‘It Was A Mistake To Say it’ – Cody Rhodes Regrets Telling CM Punk He Didn’t Feel Like A Winner After WrestleMania 42

WWE

Cody Rhodes has addressed his swift comeback after suffering an orbital bone injury at WWE WrestleMania 42, and the regret over his perspective coming out of the event.

In what was his fourth straight WrestleMania as a headline act, Cody Rhodes walked into the main event of WrestleMania 42 Night One as Undisputed WWE Champion and walked out just the same, defeating his long-time friend and former mentor Randy Orton.

While he did leave Las Vegas as champion, he did so a wounded man, suffering an orbital bone injury that saw his eye completely closed shut by the time he walked back through the curtain after the show.

Given how bad Cody’s eye looked, fans expected not to see him for at least a few weeks afterwards, however Rhodes showed up, black eye and all, to the following night’s Raw after WrestleMania, where he ran into one CM Punk.

Speaking with Joe Tessitore in a interview for WWE ahead of this Sunday’s Clash in Italy, Rhodes was asked how important it was to him to return as quick as possible and take up his spot as “QB1” of WWE.

Rhodes replied:

“It felt very important coming just to Monday Night Raw and having an interaction, unexpected at that with CM Punk. It felt very important because, you say QB1, what is QB1? If anything, and maybe the thing I’ve learned that QB1 is the most is consistent.

“There’s always a new flavour of the month right? There’s always some hot new thing and good for it, that’s exciting when the crowd can get behind something or something new shows up. But all my faves, all the QB1s before me, were consistent. They were week in and week out, and now there’s all these jokes about how I’ve really tried to follow the John Cena model. I don’t mind those jokes at all, cause that’s a hell of a model, and I think most people run from it because it means work.

“And I’m also aware of the other QBs in WWE. If their strategy is less is more, if their strategy is more strategic, then I’m not gonna play that game. I’ll do it differently. I’ll be here every week and I’ll see this team every week. It’s not a matter of who’s right or wrong, it’s my preference. So, to be shaken out of my preference would have been very difficult.”

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Rhodes then expressed gratitude to SmackDown’s Ricky Saints and Sami Zayn for stepping up and goading him into returning to in-ring action, something that helped him snap out of his post WrestleMania 42 funk:

“Ricky Saints comes to WWE, debuts coming up from NXT, as much as he did it in a braggadocios, bullish way, and as much as he pulled my card in the way that he did, I needed that. Thank you, Ricky Saints, because that’s the moment that I can say, alright I am cleared, and not only am I cleared, we’re not gonna wait. We’re not gonna do this big presentation and this less is more strategy to it. No, we’ll wrestle right here, we’ll wrestle tonight. Sami found that out as well. So, I appreciate those guys shaking me out of any type of feeling down in the dumps, because I shouldn’t have.”

Further discussing his mentality coming out of WrestleMania 42, Cody revealed his regret at telling CM Punk that he “didn’t feel like a winner” during their meeting on the Raw after WrestleMania 42, despite successfully defending his Undisputed WWE Title against Randy Orton.

Cody continued:

“I left WrestleMania and I even said that to CM Punk, and it was a mistake to say it, that I didn’t feel so much like a winner and I had been. And I need those challengers. I need them. I’m addicted to the top spot. I’m not afraid to tell anybody that. And I needed them to come in when they did.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Cody Rhodes will defend his Undisputed WWE Title against GUNTHER at Clash in Italy 2026 this Sunday, with the match confirmed to be opening the show.

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