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.
Says he didn’t get fully cleared to compete until the day of the Rumble:
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.
How WWE have been very good to him medically:
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.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)
