The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes made his return to WWE at WrestleMania 38 last year as a surprise opponent of Seth Rollins and sing them he had been treated as a main event star. This is the first time in his WWE career that he is being portrayed as a top star and he is doing an excellent job not doubt.
He is valued so highly by WWE that he even featured on the main event of WWE’s biggest event WrestleMania against the biggest star of the promotion Roman Reigns where he challenged for the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship. But in spite of the being the fan favorite of the match, he lost.
The Road to Redemption: How Cody Rhodes Plans to Break Free from WrestleMania Defeat
It broke the hearts of his fans. But fortunately, he came back pretty stronger after this heart breaking defeat and he is still one of the top stars of Monday Night RAW. He recently explained how he felt stuck between his WrestleMania defeat and what he has planned to do. During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Cody Rhodes explained;
“I feel you have moments in your career where you get stuck in them, whether they’re so good or whether they’re so low, that you get stuck in these moments,” Rhodes said. “It’s not unlike if you have a traumatic experience in your personal life. For me, I felt, and I still do three months removed, very stuck. In that there was a very long period of time where I was sitting in the ring.”
Cody Rhodes Lost To Roman Reigns At WrestleMania 39
“And the internal monologue I had when I saw my family at ringside, then I saw some of the most diehard fans fully decked out in every piece of merch for me they could have possibly bought, the internal monologue was really just telling myself to get up. Was to get up. And then I wanted to make a point that I was not gonna walk what we call ‘loser lane.’ I’m going to walk all the way back up this 70-yard ramp and I want to feel every bit of this loss.”
“And I had to mentally prepare for the amount of, ‘Oh my gosh, but you main-evented WrestleMania.’ ‘Oh dude, you main-evented WrestleMania.’ I kept hearing, ‘You already won.’ And even some of my close friends, I wanted to just jab right in the jaw,” Rhodes admitted. “Like, no. All I found out from main-eventing a WrestleMania is I want to do it again and I have to win. Like it’s a sickness, you know? Like, you got this high and for it to go like that, I can’t accept it. I can’t allow it.”
“And then my world filled up the next day. I jump into the thing with Brock Lesnar,” Rhodes continued. “So again, I feel like I’m stuck. I’m stuck there. I’d love SummerSlam to be the moment that’s like, ‘Hey, move it forward.’ Hopefully defeating Brock Lesnar, and without saying anything, without doing this little number around the wait, let them know the thing I came back for, we’re still on the path. We’re still on the path. And I want to be confident about it in the best of ways because you rode with me all the way to WrestleMania in Los Angeles and hopefully they can ride with me to wherever it is and wherever we go next.”
Cody Rhodes currently involved in a feud with Brock Lesnar which is likely to end at SummerSlam where the duo would face each other for the third time. There are rumours that the feud would end after SummerSlam and Cody would start a new feud for the World Heavyweight title. There are even rumours that a returning Bray Wyatt would start a new feud with American Nightmare.
Credit Sports Illustrated
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.