Cody Rhodes Practiced Near Elimination Spots By Himself Prior To Royal Rumble
Cody Rhodes has revealed that going into the Royal Rumble, he decided to practice some near-elimination spots to make sure an accident didn’t happen.
In his first match since June 2022 when he wrestled with a torn pectoral muscle, Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Men’s Royal Rumble on January 28th. Cody entered at #30 and found a way to beat Gunther, who entered the match at #1 and spent over one hour in the ring.
It was the biggest win of Cody’s WWE career to date, which now sets him up for a WrestleMania 39 match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship held by Roman Reigns. Before that, Reigns will have to defend his two titles against Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber on February 18th.
During his appearance on the Impaulsive podcast with Logan Paul, Cody Rhodes talked about how he prepared for his Royal Rumble return by practicing near-elimination spots by himself at the Nightmare Factory gym he owns in Georgia.
“So I’d rather wrestle one hour with you and I and have not discussed the thing than I would an eight minute something where I’m [all] details. Plus, there’s people in the rumble, you got dinged. Gunther has been out there for an hour. Like, we’re in a territory where like, they’re counting. It was great, right?”
“I want to play quarterback. I want to be in the big game. So this was the moment like, nothing can miss. Absolutely nothing missed. I was at my school, this is how nervous I was. I was at my school last week running to the ring and sliding in, running to the ring and sliding and running around the other ring and sliding and just, I can’t fall, I can’t fall. Especially if you’re a babyface and you fall.”
As he continued, Cody talked about how he would literally throw himself over the top rope so that he could get used to holding onto the ropes to make sure he didn’t fall during the Rumble match.
“And then I would throw myself over and grab on I literally, security cams my one buddy who owns the gym, QT (Marshall). I said you got to check the security footage. I’m in there just throwing myself over. There’s nobody in there.”
Cody Rhodes also shared that his mother warned him about not getting too close to being eliminated.
“My mom who’s uh, you know, every now and then I forget. She’s like a genius wrestler, even though she was never a wrestler just because she’s around it. But she’s like, I can’t believe you risk that, putting your feet that close. could have blown it. Yeah, yeah, I could have mom but like, I’m a pro.”
Following his Royal Rumble win, Cody Rhodes won his first Raw match of 2023 on January 30th when he defeated Finn Balor in the main event.
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