Cody Rhodes got the full big-surprise treatment both in front of the camera and behind the scenes at WrestleMania.

The former All Elite Wrestling executive vice president was hunkered down in his bus with wife Brandi and young daughter Liberty on Saturday until it was time to perform. He jokes in a video posted to WWE’s YouTube channel that he was “committed to, I’m gonna throw on my robe and walk to Go Position, to Gorilla.”

Except it didn’t happen.

Rhodes’ anticipated return to WWE after six years played out similar to Ronda Rousey’s debut at the Royal Rumble in 2018.

“They had me put the hood and sweats on and running by everybody, media trying to take pictures,” Rhodes said in the video. “It was such a unique experience.”  

The four-minute video chronicling Rhodes’ day at WrestleMania 38 at AT&T Stadium on Saturday, which starts around 3:41 p.m. inside his bus and ends with him back in the locker room at 10:18 p.m., shows WWE head of creative Bruce Prichard picking up a hoodie-wearing Cody in a golf cart at 8:31 p.m. Rhodes never saw the crowd of more than 70,000 in Dallas until his music hit and he arose from underneath the stage to face Seth Rollins, who he went on to defeat. Rhodes, who was getting mostly booed late in his AEW run, got a very warm reception from the WWE fans.

“To come up and see them, that’s it. That’s what we do,” a smiling Rhodes said. “You chase ’em, you chase ’em. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

The video showed Brandi Rhodes – whose future in pro wrestling remains uncertain – on the bus with Cody and the couple later shared a kiss before he went out to wrestle.

“I’m so happy for you,” Brandi tells him. “I’m so excited you.”

Cody Rhodes did a ton of media after his appearance and gave some insight into why he chose to leave AEW and return to WWE. He tried to dispel reports that he left over salary and booking privileges.

“There were all these different theories and none of them are correct,” Rhodes told Variety. “I mean, there were things about money and creative control. They were printed as fact and it’s been a very difficult two months to see that, when the reality is it was just time. It was a personal matter and we couldn’t move past it.”

While because of his role as an executive he added a storyline stipulation that denied him a second chance to challenge for the AEW world championship, it appears part of Rhodes’ motivation for a second run in WWE is to prove himself worthy of being world champion there. It’s something his father Dusty Rhodes and brother Dustin never accomplished.

“I’m still that little kid that I mentioned in an AEW promo that wants what my dad didn’t get, and I’m not going to say it out loud because I don’t want to jinx it,” Rhodes told Variety. “But, you know, he went to Madison Square Garden, stood across from Superstar Billy Graham and he [Dusty] held it [the WWE title] in his hands, the goal of mine, and it was taken away because that was the context of the match. I understand that now as an adult, but as a kid, that was the only reason I ever wanted to get in, so that I could get what he didn’t get.”

Rhodes’ next appearance will be tomorrow night on “Monday Night Raw.”