Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes were both seemingly on the path to stardom in WWE with McIntyre being anointed as "The Chosen One" and Rhodes being the son of Dusty Rhodes.
Their respective paths had a fork in the road as both men ended up leaving -- McIntyre was released in 2014, Rhodes requested and was granted, his release in 2016 -- before eventually returning.
McIntyre has found success upon his return as a two-time WWE Champion while Rhodes has his eyes set on the same prize since returning at WrestleMania 38.
"It's about the same [laughs]. It didn't suddenly change like we're extra happy or extra sad," McIntyre told Cultaholic when asked how the locker room is following Cody's return. "Personally, I'm happy to see him back and I know there are a few of us that have been around for a few years that are excited to see Cody back because we're buddies with him and with his talent, he adds to the show and it's cool to see how much he's grown as a performer and as a person. Much like myself, when I was gone from the company, I had to go find who I was as a performer and grew up as a man. Cody has done exactly the same and it's cool. I've seen him before he came back and was aware of that. It's cool to see him back in WWE and I knew, even when he was outside the company, he had that chip on his shoulder like I did and in the back of his mind, 'when I was younger, this was supposed to happen.' As far as we were concerned, I don't know how the company felt about it, but we were supposed to be champions and we never did it. There is always that in the back of your mind. 'What if? What could have been?' I was lucky enough to come back, pull off the big win with the championship a couple of times, plan to get it again, and I know Cody feels the same. He literally did the promo, 'I'm back to win the title my dad never won.' I knew that was something in the back of his mind because we both had very similar experiences with being young and promised the world, but at the same time, it fell on us and we weren't able to finish the job and we had to go away to find ourselves to come back to inevitably to finish that job."
Rhodes is set to face Seth Rollins in a WrestleMania 38 rematch at WrestleMania Backlash.
McIntyre is currently without an opponent for WrestleMania Backlash, but will face Sami Zayn in a cage match on Friday's WWE SmackDown.
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