Cody Rhodes on Feeling "Stuck" After Losing to Roman Reigns, Not Expecting The Fan Outrage After WrestleMania 39

WWE's decision to have Roman Reigns retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Cody Rhodes in the main event of WrestleMania 39 has remained one of the most widely-debated topics in the pro wrestling world over the past few months. Rhodes gave a number of interviews this week offering his thoughts on the match and the fallout while promoting the premiere of his upcoming documentary, American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes. After being cheated out of the victory by Solo Sikoa and Paul Heyman, Rhodes' attention was immediately diverted the following night when Brock Lesar viciously attacked him to close out Monday Night Raw. Rhodes has been in a feud with "The Beast" ever since, likely culminating in a tiebreaker match at SummerSlam next month, but is no closer to winning the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

In a new interview with Sports Illustrated's Jimmy Traina, Rhodes admitted he still feels "stuck" in that moment after WrestleMania when he lost to "The Tribal Chief." He then said his main goal is to move on from Lesnar after SummerSlam and get back to chasing that title. 

"I feel you have moments in your career where you get stuck in them, whether they're so good or whether they're so low, that you get stuck in these moments," Rhodes said (h/t F4WOnline). "It's not unlike if you have a traumatic experience in your personal life. For me, I felt, and I still do three months removed, very stuck. In that there was a very long period of time where I was sitting in the ring. I knew I was sitting in the ring and knew I had lost. I'm watching people not leave. They're looking at me. They're looking at me and they're either frustrated, they're sad for me, they're mad at me. But you usually see at the end of the night some people heading for the aisles. They're going to beat traffic, something. We were just stuck. And I knew we were filming me. And the internal monologue I had when I saw my family at ringside, then I saw some of the most diehard fans fully decked out in every piece of merch for me they could have possibly bought, the internal monologue was really just telling myself to get up. And then I wanted to make a point that I was not going to walk what we call 'loser lane.' I'm going to walk all the way back up this 70-yard ramp and I want to feel every bit of this loss."

"And then my world filled up right the next day, I jump into the thing with Brock Lesnar," he later added. "So again, I feel like I'm stuck. I'm stuck there. I'd love SummerSlam to be the moment that's like, 'Hey, moving forward. Hopefully defeating Brock Lesnar. Moving forward.' And without saying anything. Without doing the old 'this little number' around the waist. Let them know, the thing I came back for, we're still on the path. We're still on the path. And I want to be confident about it in the best of ways because you rode with me all the way to WrestleMania in Los Angeles and hopefully they can ride with me to wherever it is and wherever we go next."

Cody Rhodes on the Fan Backlash to His WrestleMania 39 Loss

Rhodes also stated elsewhere in the interview that he was surprised by the vocal outrage on social media immediately following his loss to Reigns. It got to the point where company officials told him not to go on social media.

"I was surprised at how pissed people were," Rhodes said. "And I was surprised that a lot of managerial people in the company reached out to me, checking on me, and also reached out to me to let me know like, 'Don't go online. Don't go online.' And I didn't even think to go. It's such an incredibly busy week, there are so many emotions in that experience, I got my family with me at the time, I lost in front of them, which is another level of embarrassment. I didn't even think to go online. Just the fact that they were preparing me and like battening down the hatches for, 'This is shaky, people are really frustrated.' That surprised me. That surprised me a lot."

WWE SummerSlam 2023 Card & Rumored Matches

• Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso (Tribal Combat Rules)
• World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor
• SmackDown Women's Championship: Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Bianca Belair 
• Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar 
• Ronda Rousey vs. Shayna Baszler
• Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs. Drew McIntyre
• Ricochet vs. Logan Paul 
• Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus (Yet to Be Confirmed)