Team Rhodes Scholars Team Rhodes Scholars ( also known as The Rhodes Scholars ) is a professional wrestling tag team in WWE , consisting of Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow . The team ' s name is a play on Rhodes ' last name and Sandow ' s intellectual gimmick and a reference to the Rhodes Scholarship . History . Rhodes and Sandow first teamed together during the August 27 , 2012 episode of " Raw " when they faced the team of Sin Cara and Brodus Clay . On September 21 , 2012 , Rhodes and Sandow officially formed a tag team during an edition of " SmackDown " to face the Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Kane , at the request of anger management therapist Dr . Shelby after his patients ' loss to Rhodes and Sandow in singles matches due to the other ' s interference . The match ended in a disqualification loss for Rhodes and Sandow after Rhodes struck Kane with a chair . During the next " Raw " , Rhodes and Sandow attacked Kane and Bryan before labelling themselves as the Rhodes Scholars . Together , the Rhodes Scholars were entered in a Tag Team Championship tournament and defeated the Usos to advance . On the October 8 episode of " Raw " , the Rhodes Scholars defeated Santino Marella and Zack Ryder to advance to the finals in the tournament . The Rhodes Scholars ultimately defeated Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara on the October 22 episode of " Raw " to win the tournament and become the number one contenders to the Tag Team Championship at Hell in a Cell . At the event , the Rhodes Scholars won the match by disqualification , which resulted in Team Hell No retaining the title . The following night on " Raw " , they were chosen to be a part of Team Punk for Survivor Series , though the team was later renamed Team Ziggler after Punk was removed from the team due to him being forced to defend his WWE Championship that night . On the November 16 episode of " SmackDown " , Rhodes suffered an injury which resulted in him being replaced by David Otunga on Team Ziggler . At the event , Team Ziggler defeated Team Foley , although Sandow was the first member of his team to be eliminated . On the December 10 episode of " Raw " , Rhodes returned from injury , where the Rhodes Scholars defeated The Usos , Primo and Epico and The Prime Time Players in a Fatal - 4 Way match . At , the Rhodes Scholars defeated Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio to once again become number one contenders to the Tag Team Championship . They received their shot at the title on the December 19 episode of " Main Event " , which they failed to win . On the January 11 , 2013 episode of " SmackDown " , the Rhodes Scholars confronted The Rock , which resulted in Rock performing a Rock Bottom on Sandow and a People ' s Elbow on Rhodes . At the 26th annual Royal Rumble , they failed once again to win the Tag Team Title . On the February 1 episode of " SmackDown " , Rhodes and Sandow announced that they would part ways , but would still remain best friends . It was announced by Cody Rhodes that on the 10th of February , that they will reunite for a weekend live show . They reunited on February 17 , 2013 in a preshow match at Elimination Chamber in a losing effort against Brodus Clay & Tensai . The pair later announced that they were getting together , and have fought losing matches against Degeneration X members ( via interference by Brock Lesnar ) . Later that night , they would be put into a storyline with the returning Bella Twins and placed in a match against Sheamus and Randy Orton where they were defeated . On the March 22 episode of SmackDown , Team Rhodes Scholars defeated Brodus Clay and Tensai in a tag team match after a distraction from The Bella Twins . On April 7 at Wrestlemania 29 , Team Rhodes Scholars and The Bella Twins were set to face Clay , Tensai and " The Funkadactyls " ( Cameron and Naomi ) in an eight – person mixed tag team match , though the match never took place due to time restraints and WWE removed any mention or advertisement of the match . The match would later take place the following night on Raw with Team Rhodes Scholars losing the match .