The Cody Rhodes WWE Situation Has Become Incredibly Unclear

Cody Rhodes left AEW alongside his wife Brandi Rhodes on Feb. 15. In the days that immediately followed, insider reports and fan speculation both pointed towards Rhodes returning to the WWE for the first time since being granted his release from the company back in 2016, with some reports indicating he could be involved in WrestleMania 38 at the start of April. However, things suddenly went quiet in the weeks that followed. 

On Friday it was reported via the Wrestling Observer that Rhodes was still listed on WWE's internal documents for WrestleMania, indicating he was still penciled in for the show. But just two days later Dave Meltzer appeared on Wrestling Observer Radio and stated it wasn't even a done deal that Rhodes had signed with the company. 

"His status has changed, in theory," Meltzer said (h/t WrestlingNews.co). "He was on the books in WWE. They had creative laid out for him. They still thought on Friday that they had creative laid out for him and then now it's very uncertain. They don't know what's going on with Cody Rhodes. They're not sure. We'll have to wait and see how that plays out. It's up in the air. They don't know. They thought they had him. It's not like's it's dead, it's not like they think they don't have him but they are not sure."

AEW president Tony Khan took part in a media conference call on Wednesday and was asked multiple times about Rhodes. He eventually explained the contract situation, saying that he opted to let Rhodes go after being unable to agree on a new long-term deal rather than utilize the option on his original deal for additional years. He also confirmed he won't be hiring a replacement for Rhodes' executive vice president role.

"I don't want to get too deep into it because a lot it's personal between me and (Cody) but I tried to reach a longer agreement with him beyond what we had for the option years," Khan said. "And it sounded like at one point I think that we were going to, honestly, and when we couldn't settle on it, the last thing I want to do is keep somebody here who isn't gonna want to be here so it didn't look like we were gonna get a longer deal done.

"I would've loved to have done it and I have a lot of respect for him but when we didn't come to terms on that it made it pretty clear where we were gonna end up on things," he added. "That being said, I said nothing but respectful stuff about Cody and I'll continue to."