Cody Rhodes still has a point to prove to Roman Reigns.
Cody Rhodes may have lost to Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 39 but he persisted, he continued fighting, and now, he will wrestle Roman Reigns one more time for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WWE WrestleMania XL.
Speaking about his persistence, Cody Rhodes explained to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour that he had to stay with WWE and he owes it to the fans to finish his story and defeat Roman Reigns to capture the championship that has alluded his family for decades because Roman Reigns tried to call his bluff and say that he would run away if he lost.
"We did a SmackDown segment, it was a face-to-face with Roman and I. I remember him specifically saying. ‘What happens if you don’t win? Are you going to run away like you did the last time?’ There were two things he said. I remember him saying, ‘You started a company you couldn’t get over in.’ I remember, I don’t want to use the word over, but my popularity was one of the reasons that company was ever created," he said of AEW. "The thing about ‘are you going to run away?’ It hurt, and when the impulse, or the thought of ‘what if I did? What if I’m the laughing stock of the industry and I decided to hightail oh he reference did he is what happened it again and do something radical or disruptive.’ It felt like it was the time in my life to, forget about WrestleMania, from that moment on.
"It seemed like a call to action for me. A true real call to action," he continued. "This is the guy, the most important wrestler of my generation and he’s asking me, and telling me at the same time what he thinks is going to happen. I’d like to prove him wrong. It was very much a year of proving him wrong and the cherry on top, being the first guy since Steve Austin to go back-to-back at Royal Rumble. That to me was, ‘I kept them. I kept the people who were with me at WrestleMania 39.’ Not only kept them, but we’ve grown and grown. Even if I didn’t believe, these fans believed so much that they turned away The Rock for me to have a shot at finishing the story. This is a fan-created WrestleMania. I owe it to them to finish the story."
For more on why Cody Rhodes never considered returning to AEW before he signed an extension with WWE, read his comments at this link.
Cody Rhodes, however, does feel like WWE WrestleMania XL may be his last chance to become the WWE Champion. Read his thoughts on that matter here.
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