Nearly one month into Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE, the former AEW Executive Vice President is still making big headlines.
It was announced on Friday that Rhodes will join Steve Austin on the Broken Skull Sessions next week. Everyone is expecting some serius discussion during that appearance on why he chose to return WWE.
That topic also came up when Rhodes appeared on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast this week. Rhodes revealed during the conversation that there was a surprising name who helped convince him that a return to WWE was the right move: Matt Cardona.
“A very small circle of people when this initially was brought to me knew, and I told him (Cardona) everything, every detail, everything. And I was really legitimately expecting him to go ‘don’t do it, don’t,’ and man, he went completely the opposite way. He was of your train of thought, Corey, of that’s the ultimate undeniable comeback and land in the fashion that you did. And he inadvertently set all of this in motion. I really thought he was going to say go the other way but man no, he was gung ho (about a WWE return),” Cody revealed.
Cody Rhodes On Concerns Over His WWE Return
Additionally, Rhodes revealed that it was Diamond Dallas Page who was more skeptical of his decision to return to WWE. Rhodes recalled a deep conversation he had with the WWE Hall of Famer prior to this decision.
“I think there was one person that was concerned and that was DDP. He came over to my house, and downstairs we have the Nightmare Bar. He came down there, and I just got one of these Bartesians where you get the instant cocktails and I was really excited to show him the light margaritas. And he drank all the ones that I had in stock, and over the course of the six or seven margaritas he kept slamming down, he was just really tensive.
“He brought up a good point: The last time I did something major leaving the WWE, he was of the same thought process. ‘Well if you believe, if you’re confident, then I’ll be confident with you and confident for you.’ And he gave me some tips on people to speak to and people to let things know before it all went down.
“He was the only one who was a little bit more fatherly and like, ‘Okay, let’s make sure this is really what you want and not just a knee-jerk thing.’ For the most part, everyone who knew in that very small circle was like absolutely go do it, absolutely, which surprised me.”
Rhodes will face Seth Rollins next weekend at WWE WrestleMania Backlash, a rematch from WrestleMania 38 where Rhodes returned to the company and defeated Rollins. The two friends have been working this story on television, while Rhodes has also recently mixed it up with another long time good friend: The Miz.
Should Rhodes emerge victorious at WrestleMania Backlash, it will be interesting to see which direction they take his character next. He seems like a logical contender for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship in the not-so-distant future.
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