Cody Rhodes' greatest moment happened at WrestleMania XL but it's not winning the Undisputed WWE Championship
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes recently revealed what he considers the greatest moment of his career. He claimed that although it happened at WrestleMania XL, it was not the moment he won the title.
The American Nightmare captured the world championship at this year's Show of Shows after defeating Roman Reigns, ending The Tribal Chief's historic title run of 1,316 days. Their 'Bloodline Rules' match saw interference from several WWE legends, including John Cena, The Rock, and The Undertaker.
In an interview with the Behind The Turnbuckle podcast, Rhodes was asked about "the greatest moment of his career." The American Nightmare stated that it was a moment he shared with Cena at WWE WrestleMania XL, pointing out that he was a student of the 16-time world champion, whom he lavishly praised as someone who had been the ideal ambassador for WWE and the sport itself.
"Well, I think it's probably really easy for me to say WrestleMania 40 itself both nights. But there's a particular moment at WrestleMania 40 that will stick with me forever. It's not the 1-2-3 necessarily as much as, I was really a big under the learning tree and student of John's of Cena's. [...] I liked his model as a businessman, as a babyface character in wrestling. But more than that I liked the model and the standard he set as a human being, as a good ambassador for wrestling, as an authentic ambassador. Our fans can smell when this is not authentic. And he just was the right person for that job," he said.
The Undisputed WWE Champion recalled having made momentary eye contact with The Leader of the Cenation while the latter was off camera, as he was about to finish Reigns. He claimed he learned more from that moment than any other in his career.
"And anyways, we're in the ring and Undertaker and Rock have now had their moment and John is off camera against the back wall watching the end of Roman and I as we're both coming up. And I just got to make eye contact with John. And I don't think I've ever learned anything more in my life than just the moment of eye contact with the captain, the leader, the dude, and he's out here to be part of this for me, like even now it's super touching. But having that moment with him, just a brief little contact with him, knowing where I'm about to turn around and what's about to happen, that's the high of highs," admitted Rhodes. [50:14 - 52:02]
You can check out the Undisputed WWE Champion's comments in the video below:
Cody Rhodes wishes he had a better relationship with another top WWE star
Cody Rhodes is currently feuding with AJ Styles after the latter viciously attacked him on SmackDown last week. On Friday, the two had a confrontation on the blue brand, which saw the American Nightmare accepting to put his title on the line against The Phenomenal One at WWE Clash at the Castle: Scotland in an I Quit match.
In a recent interview with WHAS11, the Undisputed WWE Champion stated that he wished he had a better relationship with the leader of The O.C., disclosing that he looked up to him growing up.
"I wish AJ [Styles] and I had a better, you know relationship. You hear the story all the time about how Michael Jordan didn't wanna play Dr. J, not because he was his hero, because he didn't wanna embarrass him. And that's really what I wanted to say to AJ before we had our first match at Backlash because this was a guy I looked up to coming from Georgia and his whole run, especially what he did overseas with New Japan and everything that made AJ Styles," he said.
Rhodes successfully defended his world title against The Phenomenal One at Backlash France. It would be interesting to see if their face-off at Clash at the Castle: Scotland would end in a different result.
Do you think AJ Styles can dethrone Cody Rhodes at Clash at the Castle: Scotland? Hit the Discuss button and sound off.
Please credit Behind The Turnbuckle and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling if you use the above transcription.