Cody Rhodes reflects on his loss at WWE WrestleMania 39.
Rhodes won the Royal Rumble match and went on to headline WrestleMania 39, as he challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Many fans were expecting Rhodes to finish the story and win the gold, but in one of the most controversial finishes in the recent history of WrestleMania, Reigns emerged victorious.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport, Rhodes was asked to look back on his loss at WWE WrestleMania 39 and how he digested the defeat. Rhodes described how he had a good conversation with WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H, but the loss still sucked. He also made ut clear that he didn’t want to whine; instead, he focused on moving on.
“I had a really good conversation that night with Triple H, where he was really just trying to impress upon me how important it was that we just main-evented a WrestleMania, and even when someone who is one of your favorites and someone you’ve tried to get their attention, had a unique relationship with, even when you’re hearing it from them, even from someone who would know, he would know. I still in my gut just kind of had to say, ‘This sucks,'” Rhodes said. ‘This sucks. This walk is gonna suck. My mom is waiting by the bus. Little Brodie’s crying. This sucks.’
“But one thing I didn’t want to do was whine. Everyone, my buddy Sean Ross Sapp, I guess half-buddy, half-not, he was saying, ‘I wish Cody would talk about how he got screwed at WrestleMania.’ I’m thinking, that’s not the way to do it. I’d be kicking my own ass if I’m out there [doing that]. No, I wanted to just… the story is unfinished, it is, and I wanted to do just move to trying to get back to finishing it. Really, that’s where I was it. I quickly, didn’t get over it, it’s not a pain you get over, but I quickly was able to [put my] chin up and move on to the next thing. Coming to RAW was really, really tough for me, character standpoint and a human standpoint. Very tough.:
When asked whether he looks back on his WrestleMania loss and thinks everything would have been “easier” if WWE put him over, Rhodes stated that he couldn’t think of any excuses or anything in hindsight. He emphasized that he has a solid idea of the future, and he’s trying to stay on that path.
“Straight, honest, I had to instantly not think of any excuses or any hindsight,” Rhodes said. “Hindsight is special, and if I went crazy with some bourbon here or something, maybe I’d start thinking about what could have been. But what could have been is great. I still have an idea of what will be. I really, really solidly do. But there’s a path to get back where I’d like to be, and I’m doing everything I can to stay on that path.”
Rhodes went on to elaborate on his comments at the WWE Money in the Bank post-show press conference, where he noted that John Cena gave him advice following his defeat at WrestleMania. He also highlighted WWE’s roster and the way he is proud to be part of it during this successful run.
“I had mentioned in the press conference, but John [Cena] was the biggest help when that happened,” Rhodes said. “The biggest help. He talked a lot about losing to Rock and how that felt, how it felt as a man, how it felt as someone on-screen. I’ve just kind of followed what he said in the sense of, ‘Okay, cool, if this is what we’re doing and we’re going somewhere else, it’s gonna be, not red-not, not hot, white-hot, and the numbers will show.’ Man, I want to be part of that.
“This team here, this roster, this is a very special roster because they know what it’s like to be hot, mainstream, to be, ‘Hey, we’re just sports entertainment, we’re just wrestling. Those people love us, but we’re not hitting all the demographics. This team knows right now that we’re on a very hot run, and not to take it for granted, and to make it keep happening. It’s one of my favorite things about being back here is being a little bit of a senior member of the team, even though I’m new here still, and to see how everybody is working to keep it going. “
Rhodes recently stated that winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship would not be finishing his story. Click here to see what he had to say.
Catch up on our coverage of WWE Money in the Bank here.
The full interview is available here:
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