News broke yesterday of Cody and Brandi Rhodes leaving All Elite Wrestling. Cody became a free agent at the end of 2021 and had been working for AEW without a contract since.

With Cody leaving AEW, it appears that a return to WWE could be likely. Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio on Monday night that Cody returning to WWE was “definitely something that was talked about … in certain circles about the potential of something happening.”

Wade Keller of PWTorch  is reporting that not only is Cody Rhodes returning to WWE, he could be in line for a major push and a huge match at WrestleMania 38.

“Cody and WWE haven’t confirmed it but Cody is going to WWE and he’s going to get a big push,” Keller said. “Vince McMahon is going to treat this as a big deal. Everybody I talked to thinks Vince loves the idea of acquiring a co-founder and EVP and, you know, main event wrestler.

He just held their secondary singles title not that long ago, and having him show up on WWE TV is something that Vince is very interested in taking advantage of and making money on it. It could even be a situation where Cody is in a major match at WrestleMania.”

“I fully expect Cody to be on WrestleMania either as a wrestler or making his first appearance,” Keller said. “I don’t know if they can hold back on putting him on TV so I could even see him appearing on Raw or SmackDown next week. I’m not aware of there being any kind of non-compete at this point since he’s been a free agent for a while so Cody could appear. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s even some augmentation to the booking plans for WrestleMania perhaps related to the Elimination Chamber in order to set the stage for Cody to do something really big at WrestleMania.”

Cody, who is the son of late pro wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes, began his in-ring career with WWE in 2006. He requested his release from WWE in 2016 and helped form AEW in 2019.

Rhodes has been one of AEW’s biggest stars. Him leaving AEW will create a domino effect not only affecting AEW but also the Turner networks with his “Go Big Show” on TBS and TNT’s “Rhodes to the Top,” which has been renewed for a second season.