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

McMahon Reportedly Views Rhodes as a Top WWE Star

WWE chairman Vince McMahon reportedly views Cody Rhodes as a potential face of the company moving forward.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t WrestlingInc's Sai Mohan), it was McMahon who made the call for Rhodes to defeat Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell despite the fact that Rhodes was dealing with a torn pectoral muscle.

Meltzer noted that a wrestler typically loses before undergoing surgery and taking significant time off to recover, but the fact that Rhodes won speaks to how he is viewed by WWE higher-ups.

Lending further credence to Rhodes' standing is the fact that the WWE and WWE Network Twitter accounts have made a photo of Rhodes performing at Hell in a Cell their header photos for over a week, per Mohan.

Rhodes has not lost a match since returning to WWE in April following a stint as one of the founders of AEW. That includes pay-per-view wins over Rollins at WrestleMania 38, WrestleMania Backlash and Hell in a Cell.

After undergoing surgery to repair his torn pec, WWE announced that Rhodes is expected to miss nine months. While that may be true, most fans seem to believe that Cody will be back in time for the Royal Rumble in January and win it to earn a title match at WrestleMania 39.

WWE has gone to great lengths to present Rhodes as a top star and make him look strong, so there is every reason to believe he is destined to become world champion.

Winning the Rumble and winning the title at WrestleMania would create the biggest possible moments, and based on how he has been handled thus far, those seem to be likely scenarios.

Updates on Reigns' Reported WWE Raw Schedule

Despite having unified the WWE and Universal Championships, Roman Reigns reportedly isn't slated to have much of a presence on Raw throughout the summer.

According to Meltzer (h/t WrestlingInc's Eric Mutter), Reigns is only advertised for one episode of Raw this summer, that being the July 25 show at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

That event is notable for being the go-home episode of Raw prior to SummerSlam in Nashville, Tennessee.

Reigns is technically part of the SmackDown roster, but he has even been absent from the blue brand recently and has not defended the undisputed WWE Universal Championship since beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.

That will change this week on SmackDown, as Reigns is set to defend against Riddle, marking Reigns' first televised match of any kind since competing in a six-man tag team bout at WrestleMania Backlash early last month.

Although WWE never stated it as fact, many fans assumed Reigns would be seen more often on both Raw and SmackDown after unifying the titles.

For years, WWE had brand-exclusive world titles, but now that Reigns owns both of them, a world title can only be seen if he is present.

Reigns has taken on a significantly lighter workload since WrestleMania, though, and it seems like he will primarily be confined to SmackDown moving forward.

With Reigns likely slated to defend his title at SummerSlam in July and Clash at the Castle in September, he should at least appear more regularly on SmackDown in the coming weeks and months, even if showing up on Raw is a rarity.

Bliss Underwent Surgery on Nose

Alexa Bliss recently divulged that she underwent surgery on her nose during her hiatus from WWE.

Appearing on T95 The Rock Station (h/t WrestlingInc's Dakota Cohen), Bliss discussed the procedure:

"I had surgery," Bliss said. I had to get my nose all handled because, after six broken noses, it finally collapsed."

Since September, Bliss has had two lengthy absences from WWE programming. The first lasted from September until the start of 2022. Vignettes began airing for Alexa's return to WWE, and she competed in an Elimination Chamber match at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in February.

After that, Bliss was off TV again for another three months before showing up on Raw in May.

Bliss got married during that second absence, but as she revealed in the interview, she underwent a procedure on her nose as well.

Alexa has enjoyed a great deal of success since returning, with her only loss being in a Fatal 4-Way that also involved Rhea Ripley, Doudrop and Liv Morgan.

On Monday's episode of Raw, Bliss and Liv Morgan beat Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. in a Money in the Bank qualifier, meaning Bliss will be in the women's ladder match.

Bliss won Money in the Bank and successfully cashed in once before, and doing so again would put her back atop the WWE women's division.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: profanity).