Five matches that must happen if Cody returns to the WWE

Is Cody Rhodes going back to the WWE? If so, these are five matches that must happen.

It was a shocking day in the world of professional wrestling on Feb. 15 when Cody Rhodes announced that he’s leaving All Elite Wrestling. This was the biggest news of that week and it was bigger than the news that WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin is returning at WrestleMania.

As of right now, Rhodes is a free agent and can sign any wrestling company. It was expected that he would go to WWE until a few days ago when talks involving both WWE and Rhodes have stalled. Even though both parties aren’t talking right now, I still believe that Rhodes will sign with WWE in the near future.

And if he signs with Vince McMahon’s company, he’ll have fresh new opponents to face as well facing wrestlers that he wrestled a long time ago. Right Now, I’m going to list five wrestlers that should face Rhodes if he signs with WWE.

5. Cody Rhodes vs Edge

If Cody Rhodes does come back to WWE, he needs to be showcased as a star. You might ask why he should be used as a star and my answer to that question is because he is coming off a run in AEW that finished a couple of weeks ago.

He was also one of the Executive Vice Presidents in AEW. And he was TNT Champion a few weeks ago. That will give him the momentum to be a top guy. And WWE needs to keep him in that position if not higher because they need stars because WWE doesn’t have enough. One way to make Rhodes credible is to face Edge.

Edge and Rhodes have never had a one-on-one match with each other on tv before. That could change in the near future. Rhodes and Edge will have a great match together. It could be a match-of-the-year candidate.

They will have to come off with something to build for this match though because they really don’t have anything that is linked to both wrestlers. But these guys know what they’re doing. I’m sure they can come up with something.

Maybe Edge can talk about Rhodes’ dad Dusty Rhodes or his brother Dustin Rhodes aka Goldust during a promo. It can be something like how Dusty Rhodes helped out Edge during his career. Anything that both wrestlers can think of that will the program meaningful will make the match more interesting. And that will help the match that should be really good.

4. Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles

Unless this match happened in 2016 when Rhodes was Stardust at a live event which I don’t think ever happened, I believe we never saw AJ Styles vs Cody Rhodes before. This is why I’m excited to watch this match if Rhodes is signing with WWE.

Even though they never interacted on tv before, these two wrestlers have been linked together because both of them were a part of the Bullet Club. Styles was in Bullet Club before coming to WWE and Rhodes joined the group almost a year after Styles left.

Both wrestlers were important members of the Bullet Club during their times in the group. So, it would be great to see them wrestle each other. It’s a match that never happened before with two guys who have been linked with the Bullet Club.

Even though WWE will most likely not mention the Bullet Club on tv, that can be a presence on their program the fans who followed Styles and Rhodes’ career will know that they were in the Bullet Club and they will get excited because of that reason.

It’s like when WWE did Styles vs Finn Balor at the Tables Ladders and Chairs PPV in 2017. Since they were in Bullet Club, the fans got really excited about the match. And they will get excited for this match as well.

This match can easily be the main event on a PPV. Both wrestlers can work and make the match look great. And that makes the match build amazing. This can easily be a match-of-the-year candidate, but it wouldn’t as exciting if it wasn’t for the connection to the Bullet Club.

3. Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre

Both Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre left WWE and got themselves over in the independent scene. McIntyre was released from WWE in 2014, he was great everywhere he went to and that got him back to WWE three years later.

He went on to win the NXT Championship in the summer of 2017. He also won the Royal Rumble match three years later and won the WWE Championship two months later in the main event of WrestleMania 36 night two.

Rhodes left the company in 2016 and he did the same thing that McIntyre did, he went everywhere and tore it up. He won the ROH Championship a year later and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2018.

He also won the IWGP United States Championship a month later. A couple of months later, he along with the Young Bucks and Tony Khan started AEW. And winning the TNT Championship three times during his AEW run.

The point is that both Rhodes and McIntyre betted on themselves when they left WWE and paid off really well for both of them. If they have a match together, not only it will be great but the build-up will also be great.

The story of how both wrestlers left WWE and made a name for themselves elsewhere then came back to the company adds an interesting wrinkle to this match. It makes the match meaningful and Rhodes should beat McIntyre because this will move him up in the main roster.

2. Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins

If Cody Rhodes does sign with WWE and right now that’s a big if, the first match he should have with Seth Rollins. And that match should happen at WrestleMania 38. If this does not happen at WrestleMania, then it should happen as soon as possible.

These two men did have a couple of matches together before. I remembered fondly the two matches were the Rhodes Brothers vs the Shield in a two on three handicap match at battleground 2013. And the Rhodes Brothers vs Rollins and Reigns for the Tag team championships a few weeks later at Raw a few weeks later.

Now almost nine years later both men are now top guys in their respective companies. Rollins is an all-pro WWE guy since 2019. And Rhodes is an all-pro AEW guy from day one until his contract expired. So, the story of two guys who thought their companies had the best wrestling facing each other would be great.

Monday Night Raw will be in Jacksonville Florida next week. Jacksonville was also the place where Rhodes spent most of the time wrestling for the past three years since that is the home base for AEW. So, there is a possibility that Rollins calls out Rhodes for a match at WrestleMania next week.

Rollins currently does not have a match at WrestleMania. And there isn’t a match right now which is unbelievable since he’s a top guy in the company. The only suitable opponent at WrestleMania for Rollins is Rhodes because it will be a great match that could have an interesting buildup.

1. Cody Rhodes vs Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns has been Universal Champion since Payback 2020. He has held that title for well over 500 days. And he will most likely keep that championship after WrestleMania if he beats Brock Lesnar and unifies both the Universal and WWE Championships.

After Lesnar, there isn’t anyone else that could beat Reigns because he beat pretty much everyone else. Bobby Lashley is the only one I can see dethrone the tribal Chief but Lashley is currently inactive. At the moment, everyone on the main roster cannot beat Reigns.

That’s why it would be a missed opportunity for WWE not to sign Cody Rhodes. He’s a star not only in the wrestling business, but he also had a reality show and he was on the Go Big Show. Signing Rhodes gives the company another star.

And he could be the one to beat Reigns. Of course, Rhodes can’t beat him on Day One. But once he beats a couple of opponents including the four wrestlers that I mentioned before, he will be ready Reigns at Summerslam and take both WWE and Universal championships.

Both Reigns and Rhodes did wrestle each other before. And those matches are the ones that I mention before during the Rollins vs Rhodes piece. But they were different wrestlers back in 2013. Now they are considered being two of the top names in wrestling today.

WWE doesn’t have a ton of stars. A big name just fell into their laps. They used don’t take advantage of these situations where they made that wrestler into a star. But this is the time to make Rhodes a star in the WWE so you have another big name and that you can attract other AEW stars to WWE.