Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes and executive Bruce Prichard have revealed the details behind Rhodes’s 2022 return to WWE. Speaking on the So What Do You Wanna Talk About? podcast, Rhodes described the emotional weight of his initial meeting with Vince McMahon and Prichard, a moment he said “hit me like a car wreck.” Prichard confirmed WWE’s sole purpose was to bring Rhodes “home,” setting the stage for a negotiation that reshaped the champion’s career.
Rhodes explained that despite arriving prepared for a business discussion, the directness of WWE’s appeal caught him completely off guard.
“What was funny was even though I was really well structured and prepared and had things I wanted to talk about and also wanted to be there in the moment, it hit me like a car wreck. It hit me like a car wreck in one where you’re not hurt, one where you’re shocked,” Rhodes said.
Prichard detailed the company’s simple, yet firm, stance during the meeting, which was the first formal contact after Rhodes left All Elite Wrestling. “Our anticipation and our expectation, frankly, was one of, ‘Hey, man, Cody, we want you to come home,’” Prichard stated. “There was a feeling on our side (that) we were not leaving until we had, at least, a handshake agreement as far as what the future was going to be.”
The revelations about his landmark return come as Rhodes is currently absent from WWE programming. The ongoing storyline presents him as recovering from a head injury sustained in an attack by Drew McIntyre on the August 8, 2025, episode of SmackDown.
However, reports indicate the storyline is providing cover for his commitment to film the live-action Street Fighter movie in Australia. Due to the filming schedule, Rhodes did not appear at Clash in Paris on August 31. During this hiatus, Rhodes and his wife, Brandi Rhodes, also announced the birth of their second daughter, Leilani Ella Runnels.
The emotional impact of the 2022 meeting left Rhodes feeling like “a little kid again.” He admitted the financial offer was so significant he believes his father, Dusty Rhodes, would have accepted it immediately. The immediate consequence was a life-altering phone call. “When you call your spouse, when you call your wife, and you’re like, ‘Hey, something happened,’ cause that wasn’t the plan,” he recalled.
That sudden change of plans led to his return as Seth Rollins’s mystery opponent at WrestleMania 38, kicking off the storyline that culminated in him winning the championship his father never held at WrestleMania 40.