When Cody Rhodes left WWE, it was to reject the big machine that rejected him and ultimately prove that he was the sort of performer worthy of a strong main-event push.

Now granted, Rhodes did have quite a bit of success in WWE before he was ultimately granted his release, including a runs with the Intercontinental Championship, runs with the Tag Team Titles, and time working alongside once and future stars like Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre in various factions and tag team pairings. But in the end, the idea of wasting the early years of his prime playing Stardust, the maniacal spaced-themed foil to his brother's long-term character, Goldust simply didn't sit right with the legacy grappler, so he asked for a release in order to fight it out on his own.

Ultimately, this decision was the right one, as Rhodes had great success on the indies, former AEW, and ultimatelty created the “American Nightmare” charecter fans know and love today.

Discussing his time away from WWE and the early years of AEW with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Rhodes let it be known that he still thinks back fondly on his time working for Tony Khan, as much like Hulk Hogan before him, he used his time away from The Fed to forge the character that would define his professional wrestling career.

“I'm sure there's some negative stuff, but I just remember it lovingly and I also knew I was leaving. I knew it was a season, I knew this isn't gonna last, and there's something greater for me out there. I know that might sound negative to people, but it's not. That's the biggest prize in the wrestling game, if you put on boots, that's the one. I just wanted to go get it and I had nothing but respect for my time there,” Cody Rhodes explained via TJR.

“I got to sharpen my skills, like Hulkamania in the AWA, right before it came to WWE. It's the same, the energy was there, the Renaissance was happening, it wasn't just company-based. It was all there and I just have a love for it because I got to sharpen my skills.

“By the time I got to WrestleMania and WWE I felt like okay, I've come back a complete package. I'm in command of this is how the music goes. I'm in command of who The American Nightmare is and I can I can know that and understand it better than a writer or producer, and thankfully, we have all those things but yeah, nothing but love. I'm trying to get something bad to say.”

Did Rhodes honestly believe that he would re-sign with WWE one day when AEW began? No, it's safe to say he did not, as he probably wouldn't have been smashing thrones and doing the other anti-AEW activities he partook in early in the promotion's run. Still, he did more or less pull a Hogan and create the character that would define his career in AEW, and WWE is now reaping the benefits of that outside development. So, in a way, I guess AEW really does create characters, doesn't it, even if WWE sometimes has to put them on the grandest stage.

Hulk Hogan reveals when he landed a guaranteed contract from WWE

Speaking of Hulk Hogan and the heyday of Hulkamania, the Hall of Famer recently stopped by The Outbound Life to talk about his professional wrestling career and let it be known that he earned a guaranteed contract from WWE all the way back in 1984, well before his nWo faction mates.

“I don't know if it was Kevin Nash or somebody said, ‘There were never any guaranteed contracts until we came along.' I think Kevin Nash might have said it. When I came back, January 23, 1984, I won the belt. I was back a couple months before then doing TV. I had a guaranteed contract back then. I had a ten-year guaranteed contract then. That was way before they signed Kevin Nash. That was 20 years before. Vince (McMahon) wanted to lock me down because, at the time, I had the gimmick figured out, and I was so hot. I was leading the charge on a lot of fronts. The guaranteed contract was a constant.

“At the time, I started making movies too. I was making a couple movies a year. That was extra money on the side. There was a 1-900 number. 1-900-HULK-HOGAN. It was a hotline that kids could call. They would get their parent's credit card and stay on the phone all night talking to me. It was all pre-recorded messages about training, and vitamins, and storyline. I made a ton of money on that 1-900 number. I was killing it on that. Doing movies. My merchandise was selling like crazy.”

Now granted, could Hogan have his numbers and/or years off ever so slightly? Sure, that is the Hogan way, after all; according to IMDB, Hogan only appeared in two movies during the 1980s, Rocky III when he wasn't in WWE in 1982 and No Holds Barred in 1989, which was practically a WWE co-promotion. Still, he did have years when he was filming multiple movies and doing TV appearances too throughout much of the 1990s, so maybe he just got his dates wrong one way or the other. Either way, Hogan might want to give his old pal Diesel a call, as they actually both worked for WWE in 1993, a good decade earlier than the “Hulkster” initially claimed.