Cody Rhodes has mad respect for Gunther and hopes to one day wrestle him in Europe.
The American Nightmare spoke about The Ring General during his recent interview on After The Bell, where he and Corey Graves discussed his Royal Rumble victory last Saturday and how exciting the closing stretch was with Gunther, a moment that made him feel like he was truly back.
Says the first chop he took from Gunther in the Royal Rumble was the moment he knew he was back:
I can tell you though, that’s the moment where I felt like I was truly back. It wasn’t the first chop. I believe (it was) a back suplex, and I was able to land on my feet, pop to my feet, and when he turned around, I thought I had him, but he had me with another one of those very flat, stop your motion, those type of chops are very specific. That one that he got me with was where I felt like, ‘I’m back.’ Some of us like the pain. That’s a weird thing to say. I had blood in my mouth from something earlier, then this chop came, and that’s where I felt like, ‘I’m back in it, this is what I do,’ it’s essentially what I was born to do. As much as it hurt so bad, it also felt so good. The next 50 chops or whatever didn’t give me the same response, but that specific (moment) felt like, ‘welcome back.
Praises Gunther and says he would love to wrestle in Europe:
I don’t know Gunther on a personal level, I’ve made fun of the name in the past, and maybe there was a little bad blood perhaps because of that, but I can say this. That [facing Gunther] looks like something I could see myself revisiting. I could see that happening again, in terms of a one-on-one encounter with the current Intercontinental Champion, who I believe just broke my record, not to mention he broke the Royal Rumble record, he broke my record for days with the Intercontinental Championship. That’s the kind of next-level elite athlete that I would love to wrestle anywhere in the United States, but specifically, I would love to wrestle him in Europe. In Europe, it’s an away game for me, it’s hostile, and I’d be all about that. I think there might be part of him that thinks, ‘I’ve gone an hour and I was able to hold it with you in there,’ and I want him to know that I had his number as much as he had mine. Right now, I can’t say enough superlative items about the current Intercontinental Champion. His future is massive, his present is also massive. We’re living it. I could use a few weeks before I’m living it again. Certainly, I look forward to another one-on-one encounter and I’d love to wrestle him in Europe to see what that feels like.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)