Cody Rhodes Reveals When He Was Cleared To Wrestle – Cody Rhodes won the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble, but The American Nightmare had a close call with getting cleared for the matchup.
Rhodes had been out of action since last July with a torn pectoral, but his recovery process looked good and WWE announced his return would happen in the Rumble, where he came in at #30 and managed to eliminate the dominant Gunther to win the match.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani Rhodes revealed that he had not been officially cleared to compete until the day of the show. That and more can be found in the highlights below.
“I went to the Performance Center, I remember I made a joke in AEW about hip toss class, I did a hip toss class.
“Thank God for it, actually, because I worked with…I won’t say one guy’s name because I don’t want to blow his spot up, but I worked with Carmelo Hayes. Joe Gacy was the other guy, I don’t know why I’m not crediting him.
“They were rough with me, they were rugged. It let me feel what I need to feel to know where to get. I can’t wait for their opportunities to come because they are incredible wrestlers and incredible stars.
“That experience, I got partially cleared through that. I was able to do what I want, my wind was good, I was training heavily with PT [physical therapy] and an off-site team that my wife got for me.
“I didn’t really get fully cleared until today. Looked good, and everything was great, but they still had to get in there, grab it, feel on it.
“That’s a wild situation, when you’ve been announced for the Royal Rumble, you’ve seen your shirts and seen the young fans.
“I think it was more of a formality than anything, but it still had me kind of shaking. WWE has been very good to me medically, very good.
“I’ll be in PT for the rest of my life, though. I’ve been there every week and now I have to just do preventive stuff. It changed everything about how I’ve trained.”
Cody Rhodes Reveals When He Was Cleared To Wrestle
