The WWE champion thrilled fans in Merseyside as he main evented WWE Live at the M&S Bank Arena last night
WWE Champion Cody Rhodes let people in on a secret as he came to Merseyside. The American Nightmare thrilled fans in attendance when he main evented WWE Live at the M&S Bank Arena last night.
The professional wrestler brought the curtain down on Monday’s show in Liverpool in spectacular style when he took on Solo Sikoa in a steel cage match. The 39-year-old superstar shared an update on his Instagram ahead of the show and revealed he was signing a stack of weight lifting belts for fans.
Cody acknowledged his Merseyside surroundings with his 2.1m Instagram followers as he sound-tracked the Instagram Story with The Beatles classic, Come Together. The champion has not had much downtime to explore the city on the UK tour as he was busy conducting media duties all throughout yesterday.
Cody was interviewed by BBC 5Live and was quizzed on his unexpected allegiance to Preston North End. He went to explain that retired British wrestler and University of Liverpool alumni Stu Bennett, better known by his wrestling name, Wade Barrett, is the reason why he supports the Championship side.
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He said: “My loyalty is really open to whoever is winning or whoever hands me the jersey at the building. But I will say Wade Barrett has made me a Preston fan. He keeps up with Preston enough for me to know what’s going on so I’d say that’s the favourite.”
The clip showed the moment when the WWE champion’s support for the Lancashire team went viral in 2017. It turns out a user on social media platform X instigated it as they posted: “Cody supports @Everton.“
The champion responded to the message as he said: “Stu knows where my allegiance lies.” Stu, who studied marine biology in the city before he embarked on a career in wrestling, messaged back the champion and said: “The pride of England @pnefc.”
Recalling the story on 5Live, Cody explained: “I tweeted something at Preston implying I was on board with them. They took it very much to heart. Not that I wasn’t being insincere, but I don’t know how sincere I was being.
“Wade is a die hard Preston fan and I’m a die hard Wade fan. So if he tells me, ‘Hey champ, I got you this jersey, we’re going to still photo together, that’s what we’re doing.”
Cody shared a behind the scenes secret of the photoshoot as he crouched next to Wade while wearing a Preston North End home shirt. He said: “A little wrestler secret, because he’s so dang tall, went to a knee so that people weren’t talking about that instead. But if I’m wearing the jersey, I’m in.”
WWE Live continues in Newcastle tonight before a show at the Co-op Live tomorrow. During his interview with 5Live, he shared his hopes that showpiece event, Wrestlemania, could one day be staged in the UK.
He said: “Should it happen here is a yes. Can it happen here I believe is also a pretty adamant yes. It’s a matter of when John [Cena] goes out and says ‘hey we should have a Wrestlemania come to the United Kingdom.
“At the time, I don’t know if that was on the books anywhere. But when the greatest of all time, as we like to call him, goes out and says it it almost wills itself into existence.”
