WWE: Cody Rhodes & Others Safe Following Cody’s Tour Bus Catching on Fire, Nick Khan on Vince McMahon Allegations, More News

Cody Rhodes’s Tour Bus Caught on Fire & Everyone Safe

Cody Rhodes announced on Twitter that he was involved in a scary incident last night over his tour bus catching on fire. Rhodes also stated that everyone who was in the bus at the time of the incident are safe and okay.

Before you hear it elsewhere – my tour bus caught fire last night 🔥

Everybody is safe and okay

The 2 items I grabbed before I got off will probably pop wrestling fans

Again, thank you @PhillyFireDept

— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) April 5, 2024

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WWE President Nick Khan Comments on Sex Trafficking Lawsuit Allegations Against Vince McMahon

A recent episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast featured WWE President Nick Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about the sex trafficking lawsuit allegations against Vince McMahon and if WWE’s television deal with Netflix was at serious risk had McMahon not resigned.

“I don’t know about ‘kill’ but it certainly wouldn’t have helped the deal (Khan said about Vince McMahon allegations). So those allegations are obviously horrific and serious and we take them and interpret them the same way I think every other reasonable person or organization would take them and you saw the quick resignation… No (Netflix did not tell us to make McMahon resign). Not in any way, shape or form… No (Vince is not involved in any way). Zero. As a stockholder as I’m a stockholder (is the only way he’s involved). Zero, zero, zero.

By the way, he chose to resign. So, there was no litigation. As you said, there was no threat in litigation.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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WWE News & Notes

WWE reportedly has sold around 16,931 tickets for their April 5th SmackDown and Hall of Fame 2024 shows in Philadelphia and 13,025 tickets for their April 6th NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as of Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

In regards to NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 event, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this year’s event has a strong chance to break the record for largest ever attendance for a NXT event depending on how strong the walk-up sales will be. Meltzer reported that the current record is 13,600 for NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II in 2016 in Brooklyn, New York.

Julius Creed announced on Instagram that he got married to his fiancee earlier this week.

ESPN reported that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is currently scheduled to begin filming for The Smashing Machine biopic shortly after this weekend’s WrestleMania 40 event.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gave his thoughts about his future in WWE following this weekend’s WrestleMania 40 event. Johnson stated “I’m not off the board after WrestleMania. I’m still on the board, and I will always be a part of this. And we are in it now. This is our thing and will forever be our thing.“

ESPN also interviewed WWE writer Brian Gewirtz for his thoughts about The Rock’s future in WWE after WrestleMania 40 likely will not feature him being around that much. Gerwirtz stated “But I do think there’s gonna be a Rock presence in WWE going forward until whenever he doesn’t want to…I could definitely say that this isn’t [over a] day after WrestleMania and I’m gonna go off into the sunset now. This whole run has really kind of rejuvenated him. He is not physically and mentally capable of ever being on autopilot. But there was kind of like this safe zone in the babyface space that is fun and fan-pleasing, but isn’t the edgiest of things you can do in a ring with a microphone. Not to the point of bloodying up the No. 1 babyface in WWE and threatening his mother and dog. It’s like he’s never been bigger than he is now,” he added. “He’s part of the board. He just kind of carries a certain weight as opposed to when he came back earlier when he was at a great level, but not this. That’s why the Final Boss feels so organic, because it not only is the TKO literal final boss, but just the weight of Dwayne Johnson in 2024. It just feels important.“

In a recent panel at WWE’s WWE World at WrestleMania fan event in Philadelphia, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about wanting to change the appearance of the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship should he win the title at WrestleMania 40. Rhodes stated “I think the type of champion I’d be for starters, from a logistical standpoint, is I would be on both Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown. I don’t know, you guys like how the title belt itself looks? Then maybe, again, don’t want to get a cart before a horse here, I have to beat the greatest champion in the history of our business, Roman Reigns. But if I do, maybe we change how that title looks, too. Really, if I could do anything as champion, I would want you guys to have fun. That is 100% what I’m in the business of doing, making you guys happy, and I’m blessed and honored to do that. So that’s what I look forward to doing, and I hope we have a great weekend, all of us together.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Becky Lynch gave her thoughts about achieving all of her goals for her wrestling career but still continuing on with it because of her passion for wrestling. Lynch stated “When you’ve accomplished all of the things that you wanted to take off your list, then you get down to: Why do I do this? Because I love it.“

In a recent interview with Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast, Corey Graves stated that he cleared up his past issues with CM Punk at this past January’s Royal Rumble 2024 event. Graves stated “I am proud to report that it’s all water under the bridge. It was actually at the Royal Rumble, I finally had a chance in person…I bumped into him briefly the night of Survivor Series backstage, but it was chaotic, he had just come back, everything was at 11 at the moment. So the day of the Royal Rumble, at Tropicana Field, I actually got to pull him aside for a few minutes, and we cleared the air. Had a nice, long chat. We apologized for some things over the years and realized that this is where we both belong, this is where we both want to be, and it’s been a really exciting time for me personally to be able to rekindle a friendship that meant so much to me over the years. I’m truly as excited to have Punk back here under the WWE banner as just about anybody.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with The Ringer Wrestling Show podcast, AJ Styles gave his thoughts about the future of his wrestling career. Styles stated “I’m anxious to see what story comes next. I’m getting close. I’m getting close to the end. I want to have that story and match to go with it before I leave the WWE. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most.” Following a question about if he was talking about his time in WWE or his in-ring career, Styles stated “I’m done. I’m going to retire. I’m getting to that point where I am worried about embarrassing myself. My brain says, ‘We can do this.’ My body is like, ‘You’re stupid. We cannot do this. We’re hurting every day when we roll out of bed. At some point, this has to come to an end.’ I’ve realized, like so many others that come before me, the greats, they get out of it when we think there is still time for them. It’s because we don’t want to embarrass ourselves. We’re just trying to get out while we still can where we can still get around and just have fun away from wrestling. I love it, this is what I do and what I know. I’ve spent more than half my life doing this, but at some point, you have to let go because it’s fun, but I don’t want to disappoint you. When you see AJ Styles, I want you to go, ‘That’s my guy, that’s the guy I know,’ rather than go, ‘He just isn’t the same guy and can’t do what he used to.’ I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want to let you down. My time is coming. It’s getting short. I am going to enjoy it, I promise you that.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)