Seth Rollins Vs. Cody Rhodes Reportedly Set For WWE WrestleMania 38

WWE’s back-and-forth with Cody Rhodes appears to be settled.

According to the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer (h/t WrestlingNews.co), “Rhodes is coming in” to WWE and is slated to face Seth Rollins in a dream match at WrestleMania 38. Furthermore, “Rhodes vs. Rollins was listed internally as of last Friday” as a match on WWE’s flagship show.

Though this hasn’t been officially confirmed on WWE programming, Vince McMahon’s company dropped numerous hints that Rhodes would be joining the company on this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw, especially during Rollins’ slow-closing segment. At the conclusion of Monday’s show, Rollins lost to Kevin Owens in a main event match that would have seen Rollins take Owens’ coveted spot as Steve Austin’s talk show foe at WrestleMania 38 had Rollins won the bout.

WWE’s announcers played up the idea that Rollins still has no path to WrestleMania, but in reality, Rollins’ path will reportedly go right through the returning Rhodes.

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The Rhodes-to-WWE rumblings have been growing louder in recent weeks, following Rhodes’ surprising AEW exit. Rhodes, one of the founding fathers of AEW, was reportedly seeking a deal with AEW that would have paid him $3 million annually and ranked him among names like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson as AEW’s highest paid stars.

AEW wasn’t buying what Rhodes was selling, however, paving the way for “The American Nightmare” to do what once looked unthinkable and become the first marquee name to jump ship from AEW to WWE.

As WWE inched closer to WrestleMania, Rollins’ lack of a clear role at WWE’s flagship show—despite obviously being one of the company’s biggest stars—became a huge head-scratcher for pro wrestling fans. What made that even more mind-boggling were the conflicting reports and major uncertainty regarding whether Rhodes would make a shocking return to WWE or work things out in order to return to AEW, possibly as the leader of the recently-purchased Ring of Honor.

But with AEW’s roster growing more and more jam-packed seemingly every week and Rhodes being limited with what he could do there after both refusing to turn heel and saying he would never be world champion, he became expendable to AEW while growing more valuable to WWE.

After all, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at WWE’s current roster and see that it has a number of major flaws, not the least of which is a serious depth issue. The unavailability of names like Triple H, The Undertaker, The Rock, Bobby Lashley and John Cena—combined with the departures of stars like Jeff Hardy, Cesaro, Danielson and so many others over the past year—has resulted in WWE lacking enough main event caliber stars across both brands.

That has been exemplified by the WrestleMania 38 card, which has a heavier-than-usual influence of part-time stars, such as Edge and Brock Lesnar, and celebrities, like Logan Paul and Johnny Knoxville. That is through WWE’s own doing, but what has been the company’s loss should be Rhodes’ gain.

Much like Cena and Roman Reigns before him, Rhodes has become one of the most polarizing figures in all of pro wrestling in recent years for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is his decision not to turn heel despite significant fan push-back. While that resulted in some groans from AEW diehards, it has caused Rhodes’ importance in pro wrestling to skyrocket to the highest its ever been.

The idea of a marquee AEW star jumping ship to WWE shortly after his AEW exit is likely a salivating one for WWE officials, and it couldn’t come at a better time for WWE. Rollins, arguably WWE’s most popular star right now, is lacking a defined WrestleMania spot just as he appears to be in the process of gradually turning babyface.

This story basically writes itself.

Rhodes returns to WWE as the first major ex-AEW star to do so in orderto feud with one of WWE’s biggest stars in a fresh, main event-level rivalry on a WrestleMania show that is sorely lacking compelling storylines. That is a recipe for success on a show that has next to no pizazz and could use a major match to change that.

That’s where Rollins vs. Rhodes comes in—as a WrestleMania match that actually feels like one.