Cody Rhodes Says WrestleMania 39 Match With Roman Reigns Is His Favorite

Cody Rhodes has named his WrestleMania 39 loss to Roman Reigns as his favorite match of his career. Rhodes battled Reigns at the 2023 WrestleMania in a bout that saw Reigns retain, setting Rhodes back in his quest to “finish the story.” Rhodes explained on the Bill Simmons Podcast why he loves that match so much, and you can see highlights below (per Wrestling Inc):

On losing the match: “I probably would have been pumped to win, certainly. But there’s something about that night where things were happening in the arena or the stadium that had never happened to me.”

On the moment where he realized how into the match the fans were: “He’s got me in the guillotine choke, and you hear these old-timers and — god bless them, I love them talk about, you know, [who say] just stay right there and the people will react. When you’ve seen the amount of cool flips and awesome stuff, sometimes that seems like, I don’t know, maybe that’s not real anymore. And then in that moment, I remember I’m just slowly wiggling my head out, and I can hear an entire stadium where the sound goes up, start to move, and I thought, ‘Oh man, they’re into this. How blessed am I that they’re into this?’ And it just — when it’s that good, it feels completely real. Everything seems real. Roman is the greatest enemy of my life, and I’m trying to climb a mountain that’s impossible to climb, and that just acoustic moment, for me, made it my favorite match of all time.”