While there were rumors of Cody Rhodes making his return to WWE during the March 14th 2022 edition of RAW in Jacksonville, FL, Rhodes ultimately did not make an appearance. WWE did tease Rhodes at the end of the show after Seth Rollins lost his match against Kevin Owens for a Wrestlemania 38 spot with Graves saying the following line:
“All of Seth Rollins hopes and Wrestlemania dreams were dashed tonight.”
The term “dream” would be a reference to The American Dream while “dashed” would be a reference to “Dashing” Cody Rhodes. The WWE.com website made the same references with the front page’s headline reading as follows:
“KO dashes Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins’ WrestleMania dreams in wild brawl”
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com addressed Rhodes’ status and how it could be a scenario similar to Wrestlemania 33 in 2017 with The Hardys returning as a surprise:
“He’s coming. I mean, that’s it. He’s wrestling Seth at WrestleMania. Unless something changes. I sure watched this not thinking anything’s changing. How they do it, I think they may end up doing the Hardys thing where you know they’re coming and they don’t announce it and they just show up the day of the show. They may be doing that one.”