Cody Rhodes opened up about being nervous before he talked to Triple H about stepping away from WWE TV to film Street Fighter, the movie in which he plays Guile.
Rhodes was a guest on the Double Coverage Podcast, where he said his conversation with Triple H took place when he was still the Undisputed WWE Champion. Triple H agreed to work around the filming schedule and came up with ideas for how his absence and return could be worked into storylines, rather than the beatdown WWE usually uses to write a wrestler off TV.
“I don’t think I’ve ever shared this before, but I was nervous to ask Triple H,” Rhodes said. “That’s really my coach and my guide in the wrestling world. It’s important as the head of creative as he is, wrestling is his number one priority as far as business. Wrestling, getting people to enjoy the live SmackDown, Raw, PLE, NXT, whatever it is. He wants their enjoyment. He wants them hooked in. He wants the young fans happy, the old fans happy, the hardcore fans happy. He’s trying to cover a very large swath.”
On how Triple H responded to the request, Rhodes continued:
“So to say, ‘Hey, the biggest title we have, the WWE title, is going to go away, I was nervous.’ That was one of the most pleasantly surprising conversations ever, not only great. We’ll get the dates, and we’re going to work it out. But I think you could do this, then when you come back to have some ideas about how it could all flow and not just to jump to the traditional, well, let’s set them on fire and throw them off the ‘Tron. Like not to go to the traditional book-them-on-the-way-out type. Just the world is well aware of what’s going on. They knew we were all coming together to film this, and that was a nervous conversation for me.”
Rhodes praised the experience Triple H has as the head of WWE creative and added:
“If all conversations like that go as good as that one, that’ll be the greatest gift ever. Because again, wrestling is number one for WWE. At the time, you’re WWE champion. It needs to be number one for you too. It was; he just has a larger worldview, which you only get with experience. More of the younger talent, when they get reps in with Hunter, and they get to know who he is, it’s who he is now, is the perfect person and the only person who could lead WWE.”
On the podcast, Rhodes talked about how WWE’s approach to outside projects has changed in recent years. He said requests for a month or two of time off used to be turned down, but WWE is now more willing to work out those opportunities.
Rhodes credited Nick Khan and Triple H himself for part of that change. He added that the size of the roster is one of the reasons WWE can keep running its shows when a star is away.
The Hollywood job came up at a specific point in his title run. Rhodes defeated John Cena at SummerSlam on August 3, 2025, to regain the Undisputed WWE Championship shortly before he traveled to film the movie.
Street Fighter opened in U.S. theaters on October 16.