Cody Rhodes has made his first appearance on WWE Raw since being sidelined with a torn pectoral muscle in June.
Appearing on the final Raw of 2022 via video, Cody discussed his plans for 2023, teasing that his goal was to win the WWE Championship.
"Even though I wasn't present for a good chunk of the year, what I was able to do, I think really did register with a lot of the WWE Universe," Rhodes said.
"And I want to pick up right back where I left off. Right back in that little kid's shoes because he had the biggest dreams. Because in this time that we're in, I have an opportunity at making that happen.
"And I'm being incredibly vague here, I get it. But I think anybody who is a fan of what we do can read between the lines. There is one thing that I came back for specifically, one thing," he continued.
"A torn pec couldn't stop me, I couldn't name anything that can stop me. It has to be done, it needs to be done and I want to get it done."
Rhodes returned to WWE at WrestleMania after eight years away from the company, during which time he served as an Executive Vice President of AEW.
Ahead of his Hell In A Cell match with Seth Rollins in June, Rhodes tore his pectoral muscle but decided to go ahead with the match, leading to one of the most memorable WWE visuals of the year.
Speaking to Digital Spy in July, Rollins revealed his reaction to seeing Rhodes' bruised chest for the first time, saying: "It was pretty gnarly.
"I don't think I expected it to look like that. I've had some torn muscles in my day and I know that the blood seeps down, gravity just takes over but I had never seen anything like that.
"It was definitely shocking and I think the way I felt about it was how the audience in Chicago felt," he added. "They were just very uncomfortable for the first little bit. I think people were even wary just to cheer for him because it was so wild."
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