Cody Rhodes, with a complete tear of the right pectoral tendon, addressed the crowd after last night’s win over Seth Rollins at WWE Hell In a Cell.
As noted, word came out over the weekend that Rhodes suffered a torn pec while weight training this past week, which forced him to be pulled from Saturday’s Street Fight against Rollins at the WWE live event in Champaign, IL. He still appeared for an angle with Rollins at the show, but word went around backstage that he was injured. It was then reported on Sunday afternoon that Rhodes would still work the Hell In a Cell match. WWE then announced on the Hell In a Cell Kickoff pre-show that Rhodes was injured. WWE claimed Rhodes suffered a partial tear during last Monday’s RAW brawl with Rollins, but then the tendon completely tore off the bone while Rhodes was weight training on Friday. WWE also noted at that point that Rhodes insisted he was still going to compete. It should be noted that the original reports said nothing about Rhodes’ being injured in the RAW brawl, only during weight training. It’s likely that they just blamed the initial partial tear on the RAW brawl to build up the storyline. The original reports indicated Rhodes was fine until he suffered the injury during weight training.
Rhodes ended up working a near-25-minute Hell In a Cell match with Rollins, picking up the win. The crowd in Chicago, and fans watching at home, were shocked when Rhodes’ removed his ring jacket to reveal a nasty, deep bruise on his arm and across his chest. This created for several moments during the match that were also hard to watch, but many felt like Rollins and Rhodes delivered in a big way, all things considered. After the match, Rhodes dropped to his knees, kissed the match and said “thank you” before getting back up to his feet. Hell In a Cell went off the air with Rhodes raising his fist in the air and yelling out to the crowd.
In an update, Rhodes took the mic after the show went off the air, and spoke to the crowd inside the Allstate Arena near Chicago.
Rhodes said he likely will explain things further on tonight’s RAW, but he assured everyone that it was his decision to wrestle the match, despite the injury. It had been reported earlier on Sunday that Rhodes insisted on wrestling.
“I’m sure I’m gonna explain things a little further tomorrow [on RAW], so I’ll be very brief. No one convinced me, with a torn pec, to come out here. It was solely my decision. You would have to literally kill me from staying away from this ring. Ten times out of ten, I would have made the same decision,” Rhodes said in his post-match speech.
Rhodes went on to thank the fans for attending Hell In a Cell.
WWE has not officially announced Rhodes for RAW as of this writing, but we will keep you updated. There is also still no timetable for Rhodes’ return, but he could end up needing 6-12 months of recovery time for a complete tear. We should know more soon.
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more on Rhodes. You can click here for our detailed Hell In a Cell report, and click here for several photos & clips from the main event. Below is post-show footage of Rhodes speaking to the crowd, along with official WWE clips from the match:
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