Cody Rhodes reflects on his WWE exit in 2016.

The American Nightmare left the company in 2016 to find his own niche. His journey basically took him through several promotions. Including Ring of Honor and TNA Wrestling, before he eventually became one of the founding fathers of All Elite Wrestling.

Cody Rhodes left AEW in 2022 to make a triumphant return to WWE. He has since become one of the company’s biggest stars. And is currently in his second reign as the Undisputed WWE Champion.

During a recent appearance on the All The Smoke podcast, Rhodes looked back on his decision to leave WWE in 2016 and discussed what led to his departure.

“I’m surprised they let me back,” Rhodes joked. “And legally, one thing that came as a byproduct of my departure is that nobody gets to leave the way I left. I got so lucky that I was Dusty Rhodes’ son. They, I believe, respected that I had put in a decade of work.

“I didn’t even sign my release papers; told them I was done on social media, which doesn’t work anymore. None of that flies now. I had to leave. And I’ve heard it described as me not wanting to be treated like a little kid anymore. They were only ever going to see me as a little kid. And I was 30 at the time. Ten years had been put in. I had offered a different body of work than my brother or my dad ever did — just a different variety.

Cody Rhodes previously felt WWE didn’t allow him to showcase his knowledge

“Maybe it was a matter of wanting to come back and be seen as an adult, or come back and be seen as someone who had accrued all this knowledge. I’ve wrestled Triple H, The Undertaker… been in the ring with Shawn Michaels. You don’t get that knowledge unless you’re in the ring with them, and I felt like I wasn’t being allowed to showcase it.

“But as time has gone on, I look back and think a lot of it was immaturity on my part — anger, a lot of anger. Anger can take you very far. A chip on your shoulder can take you very far. I just wanted to show, outside of the WWE bubble — and I’ve talked a lot about the bubble — that I could mobilize an audience to follow me.”

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