Cody Rhodes looks back on conceding to The Rock.
When Cody Rhodes won the 2024 Men's Royal Rumble, it seemed clear that he would face Roman Reigns in a rematch at WrestleMania 40. However, The Rock returned on the February 2 episode of WWE SmackDown, where Rhodes apparently conceded the WrestleMania match to him. However, fans rallied around Cody and turned on The Rock, so WWE pivoted back to the match between Rhodes and Reigns.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Cody Rhodes looked back on The Rock's return on SmackDown and the aftermath.
"After I had conceded the main event to The Rock, I still thought, ‘I’m going to find my way there.’ I still thought that. It’s one of the reasons I stayed dead silent. I didn’t want to put an opinion on it. I don’t want to get into the backstage details. What was out there is what was out there. I just felt like I was still going to make it. Then, thankfully, literally millions of people made it so that I did get back," Rhodes said.
When asked what The Rock said to him after the conceding spot, Rhodes stated that he would rather let The Rock share that. He noted that it was very touching, but his own reaction to the situation weighed on him in the moment.
"I would rather him tell you. It was something...this is the best answer I can give you. It was something that was extremely touching, but what was being taken away from me was weighing on my mind, that I felt a negative about what was a positive thing being said to me. The Rock can tell you what he said. I’ll leave that for him," Rhodes said.
Rhodes was then asked to describe how he felt after fans turned a match between The Rock and Reigns. He reiterated that he wanted to be quiet, and he expressed how he felt confident that some good would come out of the situation. Cody also noted that Triple H heard the response.
"I just wanted to be quiet. In all the noise, I wanted to be quiet. It might be arrogance, and it might be me being naive; at that point, I felt like, ‘No, I’ve done everything.’ I kept thinking something good is going to happen from this terrible situation. Something good is going to come of it. I talked to Diamond Dallas Page, and he said, ‘No matter what happens, it will be the best thing that has happened to you.’ When you’re a pessimistic like I am, and he’s the most positive human being on the planet, you kind of want to be like, ‘Stop.’ He wasn’t wrong. Imagine had I not been in the WrestleMania 40 main event. The fire would still be burning. It would be completely out of control at this point. We didn’t have to do that because Hunter heard it. He heard what was going on. That was something that was so loud, he had to hear it, and I was lucky to be in that spot," Rhodes said.
Click here to see what Triple H had to say about pivoting on the road to WrestleMania 40.
Check out Corey Graves' comments about The Rock's return to WWE here.
Click here to see what Cody Rhodes had to say about The Rock's heel run.
If you use these quotes, please credit the original source and link back to Fightful with an h/t for the transcription.
