Seth Rollins On Facing Cody Rhodes At WrestleMania 38 & When He Came To Know About His Mystery Opponent

Seth Rollins recently opened up about Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE in April 2022 and working with The American Nightmare in his very first feud upon his comeback.

The current Undisputed WWE Champion returned to the company after a six-year hiatus at WrestleMania 38, where he was revealed to be Seth Rollins’ mystery opponent. Cody went on to win that match and the feud, which culminated with the iconic Hell in a Cell Match.

In a recent appearance on Games with Names, The Visionary commented on Cody’s WWE return and what the company had in mind when it brought him back. Seth also revealed that he didn’t know that Rhodes would be his opponent at WrestleMania that year until the middle of March.

Below are the highlights:

Seth Rollins on Cody Rhodes’ WWE return and facing him at WrestleMania 38

“At this point, Cody had only been back for a few months. He came back to WWE after a long hiatus, started a rival company, AEW, and had been making some headway over there. And then he comes back to WWE at WrestleMania as my mystery opponent, which [is] legitimately about as last-minute as you can get for a WrestleMania match. And that was a big deal for our industry to have someone—he was like the first guy who had left, gone to AEW, and then had come back. And I was tasked with working with him right out of the gate. We were looking to make him a big star.

“He had done his due diligence while he was gone to get himself to a position where, when we brought him back, he was ready to be one of the top acts in the company, which, when he left, he was not that guy. Top brass didn’t see him as that guy, so he was coming back in a position where they were hoping that they could groom him to be in the John Cena position. And so, he was more than excited to get in the ring with me. He’s someone whom I’ve had a lot of history with. His father helped kind of hone him and build him in developmental. I worked with him and his brother a lot when my group, The Shield, first came in WWE back in 2012. And so, there was a lot of history there, and he was more than happy to step into the ring with me.”

On when he came to know that he would be facing Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 38

“There were conversations about matches. I didn’t know about Cody for sure until the middle of March. For sure. WrestleMania is in April, so we had maybe a month of lead time knowing Cody was coming. Even two weeks before, I was like, ‘Do we have his signature on a piece of paper?’ It was very top secret, and there were very few people who knew what was going on.”

Check out the conversation below:

After failing to defeat Cody Rhodes during their 2022 feud, Seth Rollins finally got one up on The American Nightmare in October this year when he defeated the latter for the Men’s Crown Jewel Championship in Perth.

Please credit Games with Names and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this copy.