The American Nightmare told Dan LeBatard tension with Rollins almost led to a backstage fist fight.
Cody Rhodes is making the media rounds ahead of challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal championship this weekend at WrestleMania 39. He made a stop today (Mar. 29) on The Dan LeBatard Show.
One of LeBatard’s favorite topics to bring up with pro wrestlers is whether there’s real animosity between people backstage. A few years back, the host even got the famously positive Diamond Dallas Page to snap on him when he repeatedly tried to get Page to talk about his fight with Scott Steiner in the dying days of WCW.
Seeing as DDP is one of Cody’s mentors, that came up during today’s show. Rhodes also worked it into his answer about whether or not he has people he hates behind-the-scenes at WWE these days:
“I almost would say that I like less people than I dislike, and in terms of the backstage setting it’s very — the competition that exists in wrestling, you see that suspension of disbelief on-screen. But backstage it is very, very real in terms of the competition, who’s gonna be on top. For example, who’s gonna headline WrestleMania. So this year being Roman Reigns and myself, it doesn’t make you — it doesn’t garner a lot of friends.
“I think Seth Rollins is the closest I’ve ever had to, backstage that turning into a fist fight in front of all of our peers and upper management. It didn’t happen. Him and I absolutely can’t stand one another, I’d probably try and rip his eyes out and have a situation like DDP and Scott Steiner here.”
While Cody could be exaggerating a bit, this tracks with other things we know. There was lots of talk about real-life tension driving their feud last year, and Rollins is on record about having a hard time accepting he wouldn’t get a main event spot at ‘Mania this year.
Seeing as they did just have a trilogy, and with Seth a babyface now, it should be a while until we get another Rhodes/Rollins feud. But when we do, expect this quote to come up.
You can watch all of Cody’s visit with Dan, Stugotz and the gang here.
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