“It Didn’t Feel Like a Meeting Until the Last 30 Seconds”: Cody Rhodes Breaks Silence on How Vince McMahon Overwhelmed Him After Flying to His Residence in 2022

The American Nightmare has had quite a long-standing association with the WWE. He started with them in 2006 and continued all the way up to 2016. During this period he became the Intercontinental Champion twice and also won the tag team Championship six times. But in spite of such an illustrious record, he left the WWE because of a lack of direction.

He later joined AEW where he served as the Executive Vice President from 2019 to 2022. He had great success at AEW, as he won the inaugural AEW TNT Championship, a title he would win 3 times in total during his AEW career. But in spite of all this success, one personal visit from the man in command at the WWE changed everything for Rhodes.

Vince McMahon once personally flew to Cody Rhodes to ask him to come back to the WWE

Vince Mcmahon‘s business acumen has been on display multiple times over the years. Numbers aside, McMahon is known to have a soft spot for WWE wrestlers. The emotional hug McMahon gave to The Undertaker during his Hall Of Fame induction in 2022 is an example of this.

The legendary businessman once went out of his way to personally meet Cody Rhodes to ask him to join the WWE once again. Rhodes recalled that meeting in a recent interview. According to him, it never really felt like a meeting until the final 30 seconds. Because McMahon spoke to Rhodes in the most positive and friendly manner.

Rhodes mentioned, “I remember going in to talk to him, i wasn’t afraid of anything, and i was over compensating, because both Vince and Bruce were so welcoming and so positive about what i had done. The fact that they knew what i had done and actually were citing different things, like, ‘i saw this, i saw this’.I just couldn’t believe it.

He further mentioned how they talked about being fathers, which shows how McMahon engaged with the wrestler on a personal level. Rhodes recalled, “He’s talking to me about what it’s like to be a dad for a daughter and how special it is, it was just beautiful and then in the last 20 seconds of the meeting, ‘Well Seth Rollins at Wrestlemania’, that’s where the only business came up. It didn’t feel like a meeting until maybe the last 30 seconds.”

Read more: 4 Years After Slamming WWE’s Attitude Era in His AEW Promo, Cody Rhodes Breaks Silence With an Honest Confession: “We Had a Good One That Day”

Vince McMahon has always been very supportive of talent and hard work. The same is seen in the case of ‘The American Nightmare’. Rhodes later went on to make a return at WrestleMania 38 after a 6-year absence from the WWE. He won that match after delivering three Cross Rhodes and even paid tribute to his late father Dusty Rhodes by performing the ‘Bionic Elbow’ on Seth Rollins.

Although Rhodes’ return was glorious, the wrestler is yet to win a WWE Championship.

Cody Rhodes had returned to The WWE to win a Championship belt

After his assertive win against Rollins at Wrestlemania 38, Rhodes appeared on very the next episode of Raw. He emotionally told fans that he had only returned to win his ‘holy grail’, the WWE Championship belt, something his father couldn’t do in his entire career. But his prayers were answered as he was given the opportunity to face The Tribal Chief at Wrestlemania 39 for the then WWE Universal Championship.

But multiple interferences by The Bloodline cost him the match. This left his fans and family equally shocked. They thought Rhodes would be the new champion that night after all the turmoil he went through.

On his last appearance on Logan Paul’s ‘IMPAULSIVE’ podcast, he clearly expressed that he wants the ‘Undisputed WWE Universal Champion’. He is even praying that he gets another title shot at WrestleMania 40.

Do you guys think Cody Rhodes will ever win a championship in the WWE?

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