Cody Rhodes Interview w/ WWE.com

WWE.COM: Can you talk a little about the injury? You Tweeted that you tore your trap and your deltoid and that you separated your shoulder. Can you talk about the seriousness of such injuries? 

CODY RHODES: Well, honestly, the best way I’ve heard the injury described, is that I dodged a bullet. The trap tear is a grade two (on a scale of one to three), but I don’t need surgery — the tears will heal themselves over time with proper physical therapy. The separated shoulder is an old injury from amateur wrestling, and it’s basically the area that could have been considerably worse. I could have landed on my neck, but I turned just in time to land on my shoulder. The separated shoulder is where the most pain is and it’s the AC joint, but like I said, I dodged a bullet — no surgery. 

WWE.COM: How soon did you know you were in trouble, and what was going through your head at the time? Do you remember anything in the ring or backstage after it happened? 

RHODES: I thought I broke my arm, and I was in a very bad position in the ring. You know, ring awareness is something I’ve always been fond of — having ring awareness, having mat awareness. Always knowing where I am at all times. Especially in a tag team situation, knowing if I’m on my side of the ring. I wasn’t. I was in enemy territory and Daniel Bryan had me wide open. 

Actually, everything after Kane dropped me, I don’t remember. I remember hitting the mat one more time, and then I thought that I immediately tagged out, but watching back, there’s a whole period of a minute, a minute-and-a-half, where I faked out Daniel Bryan, who missed a headbutt and I just laid there. I didn’t know that — I thought I was much more cognizant than I was, but watching back I didn’t know that I was on the apron, I didn’t know that the doctor was tugging at my boots. 

I just was contemplating in my head — the only thing I remember thinking was if I could get in there and kick [Daniel Bryan], then tag Damien real quick and tag out, that I could offer something still. Damien looked at me one time after I said, "tag me in," after I got my bearings a little bit, but he certainly had no intentions of tagging me in, at great cost to himself. So I owe Damien Sandow a lot. 

WWE.COM: So, more important to you than winning the WWE Tag Team Titles is you exacting revenge on Kane? 

RHODES: I think they coincide. And as you’ve been asking questions, I realize that they coincide. Winning the WWE Tag Team Championship for the fifth time is the perfect revenge, and it’s the perfect wake-up call for someone like Kane, one of WWE’s resident monsters. [Kane is] genuinely a legend in sports-entertainment, but I would say that he’s on the back end of that legendary career and I have no problem waking the monster up, as people saw with Big Show heading into WrestleMania. 

I don’t mind poking the bear. You don’t get anywhere by tiptoeing around anything. Certainly, I’d rather step on toes than tiptoe around anybody. 

WWE.COM: Finally, when can the WWE Universe expect you to return to the ring? 

RHODES: I am a quick healer and I can fight through pain, but I will not rush my return to the ring. There is no hard timeline for my return.