Cody Rhodes

[RedRooster]

When AEW started, Cody Rhodes was one of the stand-out performers. His feuds were fantastic (Dustin, Spears, Jericho, MJF), and his matches rangers from good, to excellent. He arguably received the biggest babyface reaction week-to-week and was involved in some incredible angles. There were a few mis-steps - like exposing his poor dog to pyro noise - but generally he did well.  

Recently though, the tide seems to have turned with the guy. I'm finding him pretty insufferable, and a lot of his recent angles have almost felt like an ego-trip for both he and Brandi (on-screen gender reveal, the elaborate pregnancy reveal video, whatever the fuck is going on with Shaq, the ever-expanding yet always redundant 'Nightmare Family'). 

My question is pretty straightforward...what do you think of him? If you still enjoy what he's doing, why? If you don't, what needs to change? 

[Jazzy G]

It sometimes feels as if he's deliberately being booked in nothing matches and feuds to try and avoid being accused of sticking himself at the top the company because of his corporate standing, but then he also has this hangup where he has to try and put on some epic match across 2 commercial breaks with a load of enhancement guys because he wants to show how talented he really is. He really needs to just come out and have a few weeks of squashing jobbers and work his way back into a real program, although how that'll look after he's tried to make Shaq look like a millions dollars remains to be seen. 

[JimboDangerous]

When Cody left WWE, that first year or two were completely underwhelming, to a point where I labeled him 'Three Star' Cody Rhodes to a mate; his matches weren't dogshit, but there was nothing that stood out to back up the noise that WWE wErE HolDiNG hIM BaCk!!one!

However you then fast forward All In, where he started the program with Aldis (another underwhelming wrestler), and I was fucking hooked. The YouTube series pushed their match to my most looked forward to, and ultimately MOTY. This was repeated after this with Dustin and Shawn Spears. Logical storytelling with complimentary YT videos that I'd watch every week, and peaked with the MJF feud.

Which is all well and good, yet someone commented on here (I can't remember who) around MJF time that, Cody can tell these big stories leading to the big one on one showdown all week, but as a weekly wrestler, he's underwhelming. Unless he has a big program to get his teeth into, nothing sticks out. Take away the grandiose entrance and being a centrepiece of a company that he's executive VP of, he's still just a three star guy. And I honestly can't see that changing, no matter what self serving shit he brings to television every week

Edited February 18, 2021 by JimboDangerous
Grammar

[Millard Rausch]

Very bland.

[Supremo]

Cody more than anyone needs a full arena of fans back as soon as possible. The weird tweener tenancies, meandering feuds and shitty insider references are forgivable when there's tens of thousands of people going apeshit for him. Not so much when the building is empty.  He and the rest of the Elite also need to sit down and write out a solid, coherent six months of storylines for him too. I've wondered for a while now if the death of Brodie Lee played a part in it. After Cody regained the TNT Title it seemed inevitable that Brodie would return and they'd carry on where they left off. Ever since Brodie passed away it's felt like Cody's been stumbling around without any type of direction.

[Chris B]

I also suspect the Shaq thing has very much not gone according to plan, and they've had to shift timing around, leading to some stop and starting. His time on the Go Big show has gained extra eyeballs too, so while it may not be great for existing viewers, he may be attracting new ones right now more than anyone else.

With regards to this week's thing, it feels like it's there to be part of a highlight package later, more than anything.

Once this Shaq thing is done, there'll be something more appropriate. A short Omega feud could be a lot of fun, with Kenny bragging about how he doesn't have to put the belt on the line.

 

[Yakashi]

Cody is a heel that does heel things in a confusing manner but comes out of the babyface entrance tunnel. Without fans to trick us, his feuds and matches and his character are exposed.

[FLips]

He's one of the biggest faces in the business that can have a 5 star match and drag guys like Shawn Spears up to main event level, but instead he books his own gender reveals and gives himself a 5 minute pyro entrance to go broadway with Dark jobbers. He's very confused and the more he appears recently, the less I care about him. Really frustrating.

[DavidB6937]

He's consistently inconsistent. The flip flopping around is incredibly annoying because when he puts his mind to it and actually has some focus on his character and journey then he can be really fucking good. And not in a 'well he's convinced all the stupid fans he's brilliant when he's not really' - I genuinely think he has it in him to be absolutely exceptional in the right circumstances. And not everyone has that in them.

But he's not the kinda guy that can work with shit and make it good most of the time. Ultimately frustrating knowing what he's capable of. It generally feels like he's on cruise control these days assuming the AEW fans will just lap up everything he does because he's Cody.

[WyattSheepMask]

15 minutes ago, Yakashi said:

Cody is a heel that does heel things in a confusing manner but comes out of the babyface entrance tunnel. Without fans to trick us, his feuds and matches and his character are exposed.

He doesn’t though, he comes out of his own special section.

More and more lately he’s come across as a right insufferable prick. Whether that’s the beginnings of a heel turn or not I don’t know, but you get the feeling that more and more of Cody the person is making its way into TV. 
When he wants to be, he can be good in the ring but the other week he went 10 minutes with Peter Avalon, a guy who no-one in their right mind would give a solitary shit about. 
If he’s going to be a star of the promotion then he needs to be presented as such, and it’s going to more than just giving yourself the biggest entrance. Going back & forth with guys like Warhorse isn’t bringing them up to his level, it’s dragging him down to theirs 

Edited February 18, 2021 by WyattSheepMask

[The Cutting Edge]

I've mentioned a few times in AEW thread about him.

His act is full heel but he doesn't see it, the entrance, suits, entourage etc.

I find the ott melodramatic build to even the most average dynamite matches to much and overbearing, he's pretty much a HHH tribute act but thinks he's being ironic and meta.

 

[ColinBollocks]

I don't watch AEW every week, but it's his matches I look forward to watching the most when I check out a PPV. They're not spectacular, in terms of moves, but they are usually always filled with drama and good story telling. Reeks of someone that is very much in agreement Bret Hart was better than the male stripper / failed drama student. Over the last decade or so, I've not seen any matches better than that Rhodes brother match.

[Guest]

I just don’t think he’s that arsed anymore. Has his tv show, baby on the way, wrestling is at least 3rd and isn’t good at multi tasking 

[Mr Butternut Squash]

Cody's such a genius that his entrance is through the middle. He's a tweener you see. Get it?

[Statto]

I was a big Cody fan from day one in WWE - I even recall commenting to a friend when he & Dustin inducted their dad into the HoF how it seemed he'd inherited a good chunk of Dusty's gift of gab and could be a big star one day.

If you asked me to name my favourite match of the 2010s off the top of my head, I'd probably say the Rhodes Boys taking the tag belts off The Shield with Dusty in their corner. I even quite enjoyed Stardust, and liked that in that character he wrestled differently, had a different finisher etc.

Since leaving the WWE system, though... I can't help but feel like he continually shows lapses of judgement when left to his own devices.

- His music is dreadful, where he came out to cracker after cracker in WWE, IMO.

- His gear is kinda ugly.

- He gives himself a ppv-opening level of pyro every time he comes out to do a promo, and there's no real design behind it beyond "LOTS OF PYRO OF ALL KINDS GOES OFF AT ONCE!"

- The neck tattoo, the dog/pyro incident, hanging around QT Marshall etc etc...

I think I soured on him a bit when he whined about how much he hated being forced to be Stardust, when I vividly recall him giving a prior interview in which he said WWE had suggested he drop the gimmick after Dusty's death and go back to being Cody, but he'd chosen to stay as Stardust because his dad would have wanted him to see through his commitment to the gimmick.