Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Rhodes Talks 'Tension' with The Rock

After The Rock seemingly almost took Cody Rhodes' spot in the main event of WrestleMania 40 earlier this year, The American Nightmare admitted this week that he has a complicated relationship with The Final Boss.

During an appearance on The Flagrant podcast (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Cody was asked about where he and The Rock stand, and while he denied that they have "beef," he also acknowledged that some things between them remain unresolved:

"No, just when a situation like that happens and it's very real, the fans have made a choice. It's very real. I think there is a lingering tension, perhaps. I universally love him. I grew up a Rock fan. We have yet to debrief on WrestleMania and what happened.

"Maybe some bad advice came or maybe he didn't get good knowledge of, 'Here is the current layout and who is sitting at that table.' I'd love that, if one day we could have this debrief. Truth is, when that happened, you start thinking, 'What if I told such and such this story.' No, you can't. I got very defensive."

After Rhodes won the men's Royal Rumble match for a second consecutive year, it appeared as though a rematch between Rhodes and Roman Reigns was the plan for the main event of WrestleMania 40.

However, on the first SmackDown after Royal Rumble, Rhodes appeared to step aside for The Rock, who had a stare-down with Reigns.

Over the next several days, fans showed their displeasure with the apparent new direction, and things changed at a pre-WrestleMania press conference with Rhodes saying he would, in fact, be challenging Reigns on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

Regardless of what the original plan was, things worked out perfectly, as The Rock turned heel and became one of the most compelling characters in wrestling, and Rhodes went on to beat Reigns for the WWE Championship.

The Rock recently made a surprise return at Bad Blood in ominous fashion, and he seemed to tease going after Rhodes, Reigns or even both, which means a reprisal of the Rhodes vs. Rock feud could be on the horizon.

Karl Anderson Undergoes Surgery

Karl Anderson indicated Tuesday that he underwent surgery that will keep him out of action for several months.

Anderson took to Instagram to post a photo of himself in a hospital bed with his arm in a sling. He included the caption: "Thanks to Dr. Dugas in Birmingham, Alabama, for fixing me. See you after WrestleMania."

The exact nature of the injury and timeline for his return isn't clear, but Anderson noted that he would provide details Thursday on his Talk'n Shop podcast.

Anderson, 44, is in the midst of his second stint with WWE after returning to the company alongside Luke Gallows in 2022.

Gallows and Anderson were previously in WWE from 2016 to 2022, holding the Raw Tag Team Championships on two occasions.

Upon their return after a stint in TNA, Gallows and Anderson once again aligned themselves with AJ Styles, but Styles eventually turned heel and went off on his own.

Since early this year, Gallows and Anderson have primarily been utilized in NXT, helping to develop some of WWE's young tag teams by working with the likes of Nathan Frazer and Axiom, Chase University and a host of others.

It remains to be seen when Anderson will be back and how he will be utilized when he returns, but his post suggests he won't return until April at the earliest.

WWE Talent Reportedly Unsure of Brand Assignment, Draft

With WWE Raw set to move from USA Network to Netflix in January, there is reportedly uncertainty regarding how talents will be divided once the changeover occurs.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), WWE Superstars have not yet been told whether they will be part of the Raw or SmackDown roster once January arrives.

They are reportedly also unsure if WWE will hold a draft or roster shake-up, or if the company will merely assign wrestlers to certain brands as it sees fit.

The past two WWE drafts have been held in the month of April following WrestleMania, meaning the current rosters were decided on only about six months ago.

However, since a move to Netflix is such a big change, WWE may already want to shake things up in order to ensure the Raw and SmackDown rosters are balanced to liking of both Netflix and USA.

In recent weeks and months, the brand split has been relatively relaxed with Superstars appearing on the opposite show fairly regularly.

To WWE's credit, the appearances are often explained through conversations between Raw general manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis.

Of course, it is possible WWE could eliminate the brand split completely, which would create more of a surprise factor with any wrestler being able to appear on Raw or SmackDown in a given week.

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