"If I could talk to 19 year old me, what would I say?"

[2023 Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes is in the ring, microphone in hand. Before he can say a word, long and loud chants of 'Cody' and 'You deserve it' ring out from the crowd. An emotional Rhodes basks in the adulation before speaking]

Cody Rhodes: "So... What do you wanna talk about? [cheers] I think it goes without saying, but every week there's someone new watching this show so I'll go ahead and say it; I am not the same person I was when I started this journey, over fifteen years ago, on this very show. I've thought a lot though, about 19 year old me, first day on the job, pulling up to this metal barn; Ohio Valley Wrestling. There's a sign on the door, there's a sign door on the door that says 'Tomorrow's superstars today.' And I'm sitting in my, my beater Volkswagen Jetta and I'm about to go inside. And I remember, I vividly thought to myself 'I'm going to be WWE Champion with inside of two years.' Hey, I was ambitious albeit a little bit delusional cos I also thought, cos I also thought 'I'm gonna be the next John Cena'

Alright, so if I could, if I could go back, if I could talk to 19 year old me, if I could write him a letter, what would I say, what would it say? Would it tell him 'I don't think it's gonna go down like that, chief!'? Would I tell him that one night in London that you're gonna get slapped so hard, on live TV, that your knees buckle? Would I tell him that you're gonna be 'Dashing' Cody Rhodes, and you're gonna give out grooming tips? Would I tell him that you're going to win the Intercontinental Championship and restore it to its former retro glory? Would I tell him that you're gonna paint your face and become less than? That triumph will become tragedy, will become triumph all over again? Would I tell him the woman on the outside of his ring who has been saying everyone's names all night ,that ends up becoming your wife? Would I tell him you're gonna lose a 295-pound best friend [his father Dusty], but you're gonna gain a six-pound one back who has his same eyes [his daughter Liberty]? Would I tell him... that you're gonna be on fire at one point? That you're gonna bleed all over the world? Would I tell him 'In 2015 you do what everybody tells you not to do, you take an excursion, and part of that excursion is fully focusing on the industry's health' and I ended up neglecting my own? Would I tell him that on January 28th 2023, at the Royal Rumble 'you outlasted 29 others and you punched a ticket, you punched a ticket, the very first in your family to punch this ticket, to go on last under the brightest lights, under the biggest damn stage, at WrestleMania'?

Guys, truth be told, I wouldn't tell him a single thing. I wouldn't tell him a single thing, because every little piece on this broken road, every splinter on this upwards ladder has been unequivocally, one hundred percent, worth it!

Now I come out here tonight, and I hear some of you singing the words to 'Kingdom' - that's my song, it has gone everywhere with me, it will continue to do so - but the first words on that track are my own, and that is where I say 'Wrestling has more than one royal family.' - actually WWE has more than one royal family - but for that to be... true, for it to be real, for it to be venerated, validated and vindicated in my heart, I have to stand across from another. I have to stand across from an entire blood line. I have to stand across from the 'Tribal Chief', the 'Head of the Table'. I have to stand across from essentially the Lebron James of this generation of superstars and wrestlers; the biggest superstar on the planet, the man who has had the title for eight hundred and something days, I have to stand across from Roman Reigns. [the crowd boo and chant 'Roman Sucks']

I'm sure you can hear it; I have a great deal of respect for Roman and that I'm talking, I am talking sincerely, but what I say next I say with the same sincerity: WrestleMania is in 62 days - Roman that might just be 62 days for you, it is 62 days for the rest of my life. At WrestleMania, 'undesirable' has already become 'undeniable' [see Note 1] but 'undeniable' remains uncrowned, and on that night it ends! At WrestleMania pull up a chair, sit wherever you want, at that night somebody else is going to be eating. And after WrestleMania you can be the 'Tribal Chief', you can be the 'Head of the Table', you can be the biggest superstar in the world, but the ONE thing that Roman Reigns will not be... is the WWE Undisputed Universal Champion."

- Note 1: A reference to a promo Rhodes delivered in the early days of AEW: "It's about the 14 years it took me to go from undesirable to un-goddamn-deniable!"