In the full, unedited version of his highly anticipated interview on the Bill Simmons podcast, Cody Rhodes provided an in-depth and emotional look at the journey that took him from a frustrating exit from WWE to co-founding AEW and his eventual triumphant return. He spoke about the “volatile” anger that fueled him, the key people who helped start a revolution, and the surprising meeting with Vince McMahon that brought him home.
Cody Rhodes on His Motivation for Leaving WWE
Cody Rhodes began by reflecting on his first departure from WWE. He explained that he was driven by a powerful desire to prove his worth to the company that he felt had overlooked him. He wanted to make so much noise on the outside that WWE would have to recognize what they had lost.
“I woke up every day thinking, ‘I want them to know what I could have done. I want them to know what I could have done,’” Rhodes said. “Which is why it’s fun to talk about now, because they came back and got me. Which wasn’t on my — that was never part of the master plan.”
He linked up with other like-minded, driven individuals who were feeling the “underground elements” of a wrestling revolution: The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. He credits Kevin Owens for connecting them all, and that combination of his name equity and their skills, mixed with a shared anger, “set up a situation that couldn’t fail.”
The Unintentional Influence of Triple H
Rhodes also pointed to an unlikely source of inspiration for the movement that would become AEW: Paul “Triple H” Levesque. He explained that Triple H’s work in NXT at the time, which involved signing all the top independent stars, had fundamentally changed the wrestling landscape. It was no longer about tenure, but about who had the “hot hand.” This new reality inspired Cody and his friends to become the “hot hand” themselves.
“Triple H doesn’t realize he’s a big part of this. Because at NXT, he’s bringing in every good hot gun off the independents,” Cody explained. “So it was a matter of like, “Well, let’s — I’m going to be the hot hand, and I don’t know if I’m going to come back with it. What are we going to do?’ And you know, we’re off to the races with it at that point.”
The Meeting That Brought Him Home
After his successful and revolutionary run in AEW, Cody eventually felt it was time for a change. He described a meeting he took with Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard, which he initially thought would just be a chance to get closure and thank them for the lessons they had taught him. He had left WWE on “crazy bad terms” and wanted to mend those fences.
“That’s all I thought it was going to be, a sense of closure. A real sense of, ‘Thank you so much for the lessons I never got to thank you for,’” he recalled. “Then it turned into be something else by the end of that meeting.”
That meeting, of course, led to his historic return to WWE at WrestleMania 38, a move he says was never part of his original plan but has led to the most successful run of his career. He expressed immense gratitude for being back, stating that he got to be in the matches that broke the attendance records set by legends like Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin. “I got the quarterback spot at a company where I was last in the combine,” he said. “I am very grateful.”
