Kevin Owens Says Cody Rhodes & The Young Bucks ‘Changed The Industry’

Being The Elite

WrestleMania 38 Saturday made a lot of headlines in the world of wrestling for multiple reasons. The event saw Cody Rhodes make his return to WWE after six years away following his AEW departure earlier this year.

Then the main event saw ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin wrestle his first match in 19 years, when he defeated Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match.

Owens himself appeared on the ‘After The Bell’ podcast, where he discussed Cody’s return to the company. Owens spoke about how he and Cody bonded prior to his WWE release in 2016.

He said:

“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.”

Cody went on to join the Elite, which led to th formation of All Elite Wrestling. Owens himself has a lot of history with the Young Bucks, and he explained how he was the one who gave Cody the Bucks’ number.

He said:

“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.”

Cody is set for a rematch with Seth Rollins at the upcoming WWE WrestleMania Backlash show. Owens is involved in a storyline with Elias’ brother Ezekiel.

You can see a full list of win/loss records for the WWE men’s roster in 2022 at this link.

transcription via WrestlingNews.co

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• Young Bucks
• Cody Rhodes
• KEVIN OWENS
• wwe

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