Make him lose at Mania.
Cody's supposed to be the "American Nightmare", but there's nothing "Nightmarish" about him. There's nothing Nightmarish about the story of a "Prodigal Son coming home to win the belts" especially when the only real hardship that Cody has faced according to WWE was footage they refuse to show in his video packages and time away in the independent scene. He needs something better than this, even the injury doesn't really sell anything in comparison to other stories that have been going on.
People care about the in-ring and television storylines. You can video package and meme your way to a return all you want, but its not really a slam-dunk.
Cody needs at least another year or period where he has to face defeat and rise up from it, otherwise right now, he's the American Nepot. All things considering, there's like 10% chance in my mind they're actually going to have Cody lose at Mania. I actually hope he does.
