WWE Champion Cody Rhodes has recalled his first encounter with Randy Orton, and how their upcoming WrestleMania match feels like their first match.

Rhodes debuted on the main roster against Randy Orton in 2007, and the former was immediately impressed by Orton and the aura that he exuded. 

“I remember having a sense of awe about the guy, who I really enjoyed his, you know, I liked what he had done as the youngest world heavyweight champion. I was very inspired by him as a third generation or just another child of nepotism, you know, breaking into the industry, [and] I had a sense of awe about me. But I also had this really large amount of confidence because I knew I wasn’t ready to wrestle Randy Orton, but they had booked me to wrestle Randy Orton. So, my thought was, I’m going to get to grow up in front of this audience. I was going to be sink or swim, trial by fire. And I just needed a few things to go right in that match to be able to buy myself more time to carry on,” Rhodes said on “Insight.” 

Orton, famously, had a bad reputation for his behavior back then, which Rhodes realized. But he still admired him for trying to impart the wisdom he had gained from those he had encountered in the business.

“I liked how he carried himself and he was, you know, prickly back then, but I liked how he carried himself because he took the lessons he got from all the guys who brought him in and he started to kind of hard push them on the people that were going to be in his orbit.”

Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton have faced each other numerous times since that first meeting back in 2007, but Rhodes has a sense of freshness about his ongoing feud with Orton. He explained how he he had a similar feeling when he faced John Cena at WrestleMania last year.

“I have a match with a guy who I admire and respect and want to model part of my career after and here we are now and I can tell you that wrestling him at WrestleMania almost feels like it’s never happened before, which is crazy ’cause we have wrestled before. It feels like it’s a first time match ever, just like it was with John [Cena] last year,” he said. 

Rhodes brought out the differences between Orton and Cena, stating how they were like the angel and devil on each shoulder, giving him words of advice and wisdom. “The American Nightmare,” who will be main-eventing WrestleMania once again in Las Vegas, said that he embraces the challenge of being the main event player once again.

“It’s why I kind of welcome the pain coming into Vegas, because the fact that I got to wrestle John at his last WrestleMania and now I’m going to wrestle Randy Orton, returning to the main event, and I’m the one who’s been the incumbent main event guy for the last four years,” he said.

The WWE Champion has main-evented WrestleMania over the past three years and will continue that trend this year, this time going up against a close friend and mentor.