When Cody Rhodes returned from injury at the 2023 Royal Rumble, it added a very big fish to a pond that was already feeling increasingly small.

Suddenly, Rhodes secured a guaranteed main event title shot at WrestleMania 39, a decision made easy considering Roman Reigns already held both of WWE's world championships, and after over half a year on the shelf, the “American Nightmare” train was back on the tracks going full force.

For Rhodes, this was great news, as he didn't return to WWE to be trapped in the mid-card once more, but for performers like Sami Zayn, who was building towards his own big match with Reigns, the insertion of Dusty's actual kid created more questions than answers at the top of the card.

Discussing how his return impacted the “Underdog from the Underground's” storyline by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, Rhodes noted that, in his opinion, adding another big babyface into the mix only enhanced the storytelling, as it could allow WWE to “have it all.”

“It was being discussed around us. Why don’t we discuss it amongst us. Bruce Prichard, Ed Kosky, Triple H, they all had the idea to put us in the ring together a Barclays Center,” Cody Rhodes said via Fightful. “Not run from it, lets go towards each other and see. That was a moment where, my confidence, Sami is amazing. I don’t want to say it and throw it away. He is incredibly special. What he was doing is incredibly special. He was pulling a wagon. I wanted to be there to match him and hopefully also be incredibly special. I’m a big believer in, you can have it all. We have Jey Uso, his face is everywhere, the first guy to pin Roman in X amount of days, and here he is going for the one we all want. You can’t run for it. Run towards it. I like that. It brings out the best in all of us.”

Ultimately, neither Rhodes, nor Zayn, nor even Jey Uso was unable to unseat the “Tribal Cheif” at any of WWE's Premium Live Events this calendar year, with Reigns' Universal Title reign inching higher and higher up the all-time records list. While that will eventually change one way or another, for now, WWE is firmly in babyface-building mode.

Cody Rhodes wants to continue to “make strong” statements.

Cody Rhodes doesn't want to just coast.

Sure, professional wrestling is a marathon, not a sprint, and even the most talented performer can get burned out if they don't pace themselves correctly, but considering how Rhodes went from Seth Rollins to Roman Reigns to Brock Lesnar with only a six-month break to recover from a torn pec in-between, it's clear he isn't letting off the throttle to enjoy the scenery but instead attacking his WWE return like he's on borrowed time.

Discussing his thought process during this second run in WWE as part of an interview with Bill Pritchard passed along by WrestleZone, Rhodes noted that, in his opinion, taking big swings and working with top-tier talent is his main priority at the moment.

“Long story short, I couldn’t have expected what was going to happen. I had plans, maybe, on another big left turn. I like to say I take a lot of left turns as far as doing things that are different, betting on myself. But this wasn’t anything that I could have expected. Right now as I’m answering this question,” Rhodes said via WrestleZone. “It still hasn’t hit me how large of a run that’s happened for me, how lucky I am to have had this run just in WWE, just the recent time.

“I don’t know if the gravity of what I wanted to do and what’s actually been done since then. [I don’t know] if I’m really aware of it. But I would like to continue making strong statements because they hold me to do strong things, I hope.”

To Rhodes' credit, thus far, his “balls to the wall” approach to professional wrestling has served him about as well as one could imagine, as he's been playing the hits to crowds around the world while adding incredible names and wins to his resume. While it remains to be seen if Rhodes will eventually land at his final destination, defeating Roman Reigns to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, the road to that goal has been incredibly entertaining and even more ambitious, with more marquee bouts on his resume in the last 18 months than most performers have in their entire career.