Backstage Talk On Cody Rhodes' WWE Situation And The Rhodes Vs. Seth Rollins Match

As previously reported, the Cody Rhodes WWE return situation is said to be back up in the air.

The latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that WWE had creative plans set up for a surprise Rhodes debut to happen imminently, as in the next week or so, with Rhodes set to face Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 38.

However, WWE creative was reportedly told this week to hold off on working on the Rhodes vs. Rollins creative until Rhodes signs his WWE contract because they had already worked on the creative, but then had to stop when they weren't sure if Rhodes was returning.

Rhodes' WWE return is not a dead deal, according to the report. Upper-level WWE sources have noted that they don't know what happened with the Rhodes talks, and it's not a sure thing that his return has fallen through as talks were ongoing during the week, and he could still debut imminently.

It's believed that Rhodes has offers from different places. There's a feeling within WWE that Rhodes not signing a contract to return is either him angling for a better deal with the idea of using WrestleMania 38 as leverage, or the deal is not going to happen, or he's playing a "Brian Pillman game" with the company. Pillman was able to obtain his WCW release by convincing them he could really play up his "Loose Cannon" gimmick if he were let go, but then he made some appearances for ECW and started a bidding war between WCW and WWE, then ended up with WWE.

Regarding WWE wanting to do Rollins vs. Rhodes at WrestleMania 38, sources have confirmed that this was the plan for Rhodes' return feud. WWE would have to pull the trigger on the program soon, ideally at Monday's RAW in Jacksonville if Rhodes was close enough to agreeing on a contract.

If things weren't close enough by the March 14 RAW, WWE would have to start setting Rollins up in a different direction for WrestleMania. The plan was to hold off on any Rollins WrestleMania build until after the RAW Tag Team Titles Triple Threat, which aired this past Monday and saw RK-Bro capture the titles by defeating Rollins and Kevin Owens and Alpha Academy. Now that the tag team feud is over, it's time to get Rollins' WrestleMania feud going before they run out of time.

Stay tuned for more on Rhodes.