Cody Rhodes Makes Surprising Admission To Swerve Strickland After PWI 500 Release

Cody Rhodes had an interesting response for Swerve Strickland.

The current WWE Undisputed Champion earned his first-ever No. 1 ranking in the latest PWI 500 that was released last September, while Strickland finished behind him at No. 2 after a career year in AEW.

#andNEW: Congratulations to @WWE champion @CodyRhodes for ranking number one on this year's #PWI500! See who else made the list—and read Cody's thoughts on this milestone—in the latest issue of PWI.

Buy print/digital: https://t.co/iDdfY1e2Vd pic.twitter.com/PNiUrT4RDL
— PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) (@OfficialPWI) September 10, 2024

And now we know what the two said to each other after the list came out.

In an interview with VladTV, Strickland revealed the entertaining and competitive text exchange he had with Rhodes.

“I’m still friends with him. When [the list] came out, I texted him, I was like, I missed you by one, you son of a bitch.’ [Laughs] He texts me back, he’s like, ‘Honestly, dude, you should have been one.’ That’s the competition we have between, it’s a good one. I was like, ‘Ah, I wanted to beat you so bad.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’"
Swerve Strickland

Will Ospreay, Seth Rollins, and Tetsuya Naito rounded out the top five in the PWI 500.

Strickland defeated Samoa Joe for the AEW World Championship in April 2024 at AEW Dynasty before eventually losing the title to Bryan Danielson at AEW All In.

Meanwhile, Rhodes also had a legacy-defining year, as he captured the WWE Undisputed Championship from Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40.

H/T Fightful for the transcription.

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