The reason Cody Rhodes left WWE in 2016 is common knowledge, right? After being unhappy with his spot in WWE following a gimmick change to Stardust, the second-generation WWE Superstar decided to bet on himself against the cream-of-the-crop independent wrestling had to offer, all the while launching his own wrestling promotion, AEW, along the way following an uber-successful pairing with the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega as The Elite.

Well, as it turns out, that isn't quite it.

No, the real reason why Rhodes left WWE was actually because he was chased off by Zack Ryder, the character Matt Cardona portrayed in the promotion, who actually gave the second-generation star his final loss before leaving the promotion. Discussing this incredible feat in an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful at the American Nightmare: Becoming Cody Rhodes premier, Cardona reminded fans of who ran off the “American Nightmare” before celebrating his efforts on the indies and back in WWE.

“I chased Cody Rhodes out of WWE. Look at the history books, as Stardust, he loses – well, the other guy is not here. Zack Ryder, rest in peace, Zack Ryder beat Stardust, and he quit the biz. He took his ball and went home,” Matt Cardona said via Fightful.

“In all seriousness, he took a chance on himself. A lot of people thought he was crazy because it hadn't been done before to really go out — because there was nowhere else to go, it was just the unknown, the indies. He redefined what it was like to go out there and be a wrestler bigger than the indies. He's his own entity. He rebuilt himself. AEW, what he did, it speaks for itself.”

Turning his attention from Rhodes' exit to his return, Cardona explained the conversation he had with the “American Nightmare” after Vince McMahon went to his house to discuss his potential return and the advice he gave to his long-time friend.

“I was just saying this to someone earlier, he called me and said, ‘Oh, Vince McMahon came to my house and offered me this,' and I was like, ‘Yeah, bulls**t,' but I said, ‘You gotta go.' I didn't say, ‘You gotta finish the story,' but I'm like, ‘You have to go. That's your dream.' People, they dream of being WWE Champion. If you want to be a champion, you gotta go for it. You can't just start another company. What he did, it was great. All In, AEW, unbelievable stuff, but I feel like he wasn't being selfish enough. His dream was to be WWE Champion, and now he has that opportunity.”

Should Rhodes have stuck it out in AEW? Should he have stuck it out in WWE in the first place? Ultimately, Rhodes did something that very few WWE Superstars have done in the past and was able to craft an incredible career that will be studied for decades to come. And to think, he did it all because of Cardona, the true catalyst of professional wrestling.

Cody Rhodes wants to bring this WCW concept back to WWE.

Stopping by After The Bell to talk about all things professional wrestling, Cody Rhodes was asked and revealed which old-timey gimmick from the WWE archives he would like to bring back to the modern WWE: The Scoops Hotline.

“Here is what I would love to bring back, and maybe you guys know somebody who could do this,” Cody Rhodes said via Fightful. “If I had any smidge of power, I would bring back the hotline. I would absolutely bring back the hotline. You can now do it as a text line, essentially, but there were real scoops, occasionally, on the hotline. Or, they were vague enough to where, if you were a fan, you knew. ‘Oh, he's talking about Big Boss Man.' The hotline, I get it that it was a cash grab. ‘Pay X amount of money.' I get that. Maybe we lessen that part to an extent. I would host the weekly hotline. I want to drop five things. Say I drop three things; one of them is real. You have to wade through it all. ‘See, you should be following the hotline.”

On paper, there are an absolute ton of interesting angles, offerings, and ideas from WWE's past that the promotion could revisit, especially since the company also owns the content library of WCW and ECW. Would a paid hotline be the right call for WWE to bring back? Maybe yes, maybe no, but in this writer's opinion, with WarGames already back, why not triple down on the cage concepts and bring back the Triple Cage Match from WCW Slamboree 2000 that was immortalized in Ready To Rumble? I know that isn't a Dusty Rhodes concept, but hey, it's just as absurd as the Scoop Hotline.