Cody Rhodes is once again flying high after entering and then winning the 2023 men’s Royal Rumble match.
The American Nightmare entered at number 30 and eliminated five Superstars on his way to victory, throwing out Gunther who had been involved since the start to claim the win.
The victory means that Rhodes will now head to WrestleMania for a shot at either (Or potentially both) of WWE’s two World Championships.
Rhodes had been out of action since early June when he suffered a serious pectoral injury. The star initially sustained the injury while training before later making it worse. Despite this, he competed inside Hell In A Cell against Seth Rollins with the injury.
Cody Rhodes – “I’m Worried Now. Maybe I Don’t Have It”
Speaking in a new interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport, Rhodes discussed this period of his career and revealed that he felt embarrassed about getting injured. He went on to praise both Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard.
“I was embarrassed, I really was. I was on top of my game. All the measurables of, ‘this is working, we’re selling this, people are tuning in.’ I’m doing it. Then I got hurt bench pressing at my gym. Probably a lot of wrestling was involved in that, but I didn’t know. I was just embarrassed. I’m really sorry. I am. I didn’t want to leave. I had almost a 30-minute match and then had to go get surgery. I was embarrassed. That was one time where I thought, ‘I’m worried now. Maybe I don’t have it.’
Everyone has doubts, even the most confident people. Maybe I didn’t have it. I’ll tell you two people that really kept me in check, Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard. I don’t know why they have reputations. They’ve been nothing but angels to me. Nick and Bruce don’t see Dusty (Rhodes) when they see me, they see me. That’s big. That’s big with me.
They kept me on and never told me, ‘You’re going to do this, this is going to happen.’ Just, ‘get better, get well, we need you back, we’re going to go for it,’ but we never talked about what it was. To be able to come back and punch this ticket, Thank God, just have to stay healthy,”
During the interview, Rhodes revealed that he was only cleared to return to the ring on the day of the Royal Rumble.
H/t to Fightful