page_title: The Legacy (professional wrestling)
section_title: Formation (2008)
hierarchical_section_title: The Legacy (professional wrestling) / History / Formation (2008)
caption_attribution_description: English: Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes at WWE Raw. Allstate Arena; Rosemont, Illinois; Taken by myself, rotated, cropped, and brightened.
context_page_description: The Legacy was a villainous professional wrestling stable in the professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Entertainment, that competed on its Raw brand from 2008 to 2010. Originally, The Legacy was a group led by Randy Orton that contained the tag team of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. Two other wrestlers, Manu and Sim Snuka, were briefly members of the stable as well. The concept behind the group was that each member was a multi-generational wrestler. The name The Legacy was a reference to their extensive family histories in wrestling.
  In June 2008, Rhodes and DiBiase first formed an alliance after winning the World Tag Team Championship at Night of Champions, when Rhodes betrayed his original partner, Hardcore Holly, to align with DiBiase. Soon after, the pair tried to earn Orton's respect, which they eventually did. Together, the team helped Orton win the 2009 Royal Rumble match, giving Orton an opportunity to compete in the main event at WrestleMania XXV. The team also wrestled together in a tag team match to win the WWE Championship for Orton at Backlash.
context_section_description: Cody Rhodes was a World Tag Team Champion throughout the beginning of 2008 alongside Hardcore Holly, who was acting as a mentor to him. Ted DiBiase made his first WWE appearance on the May 26 episode of Raw, in which he claimed that he and a mystery partner would take the World Tag Team Championship from Rhodes and Holly. At the Night of Champions pay-per-view event in June, DiBiase revealed his partner was running late and started the match without him, however Rhodes quickly betrayed Hardcore Holly by attacking him. This turned Rhodes into a villainous character and meant that he and DiBiase won the championship.
  In September, Randy Orton, who at the time was injured, made an appearance on Raw, where he criticized all the champions, mocking Rhodes and DiBiase for allowing their title belts to be stolen by Cryme Tyme (Shad Gaspard and JTG). The two responded by assaulting Cryme Tyme and introducing Manu (son of Afa the Wild Samoan, nephew of Sika the Wild Samoan and cousin of Rosey and Roman Reigns) as their new member at Unforgiven. This did little to impress Orton, so later that evening Rhodes, DiBiase, and Manu assaulted World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk as Orton confronted him backstage. This allowed Orton to punt Punk in the head, removing him from his championship match, and gaining Orton's respect.
  When Orton was well enough to wrestle, Punk demanded a match with him, which he won via disqualification when DiBiase interfered. As a result, Orton punted DiBiase in the head, putting him out of action; this storyline was put in place in order for DiBiase to take time off to film The Marine 2. Orton then invited Rhodes and Manu to form a group with him called The Legacy, and used them to help in his rivalry with Batista leading to a three-on-two handicap match where Batista was put out of action for four months.
  After Sim Snuka, the son of Jimmy Snuka, also expressed interest in joining the group, Orton made them qualify through a series of tests which Manu failed the first week. On the January 5 episode of Raw, Snuka and Rhodes won a tag team match against Cryme Tyme. Before the match, Orton informed them that they had to win the match in order to be part of the group. After the match, Orton explained that since Snuka did not pick up the pinfall, he was out of the group. The following week, Manu and Snuka informed Rhodes that they were intending to assault Orton and had brought someone to help them do so, giving Rhodes an ultimatum to choose a side. When Rhodes refused to side with them, Manu and Snuka brought out a returning Ted DiBiase to aid them, and tried to assault Rhodes and Orton. Instead DiBiase joined The Legacy, attacking Manu and Snuka, and forgiving Orton for attacking him.
caption: Rhodes and DiBiase were two-time World Tag Team Champions
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-H5", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2008:08:18 19:48:49", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2248", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0]", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:08:18 19:48:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:08:18 19:48:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "109/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4140"}