Cody Rhodes Responds To Daniel Bryan’s Challenge

Daniel Bryan caused quite the stir yesterday when he tweeted a challenge to Ring of Honor Champion, Cody Rhodes.

Considering Bryan has not been shy about telling people he is “working on a return” to the ring and the WWE is adamant that he will not be returning to their ring, the current GM of SmackDown Live has fans convinced he’s looking to return to his roots in ROH.

Rhodes, who won the Championship on Friday night, responded to Bryan’s tweet in a recent interview with SI.com.

“I don’t think it was a challenge, just fun,” said Rhodes. “Daniel Bryan remains one of my friends. Final Countdown would be a welcomed tune, even as a competitor. I have always looked up to Dan. It would be major, major box office for all involved.”

Bryan did try to back out of his challenge by saying he was just “trollingforlife” but it’s also likely someone told him he might want to watch his tone as he’s still employed by the WWE.

In the interview with SI, Cody also discussed what it meant to him to be the ROH Champion. “I am proud to represent ROH against New Japan,” said Rhodes. “The Ring of Honor roster, with men like Christopher Daniels, Dalton Castle, and the Young Bucks has been instrumental in such heavy growth of the company.

“Everybody keeps talking about the ‘Attitude Era’, and I loved it too, but some people have their eyes closed to the current work in wrestling outside of WWE. You can love WWE, but it is not sacrilege to watch Ring of Honor or New Japan World.”

Rhodes also commented on his brother’s recent resurgence in the WWE as his “Attitude Era” self.

“I love that Goldust returned to the ‘Golden Age’,” said Rhodes. “I’m very proud of Dustin. One of the reasons we butted heads in WWE was because of timing. He was looking for redemption after the original Goldust run, and he was out to prove he had more left. He absolutely has more left, and he is wrestling’s version of Ra’s al Ghul. He is out there turning it up, on TV and at the live events. He’s got a lot left, but when he does hang it up, he’ll be Hall of Fame bound. I’m very proud of my brother.”

While Cody and Bryan may never face off in a WWE or ROH ring, the new ROH Champion is set for another dream match this Saturday night as he’ll challenge Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title. Okada has been credited with two of the greatest matches in modern wrestling history and a victory for Cody would cause a tremendous stir with the Internet Wrestling Community.