Sunday night’s WWE WrestleMania XL Night Two event saw brand-new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes take on The Bloodline’s then-Undisputed WWE Universal Champion “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns in a Bloodline Rules Match and end the historic and record-setting 1,316 day title reign of The Tribal Chief.
Rhodes participated in the WrestleMania XL Press Conference immediately following the show and discussed a number of topics, including what finishing the story means to people and why it resonates with them.
Rhodes said, “It’s a great question. I think sometimes if feels like it’s a father-son story. It’s just something that, you know, father-daughter, father-son that people can see and relate to. But then if I’m truly being honest, I think it’s a story of — as much as I and the legacy and I had the last name, I wasn’t born with all the tools. My brother’s 6’4”. You know how pissed I was when I stopped growing? My dad and my sister had just all this charisma. And I think people resonate, that works for them. You can make it to the main event. You can make it to being THE main event. I always wanted to be a winning franchise, if that makes any sense. And at my age and where I’m at in my career, I know that’s not been the story. But I’m very proud of what the story has become.”
“And you asked why it resonates. This is the only answer I really know. Because it’s real. I wanted to be this because at first he wasn’t and I thought he should have been. And then when he passed away, I failed, you know? I didn’t hand it to him. But it became about — I said this earlier… the story was beyond me at that point. And I still felt the need to finish it. I’ve been saying all week… even if I didn’t believe, people believed. So I had to do it.”
On being given his father’s watch:
“I know this isn’t you asked, but something I wanted to share. I came to the back and Bruce Prichard and Triple H, and Nick Khan handed me this [watch], which is the same watch that my dad had, that he pawned so I could go to acting school. So the level of investment and responsibility that the company put in my hands? I hope that I can pay it back and pay it forward 100 times over.”
On what he would say to his father now:
“That’s a great question. If I’m being honest, I think I’d want to say to him that ‘I hope I lived up to your name. And thank you for that name.’ And then I would say, ‘Sorry about the tattoo.’”
You can check out Rhodes’ comments in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
