Cody Rhodes chats his Royal Rumble win.
The opening match of the 2023 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event was the men’s Royal Rumble match. The winner of the bout was Cody Rhodes who came in at the number #30 spot.
Rhodes had not wrestled in a sanctioned match since Hell in a Cell 2022 where he competed with a torn pectoral muscle. After winning the Rumble, Rhodes was interviewed by WWE on FOX’s Ryan Satin and gave his immediate reaction.
He said one of the first people he spoke to upon arriving to the venue was Sami Zayn. Rhodes added that he popped his eardrum but he’s not worried about that and is proud to represent his family name and move on to a prime spot at WrestleMania.
It was really funny, Sami Zayn was one of the first people I talked to today and I said, ‘I hope I remember how to do it’ and he said, ‘It’s like riding a bike,’ you know? And that’s real. It’s like this muscle memory honestly and it’s fun to do stuff you haven’t done in seven months like pushing off for the ‘Cody Cutter’, not sure if your foot’s there. But, I think the thing I missed the most is the thing it took me longest to get. I love this audience and some people think it’s try-hard or fake emotions. This is a real story. I don’t know how I stumbled onto this. I have the privilege but also the burden of I don’t play a character. I’m me and me was enough tonight… I popped my eardrum but I don’t care but gosh, just a wonderful Royal Rumble and like I said, the Rhodes don’t have any frame of reference on going to WrestleMania in terms of going on last in a big, big spot. So I’m proud to be able to say I’m the one to do it.
After the bout, one of the people that Rhodes chatted with was Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque. He touched on what that meant to him and said he ’caused a lot of trouble’. He does not regret that trouble, but maybe regrets some of the ways he went about things.
Triple H saying he’s proud of me, that means a lot because I caused a lot of trouble and I don’t regret the trouble but maybe I regret some of the ways I handled it and to be able to be under his tutelage for that moment and not blow it, felt good.
While Rhodes entered at #30, opposite of him in the final two was Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER who entered at number one. Rhodes spoke highly of GUNTHER and recalled knowing how good he was when he saw him wrestle in wXw Germany.
That guy’s mean, damn (Rhodes said about GUNTHER). When I went on my excursion, I went to wXw [Germany], I watched GUNTHER work, I watched him compete in the main event and I knew and I just had this conversation with another one of my peers, I got blood in my mouth right now and I like that. There’s something about being in the ring that you like a little bit of the pain. I think maybe a little of GUNTHER was a good thing but, my God, I needed to rest up. This one’s (pec) already been ripped and I can’t lose this one. That guy has a massive, massive, massive future and a present as well.
POST Wrestling is live for patrons with a review of the Royal Rumble event and that can be watched/heard here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WWE on FOX with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
