The 2023 WWE Royal Rumble match was won by Cody Rhodes. Cody discussed his return from injury with Ariel Helwani of BTSport.com, praising WWE executives Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard.
“I was embarrassed, I really was. I was on top of my game. All the measurables of, ‘this is working, we’re selling this, people are tuning in.’ I’m doing it. Then I got hurt bench pressing at my gym. Probably a lot of wrestling was involved in that, but I didn’t know. I was just embarrassed. I’m really sorry. I am. I didn’t want to leave. I had almost a 30-minute match and then had to go get surgery. I was embarrassed. That was one time where I thought, ‘I’m worried now. Maybe I don’t have it.’ Everyone has doubts, even the most confident people. Maybe I didn’t have it. I’ll tell you two people that really kept me in check, Nick Khan and Bruce Prichard. I don’t know why they have reputations. They’ve been nothing but angels to me. Nick and Bruce don’t see Dusty (Rhodes) when they see me, they see me. That’s big. That’s big with me. They kept me on and never told me, ‘You’re going to do this, this is going to happen.’ Just, ‘get better, get well, we need you back, we’re going to go for it,’ but we never talked about what it was. To be able to come back and punch this ticket, Thank God, just have to stay healthy.”
You can check out the interview below:
(h/t to Jeremy Lambert for the transcription)
