Alex Riley Shares His Thoughts on Cody Rhodes & CM Punk

– Alex Riley recently appeared on Jim Ross’ podcast (transcript credit wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Cody Rhodes: “First of all, I think he’s a tremendous person and I only say that because it’s the truth. I’d never say that if I didn’t believe it. He loved what he did and when I see that and when I keep up on his story, and [Ross] bring it up. To me, he’s a guy that, he just wanted to perform the way he wanted to. As a wrestler, as a creative artist, whatever you want to call it, singer, actor, it’s really all the same. You have to have a love for what you’re doing. A true love, not a ‘okay, well, I’m going to show up here and they’re going to pay me this, so I’m going to say that and because I’m here 12 hours a day, it means I love it.’ That doesn’t mean you really love it. What Cody did means he really loves it. He was tired. It wasn’t a matter of where he was [on the card] or exposure he had or what opportunity he may or may not get. He believed in something and it wasn’t what they thought he was and he made a choice to go out on his own. And, honestly, I don’t think you can get any more courageous than that. And people say that, ‘oh, he’s so [fortunate].’ And he is. He’s a very fortunate man and he certainly works for it to have been given the opportunity that he did to be allowed the opportunity to make the money that he has made; however, to leave the money that he has made to go out on his own, a lot of people would not make that choice.”

On CM Punk: “I was in the locker rooms with him a lot, actually, on his rise to stardom. Yeah. Me and CM Punk were never buddies, per se. I certainly spent a lot of time with him, on the road with him. He was WWE Champion for most of it, for a lot of it, or certainly one of the top players there. If you don’t know that when you put yourself in the circle of people that are going to be considered for the WWE Championship that you are going to get your brains beat out, both physically and emotionally, then you’re nuts. I don’t understand. I didn’t really keep up on much of the details of how things went down, but there were maybe some complaints there about maybe a medical thing or something, but that’s the gig, man. I mean, that’s what you signed up for. I don’t know what he ended up making or if it was even disclosed, but it was a lot. Now, if somebody’s going to pay me, what three, over a million [dollars], it doesn’t matter! If you’re making that kind of money, if you’re breathing, you’re working. I was begging for somebody to give me an opportunity to work. Begging, asking people every day, ‘why am I not being used? Why can’t I do this? How about I do this?’ and never really getting an answer. ‘We’re waiting for this,’ or ‘we’re waiting for that,’ or ‘it’s going to be okay,’ so to hear him kind of push for that opportunity, get it, and then, exit in the fashion he exited, I don’t know. I can’t sympathize with that because I don’t know if I would do that. That being said, I don’t know the exact details of what he went through, so who knows?”