-- The future of Cody Rhodes, who remains a free agent, is completely up in the air as of this week, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Originally assumed a given that he was headed to WWE, things took a "major turn" this week and nobody really knows what's going on.
-- The report notes that WWE had assumed he would be signing with them - so much that they had developed a creative story that would set up a "secret debut" within the next week (likely the 3/14 Raw in Jacksonville was a strong possibility) with a scheduled match against Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. However, high-level WWE officials don't know what happened that led to a snag nor do they even know if talks have fallen through for good or are simply stalled. The creative team was told that it was not 100% he was coming in even though a lot of people assumed it was a done deal since they were instructed to come up with the storyline bringing him back. Now everyone is being told to "hold off" on working Rhodes into any angles and especially a match against Rollins until he actually signs a contract.
-- The Observer adds that what is happening is that Rhode has received offer from "different places" and now has a choice on picking a destination rather than simply jumping to WWE as it was believed last week. There is also backstage chatter that he is using time as leverage in any negotiations with WWE as he knows the promotion will do almost anything to stack WrestleMania. However, one rumor that can be shot down is that WWE had plans to have him debut at the 3/5 house show as one of two mystery men to face Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns. This was never under consideration as WWE had no intentions of serving up Rhodes to either Lesnar or Reigns, who were going to be booked strongly no matter what. To that end, WWE never really hinted that Rhodes would be one of the mystery wrestlers other than claiming that Lesnar's opponent was someone who was worthy of a title shot.
