Cody Rhodes’ Interest In WWE Return Started Around The Royal Rumble

Cody Rhodes made a lot of noise in the wrestling business when he jumped ship from AEW to WWE. Rhodes debuted at WrestleMania and defeated Seth Rollins as a surprise opponent chosen by Vince McMahon. Cody is now featured as a top star in the company.

The shock of the news was intensified by the fact that Cody Rhodes was a founding member of AEW. Along with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, Cody joined Tony Khan to help form the new company in 2019. Rhodes was the first major defection from AEW to WWE.

Cody said in his post-WrestleMania media scrum that he had been thinking about making the move for a while. The initial itch to return to WWE came around the time of the Royal Rumble. Rhodes said he was feeling “super marky” and seeing the Rumble made him feel like he might want to run it back with the promotion.

“Maybe around the Royal Rumble. Because I didn’t think I’d get another shot at it, in terms of, I was really proud of the run I had with WWE but at AEW I was the Executive Vice President, Head of the Outreach Department, I had a lot of kids. Some of them may be older than me but I had a lot of people that were in my direct purview, so I didn’t have time to think about it. We had a show, we had a business to run. I wanted to make sure, and I’m so glad I got one with Sammy [Guevara] on the way out. It was just moving so fast and I have all the fun projects that I love doing. Everything was moving so fast and as soon as the baby was born, it was instantly the second thing I thought other than she’s so beautiful is that I have to make a lot of money. I was busy, busy, busy, and I think around the Royal Rumble, because what happens with the Royal Rumble is — this is going to sound super marky and that’s fine –I have really good Rumble stats.

Advertising

Advertising

They’re in the top 10 of the Rumble and I’m like one of two in that top 10 to not win it, and I remember thinking that’s going to go away. Ziggler is still at it, these guys are still in there and getting the time, it would be really good to go back and go back in a vindicated type way. I try to be the absolute best wrestler in the world and prove it here. So I’d say about the Royal Rumble, at the time also creeping in my mind, as much as I love where I was and I loved my job, it’s no one’s dream to be an executive. It’s cool for a minute, then you get blamed for everything and that’s not your dream. Everybody wants to be a wrestler, the dream is to put the belt on in their underwear. And I locked myself out of that because I didn’t want to upset fans and do that, and they still got pissed.

I’m thinking, f*ck, sorry. I locked myself out of the main title picture so around that time I told myself I didn’t want to be a gatekeeper wrestler. So around that time, it would be what’s best for the whole business to do this. I think it’s for everyone to do this and free up the real estate, they hired like 15 guys with what was available at the time so that’s good. Yeah, I’d say around the Royal Rumble.”

Cody Rhodes will get his shot to win a Royal Rumble, but that’s still a year away. In the meantime, he is set to have his first match on Raw since returning. Cody will take on The Miz this evening. Raw kicks off at 8 PM eastern on USA. Those who cant watch can find full coverage here at Ringside News!

What do you think of this story? Share your thoughts in the comments!

H/T Wrestling Inc.