Cody Rhodes Is Shocked Matt Cardona Didn’t ‘Stooge Off’ WWE Return, Says Cardona Encouraged Him

Cody Rhodes’ return at WrestleMania 38 was widely speculated, but not official until the lights went down and his music hit. Rhodes ended up being the mystery opponent for Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38, marking his first WWE match since 2016.

Among those who knew about Cody’s return was one of his good friends, Matt Cardona, and Cody was surprised that Cardona didn’t spoil his return.

“I’m surprised Vic (Joseph), that you didn’t know, because you’re friends with that little stooge Cardona,” Rhodes said on WWE After The Bell. “He was in that very small people of circle when this initially was brought to me know. I told him everything, every detail, everything. I was legitimately expecting him to go, ‘Don’t do it.’ He went completely the opposite way. He was like, ‘that’s the ultimate undeniable. Come back and land in the fashion that you did.’ He inadvertently set off this emotion because I really thought he was going to say, ‘go the other way.’ He was gung ho. I’m shocked he didn’t stooge it off.”

When asked if anyone did tell him that returning to WWE was a bad idea, Rhodes said “No. One person who was concerned was DDP [Diamond Dallas Page]. He came over to my house and he was really pensive. He brought up a good point, the last time I did something major in leaving WWE, he was of the same thought process. ‘Well, if you believe and you’re confident, then I’ll be confident with you and for you.’ He gave me some tips on people to speak to and things to let people know before it all went down. He was the only one who was a little more fatherly of, ‘let’s make sure this is what you want and it’s not just a knee-jerk thing.’ For the most part, everyone who knew in that small circle was, ‘Absolutely go do it,’ which did surprise me.”

Rhodes has been featured weekly on WWE television since returning as part of the WWE Raw roster.

He is currently scheduled to face Rollins in a WrestleMania rematch at WrestleMania Backlash.

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