Cody Rhodes says that he's still building towards the ultimate reaction.
'The American Nightmare' is current receiving some of the best reactions of his entire wrestling career. Rhodes has continued to build on his fanfare since returning from injury in January, as many fans still expect him to dethrone Roman Reigns at some point in the future.
In a new interview with Fightful, Rhodes talked about the reactions he received during the end of his run in AEW, as well as the reactions he's currently receiving in WWE.
"In both places, the reactions were wild. Arthur Ashe Stadium, I remember, in a way you think, ‘this is the coolest thing ever.’ There is this narrative that people want to push that we ‘weren’t trying for that.’ No, we were absolutely trying for that. It was happening and it was fun. I enjoyed it, not to the degree that I enjoy this, because this is times 100. No matter what times in the night when it happens, there is something special when it happens here. I don’t have one that I favor. The thing I favor is still being built, it’s still happening. The ultimate reaction, the ultimate pop, it doesn’t come every night, it comes maybe once. Once in a career, once in a lifetime. That’s what I’m trying to build to."
Rhodes was then asked if he thought his reactions would start to die down after his loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39.
"You always feel a sense of responsibility, but you don’t want to be carny where you’re trying to work them. Working them, you can, but what’s best is to work with the audience. You’re never trying to hoodwink people into believing you’re a bad guy or believing you’re a good guy. That’s like running a political campaign. Just saying it sounds slimly. For me, I just had a lot of confidence. Ego was full, confidence was at an all time high that, I am better than everybody here, and I’m going to bring that in the most positive way I can here and deliver on Monday nights, every week, and hopefully deliver on the big PLEs as often as they come. I had a lot of confidence. The only time my confidence was really rattled was when I tore my pec. I don’t like inconsistency. In my former gig, I barely believed in injuries. You have to believe in them, but you have to have that toil mindset of ‘tape it up and go to the ring.’ I know that’s not the proper mindset, I would not encourage anyone other than me. When that happened, I felt, maybe I’m one of those guys. One of those guys who gets there and ‘maybe it can’t handle it,’ which is why it’s so important that I wrestled. I didn’t want to call out sick. Just the thought of that, my head is spinning. I had to do it."
Elsewhere in the interview, Rhodes talked about returning from injury at the peak of Sami Zayn's popularity. Fans can learn more by clicking here.
Fans can see Fightful's full interview with Rhodes linked above.
