[MUSIC]
Six full years.
I didn't think I was coming back.
I'm going to do it for you, I'm going to do it for me and
I am going to do it for the American Dream Dusty Roads.
It is a perfect alignment of all the stars.
>> [SOUND] Cody Rhodes suffered a partial pectoral tear.
Then working out, he tore the pectoral muscle right off the bone.
>> Having gone this long, I almost felt bulletproof.
I had been doing this since I was 20 years old, no major injuries.
I was adamant that I perform, that I compete cuz people paid their money,
you know and I get the chance to do that, so I can't complain.
No human being could have kept me from getting in the ring.
[SOUND] It's like oxygen.
I needed to be in the ring that night.
[MUSIC]
>> [NOISE] >> My gosh.
>> [NOISE] >> I can't even fathom
>> [NOISE]
>> Ring the bell.
[SOUND] >> My chest was heavily damaged.
I had a full tear.
It wasn't a matter of sympathy.
It was more of a matter of, is this safe?
Is this cool?
The only thing I really vividly remember from the match
was I hit a springboard cutter and I thought I was about to
vomit because I had cramped up the attachment that's
on my collar bone that my pec was still attached to you.
You don't wanna see it, but you can't look away.
I was the car wreck.
>> [NOISE] >> One, two, three.
[SOUND]
[MUSIC]
>> I have not watched that match back.
It resonates with people and, man, I'm very proud of that,
but I don't think I can ever watch it back.
Because it's a little scary.
I clearly I'm willing to sacrifice a lot
[MUSIC]
The reception was really somber, because you knew I needed to go get surgery.
[MUSIC]
>> Cody sustained a complete rupture of his
pectoralis major on the right side, >> I think
that there's some nerves on his end, he's never had a major surgery before.
I hope that this is the worst of it.
>> Things went better than planned and that we thought it was a muscular injury,
not a tendon injury, and that's better.
[MUSIC]
The real meat of this is it has to heal.
[MUSIC]
>> So I'm lying at a hospital hospital bed and the questions start creeping in.
Was the surgery a success?
How long until I'm back?
Would I be as good as I was?
[MUSIC]
I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but
am I willing to go down the road that's in front of me?
To get back to the level that I was at.
I know the work begins now.
[MUSIC]