What Cody Rhodes Did At WWE Hell In A Cell That He Thinks Will Never Be Done Again

After his triumphant return at WrestleMania 38, Cody Rhodes made WWE history two months later at Hell In A Cell when he wrestled Seth Rollins inside the cage with a torn pectoral muscle. The opening visual of Rhodes unveiling the bruise on the right side of his body is one of the most unforgettable moments of the night, but "The American Nightmare" being able to deliver a 25-minute match while being injured was beyond impressive. However, Rhodes has honestly admitted that he didn't inform WWE about the severity of his torn pec, and during a recent interview with "All The Smoke," he outlined his reasoning for keeping the injury a secret.

"There was really no element of preparation because I'll be honest, I didn't think I would be able to wrestle, and a lot of me being able to wrestle is maybe at the time I was scary enough or intimidating enough or forceful enough with everyone I spoke to from a office level who's in charge of me going out there ... I just wasn't allowing the conversation to get to a place where I wasn't wrestling. We were the main event. Peacock had seen a big surge in subs for Hell In A Cell, and I'd also not been the main event before," he explained. "We don't power through anymore. That might have been the very last example of let's power through."

Rhodes expressed that Rollins was the perfect person to wrestle in that scenario, but believes it would be best if they avoided each other for the foreseeable future, as "The Visionary" picked up an injury during their most recent encounter together at Crown Jewel last month.

Rhodes continued to share that he took four baby aspirin before entering Hell In A Cell, but after a few minutes into the match, he began to feel the pain in his pectoral muscle. This led the Undisputed WWE Champion to explain that the promotion is not focused on taking risks that will put their talent in danger, especially with professional wrestling becoming more athletic.

"We can navigate around things like that and give somebody a break if they need it. You just have more athlete-conscious people today...modern wrestling is insanely fast with an insane amount of rotations, flips, high spots, whatever you want to call them. It's not getting any slower. It's only going to get more dangerous and more wild. So, if we're not doing it safely, we're going to kill our own business," he stated. "It's not like the golden 80s where a guy smoking a cigarette does 10 push-ups and goes out there and tears the house down."

Although Rhodes is pleased with talent safety in WWE, he admitted that he misses the days when the roster was required to wrestle over 200 days a year and would lobby to make it happen again, but gave credit to Triple H and company President Nick Khan for creating a healthier system for their stars.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "ALL THE SMOKE" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.