Cody Rhodes considers himself and his Ring of Honor stable the leaders of arguably the fastest-growing “movement” in professional wrestling, and they are looking to expand membership.

The former WWE star, who left the company in May 2016, has reinvented his character. Along with fellow Bullet Club members “The Young Bucks” Matt and Nick Jackson, Marty Scurll and “Hangman” Page, he has helped propel the Ring of Honor promotion to a banner 2017. The Bullet Club originated in New Japan Pro Wrestling, which has a working relationship with Ring of Honor, and is led there by Kenny Omega.

Rhodes, who has become the face of the Club in the US, wants to keep the momentum going as Ring of Honor heads into what it hopes to be an even bigger 2018. That includes launching a streaming service, working toward greater visibility on television, and Rhodes and the Young Bucks going out on their own to try to sell out a 10,000-seat arena.

“I don’t necessarily like that word [movement], but this is kind of a Renaissance era in our industry and we’ve been tasked — I don’t think we took the task — I think we’ve been tasked, me, Matt, Nick, Marty, Hangman, that group is leading this thing as we go,” Rhodes said.

Their stellar year culminates with Final Battle, the promotion’s end-of-year mega-show at the Hammerstein Ballroom on Friday. Rhodes, who now goes by “The American Nightmare” (WWE owns the rights to the “Cody Rhodes” character), is in the main event defending his Ring of Honor championship against the eccentric Dalton Castle.

Rhodes, 32, describes his sharply dressed and arrogant persona as the opposite of his father, Dusty Rhodes’ “American Dream” character, which represented the blue-collar working man.

“[Dusty] wanted me to be in movies and the ‘American Nightmare’ has a flair for the dramatic, this vanity that I think he’d appreciate,” Rhodes said of his legendary father, who passed away in 2015.

Final Battle, which also can be seen on pay-per-view, features the rest of the Bullet Club, the Briscoes, Bully Ray, Tommy Dreamer and Jay Lethal, among others. Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff sees the event as one die-hard fans and newcomers can enjoy.

“I think if they used to love wrestling, you’re going to love it again,” Koff said. “If they never watched wrestling, they are going to go holy S. I can’t believe I haven’t been seeing this.”

Ring of Honor doesn’t readily throw the word “competition” around when it comes to WWE, but it can’t deny its growing attendance and Bullet Club T-shirts in the crowd on Raw and SmackDown. Rhodes and Bullet Club led a D-Generation X-style invasion of “Monday Night Raw” in September for their YouTube series “Being the Elite.” It resulted in a cease-and-desist letter from WWE over the use of the “Too Sweet” hand gesture.

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“They’re the biggest global conglomerate. They’re unreal. But I can’t help but see more of our stuff in the crowd than their stuff,” said Rhodes, whose group reportedly sold more than 400,000 t-shirts at Pro Wrestling Tees in the last four months.

“I know the numbers at the store that sells both of our merchandise and they’re not even close. … They have some amazing, amazing talent, but I don’t think when we’re together [the Bullet Club], I don’t think anyone can touch the group we have, that kind of being the elite group.”

Ring of Honor, which was once home to current WWE superstars A.J. Styles, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan, among others, prides itself on being a wrestling-centric and fan immersive promotion that gives its roster great amounts of creative freedom with their characters and matches. It’s a place Rhodes describes as one where you “can come play your music how you’d like.” Koff calls it “entertaining sport,” instead of sports entertainment.

“It’s almost like WWE is a similar trapeze act [to Ring of Honor], but with a net,” Rhodes said.

It was Rhodes who took a risk more than a year ago, betting on himself with his move from WWE. Things have gone better than he could have imagined with Ring of Honor, saying this week on Busted Open Radio that 2017 was his first seven-figure earnings year.

“This is beyond my comprehension, some of the numbers,” Rhodes said.

He and his counterparts will try to push things further and attempt the largest “independent” wresting show ever and are in the process of securing a 10,000-seat venue. Ring of Honor’s largest shows fit around 2,000 people. Rhodes called the whole undertaking “terrifying” and isn’t sure what pulling it off would mean for the wrestling business.

“We are under the realization of what that really looks like, 10,000,” Rhodes said. “I can answer that question once we do it. The ramifications of what that would be, this is something that hasn’t been done.”

While Ring of Honor is not directly promoting the 10,000-seat show, Koff said the group still carries the brand with them. Ring of Honor, which was founded in 2002, has been more meticulous and slow with its growth. Koff said he would rather get its streaming service right and credits its current roster for pushing it to strive for more.

“We are getting to that point where we should be doing a 10,000-seat arena,” Koff said. “We should be thinking about that. We shouldn’t be afraid of that.”

To Rhodes, there is no better testing ground for where Ring of Honor is and how its movement can go than New York City.

“So much of this hinges on Final Battle,” Rhodes said. “The reason we have been able to keep building and running our mouths and the confidence level growing is because every event has been gangbusters. As long as it continues to go up and trend upward, man, the sky’s the limit.”