WWE: Cody Rhodes on Not Being Worried About The Rock Taking His WM 40 Spot, Rey Mysterio Underwent Surgery, More News

Cody Rhodes Comments on Not Being Worried Over The Rock Potentially Taking His WrestleMania 40 Spot

As noted before, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson confirmed this past October that WWE officials did have plans in place at one point for him to face off against Roman Reigns at this April’s WrestleMania 39 event. Johnson also stated that while that match was not possible in the end, he is open to the idea of doing the match at next year’s WrestleMania 40 event.

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about Johnson’s recent comments and him currently not being worried over the potential of Johnson taking his headliner spot for next year’s WrestleMania 40 event.

“You mentioned The Rock. Nobody has asked me about The Rock, because I think they’re scared to ask me or don’t want to be rude. I’ll say this about The Rock coming on Pat’s show, which I was watching live because I love Pat. And then SmackDown and all this. The Rock did for sports entertainment so, so much and continues to do so much by being the biggest star in Hollywood that I’m able to be at the level I’m at because I can stand on shoulders like those of The Rock. So he could have come on there and run me down and I still would have the highest respect for The Great One. He’s honestly a model superstar for anybody who wants to just supersede all expectations.

With that said though, no matter what he said, anyone who did ask me, anyone who did confront me on it, I said I’m not flinching. I’m not flinching. And I feel like if The Rock and I were in the same room, he would expect nothing less from me. If you think it’s somebody else, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you know it’s me. And that’s the same attitude that The Rock had when he was climbing the ladder.

I don’t care who it is. If that happens to be The Rock, if that happens to be anybody who comes into this fray. A wonderful superstar like LA Knight. An absolutely stellar performer like Sami Zayn, who him and I went toe-to-toe in a way last year. Line ’em up and I’m just going to do everything I can to outrun them. I certainly am. And I mean that with the utmost respect to them. I wasn’t shook at all by Rock’s big day out. What I would say is: not flinching. If Rock’s part of WrestleMania 40, that would be outstanding. He should be. It’s The Rock. But I don’t think he’ll be in my spot.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

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Rey Mysterio Underwent Knee Surgery

This past Friday’s SmackDown show in Columbus, Ohio featured Santos Escobar turning on the LWO and attacked Rey Mysterio.

Mysterio announced earlier today on Facebook that he recently underwent surgery for his knee.

It is currently not known how long Mysterio will be out of action nor details regarding the actual cause of his injury.

“Knee surgery was successful —- @dugasmd1

Now payback on @escobarwwe is on the horizon! Pagarás por los daños #Santos”

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WWE News & Notes

This past Saturday’s UFC 295 event in New York City, New York featured Logan Paul among those in attendance. Paul was shown on camera holding up his phone giving shoutout to Dominik Mysterio revealing that he had misspelled Mysterio’s name. Mysterio recently responded holding up his phone giving a shoutout back to Paul and revealed that he also misspelled Paul’s name paying homage to Paul’s botch.

Fightful Select reported that their sources denied recent rumors of WWE officials currently having plans for Randy Orton to win a major title following his return to the company. It was reported that WWE officials have not held any recent talks regarding this idea for their return plans for him. Orton is currently rumored to be making his return from back injury at WWE’s Surivivor Series 2023 event next week.

Last week, Warner Bros Discovery shelved their plans to release their upcoming Coyote vs. Acme live action and animated film, which features John Cena among its cast, despite the film being completed. Puck News reported that their sources stated that WBD officials recently reversed their decision and will allow the filmmakers of Coyote vs. Acme to shop around the film to other potential distributors.

As noted before, indie wrestler Brogan Finlay was among those who were offered a contract by WWE following tryouts at their Performance Center this past September. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Finlay was seen in attendance today at the Performance Center.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that NXT talents Tavion Heights and Tatum Paxley were in attendance backstage at Monday’s RAW show in Washington, DC. Johnson reported that the reason for Heights and Paxley’s visit was due to them being scheduled to work for the tapings for this week’s Main Event show that was held prior to the start of RAW.

Chelsea Green recently announced on Twitter that she is currently involving in the filming of a movie in Canada but provided no other details.

WWE NIL signee Haley Cavinder recently announced on Twitter that she has committed to TCU and currently plans to play one more season of collegiate basketball.

Montez Ford announced on Instagram that he had competed in his first ever body building contest this past Saturday and took home first place. Ford also opened up about his struggles with body dysmorphia and thanked everyone for their support towards him. Ford stated “FIRST PLACE MALE FITNESS MODEL. WON MY PRO CARD. Saturday I competed in my very first bodybuilding competition & I took home FIRST PLACE overall, with also winning my PRO CARD! For the last few years I’ve been battling with body dysmorphia, very badly. I’ve been dealing with it internally. There was a long period of time, when I looked in the mirror & I wasn’t pleased with what I saw, & everything I tried to do seemed to not make me happier. I even blamed my position, successes, & shortcomings in life because of my body, & also that I wasn’t where I wanted to be in life because of my body. And of course, being in this industry, seeing comments online from people only made it worse. So I challenged myself. I’ve been a huge fan of bodybuilding since I was a child, with my inspiration coming from Serge Nubret. I always wanted to look like him, & loved everything about it. The discipline, the dedication, & presentation of your body to the world, & your body being a reflection of what you put into it. A complete reflection of your lifestyle. This weekend, I faced my challenge & fear and punched it right in its f*cking face. I want to thank God, my wife, my kids, (daddy posing in his undies was quite funny to them) my coach @n8fitness, the entire WBFF Organization, WWE for allowing me to do this, my co-workers & friends for their tremendous support throughout this whole thing. Cheering me on, motivating me, and pushing me to the goal line. And also AEGIS for the drug testing throughout the prep making sure to doubters I was within WWE’s wellness policy. (Hard work actually pays off kids) Thank you all & you’ll see me soon, on the next one…as a PRO! -Tez. And oh yes, GOD IS GOOD album releases 2.2.24“

In a recent episode of the Six Feet Under podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and host The Undertaker stated that he feels that his iconic undefeated WrestleMania streak would have ended a lot sooner had he not switched to his famous American Badass character. The Undertaker stated “I would have to think the percentages would be pretty high that the streak would have gotten broken sooner. I don’t know that for certain, but the percentages, and my understanding of our business, tells me that would have been a nice checkmark on somebody that was coming up. Little did we know that Steve’s career would be cut short. Little did we know that Rock was going to come off and become a big movie star. I would have gotten fed to one of them, and it would have been the right thing to do.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about wanting his brother Dustin Rhodes, former Goldust in WWE, to be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame at some point in the future. Rhodes stated “I have never ever heard Hall of Famer before. That would blow my mind. We have to get old chicken in that Hall of Fame first though. My brother. We have to get chicken in there. He’s just out there still hitting the ropes where you can here the ‘ding,’ he’s hitting them so hard. We have to get him in there.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)