"My dad had a habit of giving me the Abdullah the Butcher matches as well as the ones with tables and..." — Cody Rhodes

I believe in hard work, but I believe in vindication as well. You have a few nightmares, I imagine, before you reach your dream.

I was a Shawn Michaels fan, so that's a sad memory for me. I'm proud to add a happier memory in that building, even though Christopher Daniels also lost his smile.

I just play it safe when it comes to television because it is WWE's intellectual property. But it is literally my legal name, like on my ID. My name hasn't been Cody Runnels since I was 17. But it's theirs. At no point would I ever want to go into a courtroom with a company I have love and admiration for.

I loved WWE , but in the end, I was unhappy. It was just like planning an escape from a maximum security prison. I'd released a list of potential opponents online, so when the 90-day no-compete clause was up, I had matches booked on good faith. I thought about the follow-up.