Rhodes would go out of his way to make it happen if the opportunity came up.
July 31st is the date that Cody Rhodes’ new Peacock documentary is premiering. Rhodes has been making the media rounds to promote the documentary and along the way, he sat down with Sam Roberts for an interview.
During their discussion, Rhodes opened up about the line from Kevin Owens in a preview of his documentary. Owens revealed that WWE Executive Chairman, Vince McMahon, flew to Rhodes’ home to meet with him following his exit from AEW.
Rhodes stated that there is no greater reward or assurance that things have paid off than that. He also commented on the responsibility that WWE CEO Nick Khan informed him that he has. Rhodes wants to live up to that responsibility.
Is Kevin (Owens) the one that said he (Vince McMahon) flew to my house? Kevin’s the one?… I feel like that’s a line that’s probably gonna stir up a lot of feelings in people.
Professionally, especially after the last conversation we (Rhodes & Sam Roberts) had at a school in Rahway, New Jersey before a Wrestle Pro show, talking about leaving WWE. Professionally, there can be no other, just reward and self-affirming? Sure. But just assurance that this big gamble which was a far bigger gamble than people realize because they see it now. This big gamble was worth it in that I have good instincts and a good mind and the education I got at WWE and the education I got outside of WWE all applied together, created something that they would want to make their (own) and to Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard and Triple H and Stephanie (McMahon), for all of them to — whether they dislike me and they sit around a table somewhere and make jokes. Whether they have feelings towards what I did that I don’t know about, they went all hands-on-deck in making it even bigger. We can make this even bigger, what you’ve done and that is the most beautiful thing. I get emotional thinking about it because you just didn’t know. When we last talked, how could I have known that I’m gonna do a bunch of stuff? And it’s probably gonna anger a lot of people but it comes from a place of wanting to better the brand that I am myself and the brand that I’m currently in. I was everywhere, literally every show and every opponent I had and gosh, there is nothing more self-affirming. It’s a really good way to put it… But there’s the side of me that’s, that’s amazing. But the real thing is, okay, what do we do next? That’s the real. What do we do next? In five years, how excited will they still be about what do we do next? And that’s the responsibility I have and Nick Khan, I should mention him as well. He’s really big on the responsibility that I have. I never really had it before and now I have that responsibility and I just wanna live up to it.
The main event for night two of WrestleMania 39 was Rhodes challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. Cody discussed how he felt after losing and does not know if what he was feeling was sadness, disappointment or shock.
After having done it (main eventing WrestleMania), you have to win at WrestleMania. You have to win, and I think that’s why I didn’t come out swinging the next day in terms of whining or moaning. There’s a part of the documentary where they got me coming right through the curtain after. That’s a very heavy feeling. I remember feeling like I’d been hit with a hammer right in the chest and just the color had even left my body by the time I got to Gorilla, the Go Position and I don’t know if it’s sadness, disappointment or shock. Shock of this really happened because then sitting there in the ring, I knew I was being filmed, I knew I was being shot and I knew how sad I looked and I was thinking, you gotta get up. In my mind, I was saying, you gotta get up and I was looking out at the crowd and I saw my own family and thinking, okay, they can handle this. They’ve seen everything, they can handle this. But just looking out and seeing our fans just hurt and disappointed at the show they’re not supposed to be hurt and disappointed at was really — I was waiting for a tomato to hit me in the side of the head. I was just like, oof, this is the worst-case scenario. So, as exciting as it is to have my name there as the guy who main evented WrestleMania which happened to be the most profitable WrestleMania of all time, coincidentally (Rhodes laughed). I don’t know. I would love to hopefully — five years from now, ask me a different question. You gotta win at WrestleMania.
Later in the conversation, Arn Anderson’s ‘Glock’ promo was brought up. Rhodes stated that he misses Anderson and thinks WrestleMania 39 may have gone a lot differently if he had Arn with him. Rhodes added that he would move mountains for Anderson to come to his aid one more time.
I miss Arn (Anderson) greatly. I think had I had Arn at WrestleMania, things might have been different (he laughed). He just was a huge positive force for me there and he’s so freakin’ smart about the psychology of a crowd and not enough people go to him. Plenty do, but not enough go to him and say, hey, what about this? Because they don’t want it changed. You don’t have to change it. You should at least hear what he’s thinking though. You got your (Steven) Spielbergs and (Francis Ford) Coppolas and your (Martin) Scoreses and all these people, the cinema meme you notice. Arn really is one of those. He did this at the highest level. People rioting over stuff Arn did in the past and here he is getting famous again. Just in a inappropriate way (referring to Arn’s Glock promo). But, I love Arn, miss him. I would move a lot of things and move mountains if the opportunity came up for Arn to show up and come to my aid one more time.
In December 2022, Arn shared that he’s under contract to All Elite Wrestling for another year-and-a-half.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Notsam Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
