Pro wrestling veteran and former AEW Star “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes, who is one of the key persons responsible for the formation of All Elite Wrestling and who’s one of the first few to sign a contract with the company when it was established on January 1, 2019, worked in the company as a free agent for a number of weeks once his contract expired at the end of 2021 and before he decided to not re-sign with the promotion and part ways.
It has been reported that Cody Rhodes chose not to re-sign with AEW due to a disagreement he had with AEW President and CEO Tony Khan regarding his contract negotiations and the amount of money he wanted on his new deal. There was also a feeling backstage that Cody Rhodes losing power as an EVP of AEW is another reason he decided to part ways with the company.
Cody Rhodes leaving AEW has left several officials in dismay, including AEW CEO Tony Khan, while this has translated into a lot of excitement for the WWE and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as he gets to sign a massive star in The American Nightmare, who happened to be an EVP for AEW, but Cody has yet to sign with the WWE and is still a free agent as of today. There has since been rumors and speculations that Cody Rhodes is WWE-bound and plans were already in place for his return, including a top calibre bout at WrestleMania 38 against WWE Star Seth Rollins.
Fightful Select reports that as of last weekend, at least one AEW EVP fully believed that Cody Rhodes was signed or was signing with the WWE and would definitely face Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, but it was not mentioned when Cody Rhodes will be making his return or what his status is with the WWE.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Rhodes’ WWE status is currently up in the air and creative were even told to hold off on all plans relating to Cody Rhodes until and unless he has already signed a contract with WWE and even his rumored match against Seth Rollins at The Show Of Shows has been pulled of off the WrestleMania card for now, but with tonight’s RAW taking place in Jacksonville, Florida, the home base of AEW, there has been a lot of chatter among fans and there has also been a number of reports from sources close to the situation that Cody Rhodes will be making his WWE TV return tonight on RAW.
