Cody Rhodes On When He Thought a WWE Return Was Possible, First Meetings With WWE

Cody Rhodes discussed when he first imagined a return to WWE was possible and more in a new interview today with Inside the Ropes. Rhodes, who made his return on last night’s WrestleMania, spoke with media today as captured by Inside the Ropes. You can check out some highlights below, per Fightful:

On first meeting with WWE: “I can say that, we had a meeting in Atlanta and I didn’t expect it to go bad, but I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll be presented with something that is not for me,’ but I’ll be able to say, ‘Thank you so much’ and I’ll be able to get closure on the first chapter. The first chapter ended real poorly. ‘I’ll see you next week’ ‘No you won’t. Here is my post on how I’m gone, no one is keeping me down.’ I never got closure on that. I never got it with Hunter, I never got it with Vince, I never got it. That conversation was just sparkling. 95% of that conversation was about my daughter. That was just special. I remember telling him after, ‘Thank you, if we never talk again, I feel so good.’ There is a lot of equity and history with my family. I’m the meanest of all the Rhodes guys. I’m like an angry little kid still, sometimes.”

On WWE pitching him on a return: “The fun part was, the pitch was really good. It was really good. I was like, ‘Oh, I thought he was going to tell me something terrible.’ This was really good and was everything I needed to hear. It became the easiest decision I’ve ever made because it wasn’t about money. Everyone pays really well in wrestling now, thankfully. It was about unfinished business.”

On when he thought a WWE return would be possible: “Maybe around the Royal Rumble, because I didn’t think I would get another shot at it, in terms of, I was really proud of the run I had in WWE, but in AEW I was Executive Vice President, head of community outreach department, and I had a lot of ‘kids.’ I didn’t have time to think about it. We had a show and a business to run. It was moving so fast and I had so many other fun projects that I love doing like Go Big Show and Rhodes to the Top. I’m working on a pilot now about vintage spirits and bourbons in the US that I’m really excited about. Everything was moving so fast. As soon as the baby was born, the second thing I thought after ‘she’s so beautiful’ was, ‘I have to make a lot of money.’ I was busy, busy, busy.”

On wanting to return to just wrestling: “Also, around that time, it started creeping in my mind, as much as I loved where I was, I loved my job. It’s no one’s dream to be an executive. It’s pretty cool for a minute, then you get blamed for everything. That’s not your dream. Everyone wants to be a wrestler. You’re putting the belt on in your underwear, that’s the dream. I locked myself out of that because I didn’t want to upset fans…and they still got pissed. F**k, sorry. I locked myself out of the main title picture. I told myself, I didn’t want to be a gatekeeper wrestler. I didn’t want to be, ‘New debut, Cody program, new debut, Cody program.’ I didn’t want to be that. Around that time, I thought, ‘What would it be? It would be different.’ It would probably be what’s best for the whole business to do this. I think it’s best for everything to do this and free up real estate. They hired 15 guys with what was available at the time, that’s good.”