Cody Rhodes has revealed the moment Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson ‘crossed the line’ during their feud, admitting he also pushed things too far with one comment.
Rhodes and Johnson waged war in a furious feud in the build up to WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia earlier this year.
Rhodes currently stands tall in WWE as Undisputed Champion
The pair traded heavy blows, blood and some fairly industrial language on WWE television and Premium Live Events on the way to the company’s biggest annual extravaganza.
It represented The Rock’s return to professional wrestling, and his first genuine wrestling match in over a decade as he teamed with Roman Reigns to meet Rhodes and Seth Rollins on the eve of Rhodes’ challenge to Reigns for the title.
The Hollywood megastar was fully invested in the feud – not least given his new role as a member of the Board of TKO, which is effectively the parent company to WWE following its merger with UFC under that umbrella.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rhodes conceded that Johnson’s new-found authority likely enabled him to push boundaries further than he otherwise might.
Asked whether or not some of The Rock’s words on screen had crossed the line, Undisputed WWE Champion hit back in a flash: “Depends on what line!
“When you’re the Director of the Board, you can do whatever you want. The show is not going off the air, and no one’s getting fired if you do something that’s a little outrageous.
“That gave him free reign to develop into The Final Boss, what he is.”
Rhodes did go on to identify Johnson’s bringing up his sister Teil during an in-ring promo as a moment that made him feel uneasy.
Johnson had raised the subject of his foe’s siblings, calling Rhodes ‘a mistake.’
Recalling that address, Rhodes added: “Line wise, the only line I think he crossed is that he made my sister Teil non canon.
“He mentioned that I have two other siblings, that being Dustin and Kristin who are from my dad’s first marriage… so he’s not wrong, I do have them. He was explaining – it was when he called me ‘a mistake.’
“He made Teil non canon and Teil is the closest that I have, she’s my original best friend.
“So that was a little… I felt bad. I felt bad for her.”
While Rhodes is generally regarded as more easy-going than the hot-headed character of The Rock, even the fan favourite himself ended up agitated at times during the build to Mania.
During one fiery promo, The American Nightmare predicted Rock would end up with ‘little d*** syndrome’ when it came to perform at WrestleMania – a comment he now appears to regret.
“I feel maybe I crossed the line,” he went on to say.
Rock pinned Rhodes at the end of the tag team event of WrestleMania Saturday
“I did a promo where I said he had LDS. I feel like a lot of people liked the interview and got a nice round of applause when I came back through the curtain, but it felt so off-brand for me because we have so many young kids.
“It’s probably good TV, but it did feel a little, I guess, icky in the moment.”
If there was some unease at times and some genuine animosity between Rhodes and Johnson, their feud did at least offer some lighter relief in the form of Cody’s mother getting involved.
It didn’t perhaps come naturally to the women Rock coined the name ‘Mama Rhodes’, with her son saying: “[She] is a person who never wanted to ever be on camera, and now has a security guard in London Heathrow Airport.
“He thought that was a line that was crossed, I feel like that maybe it actually backfired because she’s part of it all.”
