Cody Rhodes Admits Vince McMahon Lawsuit A Dark Cloud Over WWE
When Cody Rhodes was asked a Vince McMahon question after the Royal Rumble, he gave an interesting response.
For the second year in a row, Cody Rhodes won the Men’s Royal Rumble match. Cody entered the match at #15, eliminated four wrestlers and lasted 43:21 in the match, which was the second longest after Jey Uso’s time of 50:55 in the match.
The final two came down to the biggest favorites: CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. The two men battled for several minutes with near eliminations for both of them before Cody managed to get out of a GTS attempt by Punk that led to Cody tossing Punk over the top to get the win.
In the days leading up to the Royal Rumble, there was some major news about the now-former WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported about a lawsuit by a woman named Janel Grant claiming Vince sexually assaulted her numerous times and used her for sex trafficking purposes. This lasted for several years. Vince got Janel to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, but when Vince stopped paying the money agreed to in the NDA, Grant made things public.
On Friday, while WWE Smackdown was on the air, Vince McMahon quit his role as TKO Executive Chairman due to sponsors like Slim Jim wanting to remove their association with the company. After Vince resigned, Slim Jim went on to sponsor the Royal Rumble as planned.
At the post-Royal Rumble press conference, Cody was asked about the Vince McMahon lawsuit allegations while admitting he didn’t know about it before it was made public.
“I know as far as the news is concerned, we were finding out and reading the same things you guys were reading. You said a dark cloud, certainly. As far TKO, Nick Khan, and the board, clearly took it very seriously, acted immediately, and looking at the future, I don’t know the answer to that and I think somewhere is a really probably basic tenant of this crew, more than ever, from a roster standpoint, is very family. Never seen anything like this.”
“Most of the time, wrestling locker rooms are fighting, talking trash about each other, making fun of each other, sandbagging each other in the ring and all that nonsense. This crew is very team-based. Perhaps that’s the ingredient, everyone looking out for everyone, being accountable.”
“For me as a performer, I’ve been through dark periods on our industry. It might sound cheesy, but it’s very reinforcing if you’re in my position, that it’s a time when, ‘Hey, we have 50,000 people out here, I want to give them something else from this weekend that isn’t a terrible situation, terrible news.’ I think we were able to do that. Obviously, as more news comes out, we’ll be seeing it like you do.”
Cody Rhodes Intends To Finish His Story At WrestleMania 40
In the main event of WrestleMania 39, Cody Rhodes challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. After winning the 2024 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes made it clear he was coming after Roman Reigns, who was watching the Men’s Rumble match from a skybox.
“I feel like everyone knew that, right? I’m very glad he decided to take the sky box seat. It could make it really clear where we’re at. All due respect in the world to Seth Rollins. That title gains more prestige every single day, but WrestleMania 39 did happen.
If you’re me, you can’t look at that and you can’t run from it. I want to be back in the ring with Roman Reigns and I want to finish the story.”
WrestleMania 40 takes place on April 6th and April 7th at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.