During an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport, Cody Rhodes revealed that he told Vince McMahon that he never wanted to see, hear or talk about Stardust in WWE and this was part of his agreement to return to the company.

“There wasn’t any true guarantees, there was a request. I said I never want to ever see Stardust ever again and I never want to see, hear it or talk about it and it was a handshake and that was all I needed.

“Then the first thing I did in the match last night was a random Stardust reference, I thought what’re you doing? You’re going back on your own strange request, other than that it was complex to get this all together and maybe one of wrestling’s biggest contracts, which I’m so flattered about. I have a child so yeah.

“But it was more a matter of, I don’t not trust people right, it’s not that I don’t trust this person’s word or this person’s words, but at this point in my career, I do trust myself, fully, implicitly I trust myself. So I know what I can do and given the platform to do it, I’m able to move on, I’m able to get over, I’m able to get what I want and that was presented to me on a silver platter last night.

“Nothing changed, nothing, Kingdom played, wrestling is more than one royal family and this is a world where wrestling term isn’t said that often. So to hear that was a big give from them and to be me. There’s nothing silly about the entertainment industry to me because this is my life’s work, sports entertainment, pro wrestling.

“I think I’m the best there is and how I define it as a wrestler, because there’s all these terms, to me what a pro wrestler is is your ability to capture people’s imagination from week to week.”