Cody Rhodes punched his ticket to WrestleMania XL by emerging victorious in the 2024 men’s WWE Royal Rumble Match.
The victory cemented Rhodes as the fourth wrestler to win back-to-back WWE Royal Rumble matches, alongside the likes of Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
During the post-show media scrum, Rhodes explained how surreal it is for him and CM Punk to be back in WWE following their respective AEW departures.
Rhodes also discussed his aim to challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed Universal Championship at WrestleMania for a second year in a row.
The American Nightmare failed to dethrone The Tribal Chief at WrestleMania 39.
You can check out some highlights from the media scrum below:
On wanting to be back in the ring with Roman Reigns: “All due respect to Seth Rollins, that title gains more prestige everyday, but WrestleMania 39 did happen, and if you’re me, you can’t look at that, you can’t run from it. I don’t know, WrestleMania 40, Monday Night RAW, SummerSlam, Elimination Chamber. I want to be back in the ring with Roman Reigns, and I want to finish the story. I detest the statement now because apparently everybody has a story. Punk wanted a story. Drew’s got a story. Everybody’s got a story. But a big part of me, I’m very big on keeping my word. So if I say something silly in the ring, but it’s a promise, I intend to keep the promise. I don’t know if two times the charm with Roman, we’ll see, but finish the story hopefully by the 2K25, just because I don’t think they will put me on the cover if I don’t get it done.”
On he and CM Punk being back in WWE after leaving AEW: “It’s funny that we meet back here. Really. When we were at AEW, I thought we would encounter one another there, and it didn’t happen for whatever reason. It didn’t happen. But I think both he and I have different personal experiences. Don’t believe anything that Wade Keller put out on why I left, nobody knows. Personal thing. And probably a personal thing for Punk, and that happens, people come and go, it’s not a huge thing. But to see him tonight, and to see Miz, and to see Kofi, those were my guys. The first OVW show I walked into, Brent Albright vs. CM Punk was the main event, and Punk was also running the whole show, he made me setup the ring, and to see that, sometimes you want another person you admire and respect to stop looking at you as the kid and look at you and see who you are now, and I think tonight he got to see who I am now and that means a lot to me. He’s amazing, could have gone either way, I look forward to what he does in WWE.”
