Rhodes shocked the professional wrestling world by returning at WrestleMania 38, three years after creating WWE's largest North American alternative since WCW. Rhodes wouldn't dig deep into his AEW split, where he served as an executive vice president, but he confessed that there are hurt feelings.

Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Ortman) followed up with a report in May, noting that there had been discussions about doing the draft during WWE's long weekend in Tampa, which included Saturday Night's Main Event, Raw and two NXT events.