Cody Rhodes discusses his road to the Royal Rumble.
Cody suffered a torn pectoral muscle in the week leading up to WWE Hell in a Cell and his Hell in a Cell match against Seth Rollins. Rhodes would still compete in the match, defeating Rollins inside the cell, and then underwent surgery for the injury.
Video packages ran for weeks to promote the return of Cody and he officially declared for the Royal Rumble on the January 16 episode of WWE Raw.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Rhodes claimed that he had not been fully cleared until the day of the Rumble.
"I went to the Performance Center, I remember I made a joke in AEW about hip toss class, I did a hip toss class. Thank God for it, actually, because I worked with...I won't say one guy's name because I don't want to blow his spot up, but I worked with Carmelo Hayes. Joe Gacy was the other guy, I don't know why I'm not crediting him. They were rough with me, they were rugged. It let me feel what I need to feel to know where to get. I can't wait for their opportunities to come because they are incredible wrestlers and incredible stars. That experience, I got partially cleared through that. I was able to do what I want, my wind was good, I was training heavily with PT [physical therapy] and an off-site team that my wife got for me. I didn't really get fully cleared until today. Looked good, and everything was great, but they still had to get in there, grab it, feel on it. That's a wild situation, when you've been announced for the Royal Rumble, you've seen your shirts and seen the young fans. I think it was more of a formality than anything, but it still had me kind of shaking. WWE has been very good to me medically, very good. I'll be in PT for the rest of my life, though. I've been there every week and now I have to just do preventive stuff. It changed everything about how I've trained," he said.
On January 14, Fightful Select reported that Cody had been working with Gacy and Hayes at the Performance Center.
Cody would enter the Royal Rumble at number 30 and win the match, last eliminating Gunther. He will now challenge for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 39. You can find Cody's comments about winning the Royal Rumble by clicking here.
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