At the Mattel & WWE Elite Squad Fan Panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Cody Rhodes provided fans an update on his condition.
Along with members of the Mattel Design team Steve Ozer and Bill Miekina, Rhodes served on the panel along with Ciampa, Queen Zelina Vega, and Sam Roberts. WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker made a surprise appearance during the panel discussion, which lasted an hour at the San Diego Convention Center.
The 2023 Mattel WWE line-up was the main topic of the panel, but Rhodes warned everyone and asked for their forgiveness for his tendency to “overshare.” Rhodes talked about his latest injury, assured everyone he is fine, and repeated remarks he made on Wednesday night at The ESPYS about how his doctors are concerned he will try to return sooner than expected.
Rhodes claimed that throughout the course of his recovery, his doctor had given him regular updates.
“I’m… OK,” Cody said slowly. He added, “[My doctor] said he’s not going to give me a timeline because he’s afraid I’m going to jump it.”
“So I’m going to try to jump it,” he told the audience with a sly grin.
Rhodes then disclosed that he is still a long way from fully recovering.
“I couldn’t win an arm wrestling contest right now,” he said.
Later, Rhodes asked the audience when they would like to see him return.
“Royal Rumble!” was yelled by a fan in the back of the room.
“You never know. We’ll see,” Rhodes replied with a sneaky smirk in between visibly grimacing and repeatedly extending his right shoulder during the panel.
He made similar remarks on Wednesday night after winning the ESPY Award for WWE Moment of the Year regarding his doctor and the timetable for his return. For that report, which includes photos and footage, click here.
After completely tearing his right pectoral muscle on the Friday before the WWE Hell In a Cell event, Rhodes has been sidelined from competition since mid-June. Rhodes still worked the Hell In a Cell match with Rollins and won despite the injury and the horrifying bruise on his upper body. Later that week, Rhodes underwent surgery in Birmingham, Alabama, and has since been healing. Despite WWE’s announcement that Rhodes will be out for nine months, sources close to Rhodes claim that he will return sooner. According to a report, Rhodes anticipates returning to action before the nine-month mark, which may lead to a significant Royal Rumble return in January. Though it’s too early to book any creative ideas for Rhodes’ comeback, it was recently reported that there was discussion of making Rhodes’ comeback a massive thing for the company and building him up similarly to how they did with WWE Hall of Famer Triple H in 2001/2002.
