In the lead-up to the title match between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles at King and Queen of the Ring, the “American Nightmare” tried to play things cool, celebrating his fellow former member of the Bullet Club for their similar resumes, for their Georgia roots, and for their shared affinity for the ‘American Dream,” Dusty Rhodes in the hopes of making things a fair fight.

Fast forward a few weeks into the future and things have radically changed, as after being backstabbed, bewildered, and downright tricked by the former TNA Champion, Rhodes is ready to do just about anything to secure a win against the “Phenomenal One,” hinting to the fans at the Clash at the Castle Kickoff show that he might just be willing to go from Captain America to Homelander if he needs to.

“Michael Cole has become, and I think we’re all loving it, has become the voice of WWE. I feel because you’re the voice of WWE, perhaps you have only seen WWE. Maybe it’s exclusively been your number one thing. You’ve been the ambassador, you’ve waved the flag. You’ve done all that. The reason I bring this up is because Scotland knows this, the one thing I learned when I walked away was just how to get down and dirty. You guys ever heard of a group called the Bullet Club?” Cody Rhodes asked the fans in Scotland via Fightful.

“So Michael’s question, I’ll pose to you guys because it’s a great question. Am I vicious enough to beat AJ Styles? Am I angry enough to go full Homelander and rip AJ Styles’ throat out? With everything you’ve learned about me and everything that we have been through together as the story continues, do you guys trust me to give you the absolute best WWE Championship match, the best PLE going, and is Scotland gonna get another PLE in WWE’s future? Thank you guys very much. Enjoy.”

Now, for fans out of the know, fans borderline begged Rhodes to turn heel in AEW, going so far as to compare him to the Boys character for his delusional belief that he was a hero when everyone else viewed him as a disingenuous bad guy. If Rhodes goes to that play at Clash at the Castle, Styles may be saying, “I Quit” before fans even know it.

Cody Rhodes reveals what he was on at Hell in a Cell.

Turning his attention from his next big WWE match to one of the signature moments of his WWE career, Cody Rhodes discussed his infamous Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins shortly after his return to the promotion on the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast, with the “American Nightmare” famously working the match with a torn pec that caused his arm to turn a brutal dark blue.

Asked by Matt Cardona, Brian Myers, and company if he had to take medication before the match to help him dull the pain, Rhodes said (basically) no, noting that the only thing he was given was a pair of baby aspirins before being pointed in the direction of the ring.

“I get very petty when I see on social that people think I had some sort of medication. I’ll tell you the god-honest truth. I was hoping for some extra strength tunnel, I was hoping for something, but when I went to Larry in the training room looking for some anti-inflammatories, I was given, and I kid you not, two baby aspirins. I was happy to have them,” Cody Rhodes told Major Wrestling Figure Podcast via 411 Mania.

“Right in the early part of the match, I thought I was going to puke because it’s that feeling when you’ve been punched in the nose or when you’ve been hit so hard that your body wasn’t ready, you took a fall from way high up or whatever it is. I thought that this won’t go much longer, I thought for sure I was gonna just literally vomit in front of the audience, and then I found kind of a second wind. Near the end of it, I felt like I could have benched that 315 and just been repping it out, but shortly thereafter, all that pain set in.”

As Rhodes has said in the past, he only wrestled the match because, according to WWE's doctors, he couldn't have injured his arm any further by working the match, as his pec was already clean off the bone and couldn't be hurt any further. Still, that doesn't mean the experience wasn't incredibly painful for the “American Nightmare,” and he didn't earn his victory, as per the man himself, it was an incredibly painful experience indeed.