Seth Rollins Details How WWE Rivalry Against Returning Cody Rhodes Came Together

Seth Rollins has recalled the lead-up to his match at WrestleMania 38, revealing that he didn't know he would be facing Cody Rhodes until the very last moment.

Rhodes was Rollins' mystery opponent on night 1 of WrestleMania 38, which the former discussed in his recent appearance on the "Games With Names" podcast.

"He comes back to WWE at WrestleMania this year [2022] as my mystery opponent, which legitimately was about as last-minute as you can get for a WrestleMania match," he said. 

The former WWE World Heavyweight Champion revealed that he didn't know for sure that he would face Rhodes until a month before their clash at WrestleMania. 

"I do Royal Rumble. I wrestle Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. After that, there was some conversations about a match. I would say, I didn't know about Cody for sure until the middle of March. And so we had like maybe a month of lead time knowing Cody was for sure coming. And even till like the two weeks before, I remember being like, 'Do we have his signature on a piece of paper?' It was very top secret. There were very few people that knew about what was going on," Rollins added.

Rhodes kept his return to WWE tightly under wraps, not even informing close friends like Randy Orton or Kevin Owens.

Seth Rollins believes that Cody Rhodes' return to WWE was significant for the company, as he was the first star to leave AEW and return to WWE.

"That was a big deal for our industry to have someone who had — he was like the first guy who had left, gone to AEW, and then had come back, and I was tasked with, you know, working with him right out of the gate," Rollins stated. 

The former Shield member said that WWE's goal for Rhodes was to turn him into a major star, explaining that the promotion wanted to position him as the next John Cena. Rollins explained that his history with Rhodes made the clash a perfect fit for the returning star.

"We were looking to make him a big star. He had done his due diligence while he was gone to get himself to a position where when we brought him back, he was ready to be kind of the one of the top acts in the company," he said. "He was more than excited to get back in the ring with me. He's someone who I've had a lot of history with. His father, who helped kind of — he didn't train me, but he helped hone me and build me when I was in developmental. I worked with him [Cody] and his brother [Goldust] a lot when we me and my group, The Shield, first came in WWE back in 2012. So there was a lot of history there, and he was more than happy to step into the ring with me."

Rhodes defeated Rollins in his return match and then went on to defeat him on a few more occasions later in the year.