Cody Rhodes is surprised he never crossed paths in any real way with CM Punk during their respective runs in AEW.
“The American Nightmare” spoke about this during the WWE Royal Rumble 2024 post-show press conference on Saturday night.
“It’s funny that we meet back here,” Cody said of himself and Punk. “Really. When we were at AEW, I thought we would encounter one another there. It didn’t happen. For whatever reason, it didn’t happen.”
He continued, “I think both him and I had different personal experiences. Don’t believe anything that Wade Keller put out about why I left or anything like that. The truth is, nobody knows. Personal thing. Probably a personal thing for Punk. That happens. People come. People go. It’s not a huge thing.”
Rhodes also spoke about reuniting with The Miz, Kofi Kingston and Punk and it feeling like his first run in WWE.
“To see [CM Punk] tonight. To see Miz. To see Kofi. Those were my guys,” he said. “First OVW show I walked into, Brent Albright vs. CM Punk was the main event and Punk was also running the whole show, maybe set up the ring. To see that, sometimes you want another person who you admire and respect to stop looking at you as the kid and look at you and see who you are now. I think he got to see who I am now. That means a lot to me. He’s amazing, could have gone either way, I look forward to what he does in WWE.”
Check out the complete post-show press conference from the WWE Royal Rumble 2024 premium live event on Saturday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL. via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.