"We're not the best of buddies" - Cody Rhodes has real-life 'lingering tension' with The Rock; explains why

Cody Rhodes recently addressed his real-life relationship with The Rock. The American Nightmare stated that they have "lingering tension."

Earlier this year, The Rock returned to initially square off against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40. Although the WWE Universe expected Rhodes to challenge The Original Tribal Chief at the Show of Shows after winning the 2024 Men's Royal Rumble match, he had to give up his spot to The Final Boss. However, the company's plans changed after the fans' backlash over The American Nightmare's position. Instead of fighting Reigns, The Rock joined his cousin in The Bloodline as they feuded with Rhodes and Seth Rollins heading into WrestleMania.

In an interview with Flagrant, Rhodes denied having any real-life beef with The Final Boss. However, the 39-year-old Undisputed WWE Champion stated they have "lingering tension" due to what happened heading into this year's Show of Shows. Nevertheless, The American Nightmare disclosed that he would like to become friends with The Rock:

"[Do you guys have some beef behind the scenes?] No, I just, I think when a situation like that happens and it's very real about, 'Hey, these fans have made a choice' and, you know, it's very real, I think there's just a lingering tension perhaps. I universally love him. I grew up a Rock fan. No, I sincerely, I grew up a Rock fan. I say we're not the best of buddies. I think I'd like to be. But the reason I might say that is because I'd love to. We have yet to debrief on WrestleMania and what happened because I bet you his story is a little different," he said.

Rhodes added that The Rock might have gotten bad advice as he returned earlier this year. Meanwhile, he disclosed that hopes to one day sit with the 52-year-old legend to debrief and explain to him his side of the story:

"I feel like there was probably people like, 'No, they're definitely, you're their guy. They're going with you.' I think maybe some bad advice came or maybe didn't get a good knowledge of, 'Hey, here's the current layout. Here's who's sitting at that table.' But I'd love that one day if we can ever have this little debrief just to explain because I never wanted to do anything in secret. I never wanted to do anything behind the scenes because truth is when that happened, you start thinking, 'Oh, what if I told such and such this story. No, no, you can't.' I got very defensive in that moment." [1:49:53 - 1:50:49]

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Cody Rhodes also addressed his relationship with The Rock's cousin, Roman Reigns

While working in other promotions outside of WWE, Cody Rhodes took several shots at Roman Reigns. In his interview with Flagrant, The American Nightmare addressed whether that reflected on his real-life relationship with The Original Tribal Chief.

The 39-year-old disclosed that he might have apologized to Reigns during one of the only two conversations that he had with his former rival:

"I don't think, no, we've never talked about any of that. Two conversations. I've wrestled this guy at two WrestleManias, two conversations. One, telling him that I was coming on board and I was looking forward to it and maybe even apologizing about that. And then the other was thank you for the house," he said.

Reports recently suggested Cody Rhodes might square off against The Rock and Roman Reigns in a Triple-Threat Match at WrestleMania 41. It would be interesting to see if that would happen.

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