arrow, the many ways comic books have influenced his wrestling personas, and his recent time on the independent scene.

Arrow: "A Matter of Trust" Photos 12 IMAGES



So...#Arrow fans & wrestling fans alike I ABSOLUTELY commissioned a special pair of tights for tonight's match. Last match before 10/19 pic.twitter.com/sTBZb6VgMN



— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) October 16, 2016

It was killer. They did so well by me and I was so excited to be a part of it. They made me cooler than I ever thought I could be. I felt like a supervillain, but a street-style supervillain. I think for people who were fans of the interaction between Stephen and I as far as the WWE was concerned and SummerSlam - the episode itself, which is completely unrelated, it's funny, it's incredibly physical and picks up kind of where we left off from where we were in the ring. So it's pretty generous in terms of its action. It was also very kind of the stunt team, on Arrow, to let me do so many of my own stunts. Stephen does so much of his own work so this was a very enriching experience.You know the mechanics of it - I think if people see pro-wrestler on your resume they assume you know how to do stunts. There was one scene where thankfully they stopped long before it happened because I was ready to do a bunch of what we would call "high spots." Pro-wrestling high spots is what we would call them, but the technique is completely different and whatever sort of Randy "Macho Man" Savage punch I was about to throw probably wouldn't have looked as good on screen. But they were right in there with me and I feel like I'm a quick study so I picked it up fairly well. There are actually a lot of a similar aspects between this and wrestling if you're the guy getting beat up. There's a lot that was familiar to pro-wrestling for me. And you know, I think it can only help my pro-wrestling career because there's more than one way to skin a cat. The art of pro-wrestling grows every day.It's a very shared, mutual respect. He grew up a WWF fan, turned into a WWE fan. And then you have myself who fell in love with comics at a young age. There are so many portions of my wrestling career that have these parallels and correlations with comics, so I absolutely went all in on Arrow: Season 1 when it started. And now to see what it's turned into... Man, as a comic book fan it just makes me giddy. So there's a mutual respect. I went to the set a few days before I filmed any of my scenes to make sure I understood the vernacular, the language that was used on set. I didn't want to waste anybody's time. I didn't want to be the dumb wrestler who comes in and gives the dumb wrestler performance. I wanted to give them something different. They let me sit right there and watch scene after scene so I could learn. It's just such a great ensemble and a killer cast. Amazing people work on that show.I think for me, internally, the entire thing was a comic book. In terms of psychologically thinking about it, I approached it like a symbiote, like Venom, taking over my initial persona. Especially since I'd wrestled for the prior eight years as myself and here was this drastic departure. I was treating it like this symbiote thing. That's what I would say to myself in my head. Then performance-wise, people know I was just stealing flat out from Frank Gorshin and Jim Carrey's Riddlers. I'd watch the scene where he blew up the Batcave and study how he moved around and just plucked some of that out in certain ways. In my mind, it was a mash-up of different comic book influences. I loved the idea that I had an alter-ego but that my true identity was very well known and very much on the surface. I was the only one who didn't know who Stardust really was. So it was very much tied to comics. Everything I've done. I did a whole run where I'd wear a face mask when I was on SmackDown and that was based on Dr. Doom. Comics and me go way back.I think hope is a great word. I don't want to give any spoilers away. The episode is one of those where when you watch it -- and I hope everyone watches this episode, I'm so proud of it -- and I think when you watch it you'll have you answer. And I think it's a pretty positive answer. The episode is rooted a lot on team building, as Oliver continues to build up his new team. But other things are also getting built. So there's more than a shred of hope, there's a lot of hope.I'm so lucky. Yeah, I wanted people to get behind me when I made the decision to leave. I really did. And I hoped they would, but when they slap your name on the marquee and people actually show up, it's amazing. When you get a record attendance for What Culture Pro Wrestling, or just recently with Matt Cross we did a record attendance for Next Gen in Tennessee. These are various brands. They're not rinky-dink. They're small, they're not WWE, but their soul is there. Somebody asked me the other day if I'd rather be back in WWE than this and, man, I didn't need to think about it for a second. I had one of the best matches of my career with Matt Cross and I'd never met him before, until that day. Wrestling will always be in my heart. I had a terrible travel day on Sunday. I slept three hours and then had to drive to the show. Almost had to put my tights on in the car. But once I was in the building, I was home.You know what, that was a one-time wear. Because I just needed them before the episode aired, for people to see. Maybe I'll don them again, but he did a great job, Main Event Gear who makes my gear. I was a little worried because I didn't know if the wrestling crowd would connect with it. But when I was doing the meet and greet when I got there so many fans were coming up and telling me how much they were looking forward to the episode this week and I thought "Aw, perfect." Because I had my tights in the back with the nice Arrow logo on it ready to go. Nobody was confused by it. That made me feel good.I think it's really exciting for me to see Brandi branch out. Because when you look her up and see her pictures online and see that she was this bikini model, it doesn't tell you that she's got a degree from the University of Michigan or that she attended the master's program and the University of Miami. She has a business savvy mind and because of her years as a figure skater, where she damn near became a professional figure skater, she has this athletic background. So it's the best to be able to show fans a different side of yourself and they hadn't been able to see that. So to be able to do what we did in TNA, and to be able to go out to shows together, it's wonderful. Someone took a picture of me at a show the other day where I was filming her like a soccer mom. She's doing great.

Arrow: "A Matter of Trust," airs Wednesday, October 19th on The CW.Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler