Cody Rhodes made his first appearance on WWE TV in months during this week’s Monday Night Raw, showing up via video feed as Corey and Jackie Redmond showed off the biggest surprise returns from 2022. “The American Nightmare” proceeded to take a few questions from the pair, mentioning that while Seth Rollins is likely pining for a fourth match, he admitted, “I don’t know if that’s on my radar at the moment.” Rhodes then pivoted his attention to 2023 when he’ll eventually return from his torn pectoral injury.
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While he didn’t give any details about how his recovery is going or when he’s aiming to get back in the ring, he did drop a not-so-subtle hint about continuing his pursuit of the WWE Championship. Rhodes stated on the Raw after WrestleMania 38 that the only reason he was back with the company was to finally win the title that eluded his father, Dusty Rhodes, throughout his career.
“Even though I wasn’t present for a good chunk of the year, what I was able to do, I think really did register with a lot of the WWE Universe. And I want to pick up right where I left off. Right back in that little kid’s shoes because he had the biggest dreams. Because in this time that we’re in, I have an opportunity at making that happen. And I’m being incredibly vague here, I get it. But I think anybody who is a fan of what we do can read between the lines. There is one thing that I cam back for specifically. A torn pec couldn’t stop me, I couldn’t name anything that can stop me. It has to be done, it needs to be done and I want to get it done,” Rhodes said.
The “Best of 2022” special edition of Raw then showed a replay of Rhodes battling through his torn pec in order to beat Rollins at Hell in a Cell back in June. Numerous reports of Rhodes being involved in one of the main events of WrestleMania 39 have popped up over the last few months, though it’s still unclear if he’ll be battling Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship or if Reigns’ two world titles will be split up by then and defended on separate nights. Stay tuned for more details.
