Kevin Owens made an appearance on WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves to discuss a wide range of topics.
During it, Owens discussed Cody Rhodes leaving AEW in February and returning to WWE at WrestleMania 38 where he would beat Seth Rollins in his first match in the company in six years.
“I’m so proud of Cody. When he was here, he and I got close pretty quickly. Then he left and that really sucked for me. I have people in this business that are really more like brothers to me than friends. It’s not everybody, but there’s a few people out there that I consider more like family. Cody’s one of them.”
“So when he left, it was a blow to me because I figured, look, we’re going to be so busy, we’re barely ever going to see each other, which is true. We saw each other once or maybe twice the whole time he was gone. When he was going out on his own, he was doing it because he felt this was best for him. He didn’t feel like he was being given the chance to be what he could be in WWE, so he decided to bet on himself and leave.”
“The only thing I did was he asked me for some sort of guidance because he had never been on the independent scene before, and I gave him The Young Bucks numbers. I told them you guys take care of this guy, and look what happened? They really changed the industry. They did. There’s no denying it. Cody went out and did that. He didn’t do it himself. He had a lot of help from a lot of people, but he was an integral part of that.”
“Then he came back here, which I don’t know as much, but I think that was always his ultimate goal. As he was doing it, as things were progressing, his mindset might have changed at some point and he probably didn’t see himself coming back at one point because he was doing so well. But then whatever happened, I don’t really know. The opportunity presented itself for him to come back here. He was able to do it and come back and look how he came back. Huge spot on WrestleMania. He’s been featured on RAW as a top star since. He’s working with the top talent. That’s what he wanted when he left. So he went out and did it and he came back this way. That’s really incredibly admirable. There’s something to be said about that. So I’m really proud of him, and yeah, I think it’s great to have him back.”
H/T to
WrestlingNews.co for the transcription