Nintendo sent Cody Rhodes a cease-and-desist over Zelda Triforce gear

Nintendo drew a hard line around a Zelda symbol on Cody Rhodes’ ring gear, and the exchange says as much about brand control as it does about wrestling style. Rhodes said Nintendo sent him a cease-and-desist over the Triforce he had used on his boots, a reminder that even a tribute worn by one of WWE’s biggest stars can cross into trademark territory once it becomes public-facing and tied to a performer’s image.

Rhodes discussed the episode on What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Kit Wilson, explaining that he had worn the Triforce around 2013 because the symbol’s three ideas, power, courage and wisdom, matched the way he saw his own wrestling persona. He said the response from Nintendo was polite but clear, and he complied. The symbol was not a one-off bit of cosplay, either. Rhodes also has a Triforce tattoo on his ring finger, underscoring that the Zelda connection ran deeper than a passing reference.

The boots had already been part of Rhodes’ public wrestling identity years earlier. ESPN reported in 2009 that Rhodes had worn Triforce-symbol boots for about a year, and later coverage said he posted a photo of them on Twitter in October 2013 and wore them during WWE’s Battleground pay-per-view that year. That history makes the cease-and-desist more than a quirky legal footnote. It shows how a visual homage can live comfortably in fandom until it enters the monetized, merchandise-heavy world of pro wrestling.

Nintendo’s own rules back up that approach. The company’s content-sharing guidelines say other forms of monetization of its intellectual property for commercial purposes are not permitted, and its intellectual-property policy says it may object to content it believes infringes copyrights or trademarks. Nintendo has enforced that stance before, including a 2021 mass DMCA takedown that removed 379 fan-made games from Game Jolt.

Rhodes’ Triforce boots sat right at the fault line between tribute and infringement: a wrestler trying to channel a favorite game into his character work, and a company unwilling to let one of its most recognizable marks travel too freely outside its control.