Cody may not commit to retiring at 40-years old like he originally planned.
Cody Rhodes made his triumphant return to WWE during night one of WrestleMania 38, which saw 'The American Nightmare' step foot back in a WWE ring for the first-time in over seven years. Following his shocking return, Rhodes made the rounds with the media, including WWE's post-WrestleMania media scrum [via Denise Salcedo], where addressed a number of topics regarding his re-debut, including if he's still sticking to his guns on his past comments on wanting to retire from in-ring competition at the age of 40.
"40, it was for me, I don't know if we ever explained why 40. 40 was because, I didn't want to be an old man wrestler," Rhodes explained. "Some guys like being old men and women wrestlers, they love it. Some of them are doing it at the highest level, you don't know they are old. This is something people forget about me; I started in the WWE system at 19, 20, and I was on the road full time, never one weekend off, except when I tore my trap and that was three weeks, that's where the mustache came from. That was the only time I ever had off in the ten years I was with WWE, that's all live events. No knock on Independent wrestling, that's maybe two shows a month, one big loop, for me it was Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, often. The kicker was, I was a bad guy. It's a lot of falling down and a lot on your body. I didn’t want to have to saddle walk or not be able to pick up my kid. There's the best medical team here (and) where I just was. Tom Brady is like 80 and he's still the GOAT. Maybe 40 isn't the number anymore, but that's probably still out there for me because it'd be fun. I loved watching my dad wrestle when he was older, but it's hard. It's like a 36-year-old going on 50, that's what it feels like with the schedule I had. So, I don't know, I think I'm going to get away from absolutes. I was the king of absolutes for the last six years and a lot of them coming back to bite me in the ass, which is fine. We change our minds. Maybe, maybe 40.”
Rhodes turns 37, this June and confirmed that he and WWE reached a 'multi-year agreement' prior to his return.
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