Cody Rhodes on if He Has Faced Enough Adversity, Why He Didn’t Call Out Roman Reigns for Cheating at WrestleMania 39 (Exclusive)

Cody Rhodes failed to win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 39 against Roman Reigns last month. Since then, fans have made a number of arguments to try and make sense of the booking decision, and comments made by the likes of Paul Heyman and “Road Dogg” Jesse James have fueled the notion that, somehow, Rhodes didn’t face enough “adversity” en route to the WrestleMania 39 main event. Fans have also criticized “The American Nightmare” for not calling out Reigns for the way he retained his title, which involved a heavy amount of interference from Paul Heyman, The Usos and Solo Sikoa. Rhodes addressed both of those topics in a new interview with ComicBook this week. 

Regarding the loss, Rhodes said, “Reacting to losing at WrestleMania, here we are, the most profitable WrestleMania of all time, the most important show ever involved, this collective thing that fans love, and to be able to be in the main event. So many people looked at it and tried to sell me that that was a win in itself and it’s not how I feel. 

“A win, not to be redundant, is a win and a loss is a loss. I haven’t gone on TV talking about the nature of how I lost because I think it’s whining and I think everybody saw it. We saw it, we lived it, we breathed it,” he continued.

He then talked about the notion of adversity, taking a shot at Heyman’s propensity to try and get an emotional reaction out of Rhodes — “I think Mr. Heyman lives on the wild side in a sense when you hear things like ‘earn it,’ ‘(he) hasn’t had enough adversity,’ I can’t wait until my documentary comes out. It’s very ironic in terms of juxtaposing the documentary and the amount of adversity in it, some people may not know about, particularly getting back to WWE, and then Mr. Heyman’s comments. The goal is the same, (which) is the best way to put it. The goal is the same for me as a sports entertainer, as a wrestler, I came here wanting one thing. It doesn’t mean other stories won’t happen that will also be finished and it doesn’t mean there aren’t other milestones — we’re talking about good things like video game covers, things like that today — but the important thing to me is still the championship on Roman’s shoulders and it’s the biggest match that WWE could do, but it would take a great deal of mountains to be moved for that rematch to even happen. The goal is the same for me, I just have to see it through and do the work.”