Cody Rhodes Talks His WrestleMania 38 Return, Decision To Leave AEW, Reveals A&E Is Doing A Documentary On Dusty Rhodes

Following his epic return to WWE at this evening’s WrestleMania 38, the American Nightmare Cody Rhodes spoke with Variety about what his return to the company means, why he decided to depart from AEW, and how excited he is that WWE and A&E will be releasing a documentary on his father, the great Dusty Rhodes. Highlights are below.

How he felt making his WWE return at WrestleMania 38:

Everyone who knows has asked me how I’m feeling, if I’m really excited. The answer I kind of keep giving everybody is it’s just a really heavy feeling. When I first got into wrestling, I was solely in the WWE system, and I had that dream of getting to the top. Then dreams are like rivers, as the Garth Brooks song says, and it veered and it changed. Then we were able to do what we were able to do with AEW and that’s something that I’m very proud of, but to be able to revisit the thing that I set out to do in the first place when I didn’t think I would get that chance is just heavy. Even now, thinking about it is heavy. So yeah, all the feelings — happy, excited, pressure, responsibility, all of it. But I don’t know how I will feel until I’m out there. It just seems like kind of a culmination of my whole career, but I don’t want to jinx it. I don’t want to put any hyperbole there, but it’s the biggest crowd in wrestling. It’s returning as me in something that I built and nobody else built. And that’s the ultimate vindication.

On his AEW departure:

I chose to remain silent about my departure from AEW and I’m going to keep my word on that. There’s no shoot interview. There’s no nefarious tale that’s going to be told. There were all these different theories and none of them are correct. I mean, there were things about money and creative control. They were printed as fact and it’s been a very difficult two months to see that, when the reality is it was just time. It was a personal matter and we couldn’t move past it. I have nothing but respect for Matt [Jackson], Nick [Jackson] and Kenny [Omega]. I’m rooting for Tony Khan. His name is going to be in the history books as someone who helped to bankroll and support this entire alternative and revolution that AEW became but for me, it was just time to to move on. I get an opportunity at my dream, I get another chance at it. And you really can’t leave any stone unturned with that.

Says WWE and A&E will be doing a documentary on his father, Dusty Rhodes:

I also just wanted to share with you because I haven’t been able to share with anyone, I’m really excited that A&E is doing a documentary on my dad. To be able to be the executive producer on it and not have that even be in question and to be able to coordinate people who really were in his life and to tell his story, that’s a big part of this journey as well. To see that and have that crew there as well. Part of his journey is part of mine.