Cody Rhodes

[Lorne Malvo]

I'm still a fan of Cody, although he has definitely cooled since his red-hot feuds this time last year. I don't mind his matches going long as I tend to enjoy them, and they're usually booked in a way that make sense. The Avalon match was going to be a one-move deal but he got distracted then kicked in the dick, during other matches commentary has mentioned he's overlooked his opponent or not been focused which has justified the length. Just little details like that which make sense. It's a far cry from Omega/CIMA and Page/Sabian matches going 25 minutes for no reason other than 'epic' in the early AEW days. 

The Nightmare Family is meant to be an MMA-inspired training group more than a pro-wrestling faction, I reckon, so the fact they've not done a great deal together doesn't bother me. 

I think he's struggling now because he's in a vague feud with somebody not on the show, so he has to do all the lifting himself, but they've not even bothered to explain why there's Cody/Shaq beef anyway. So the feud is ice cold. He'd have been much better off making up the numbers in the Team Taz feud leading to a 6-man at Revolution with Hobbs, and I reckon that's what they had in mind until the timings with the Shaq feud got in the way. 

He'll be fine going forwards though. Once the Shaq stuff is over, he's the kind of guy who is only one good promo away from being a big deal again. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by Lorne Malvo

[wordsfromlee]

33 minutes ago, Statto said:

- His gear is kinda ugly.

It’s a hell of a lot better than that period in WWE where he had just trunks and boots. No knee pads, wrist tape or anything.

[Merzbow]

I can definitely see the MMA inspiration now that I've seen it mentioned a couple of times but it's shit, he's not an MMA or MMA-like guy and neither is anyone in the group (lolQT). Taz can get away with that as he was doing a lot of that schtick before it was cool, we all know him as the pseudo-shooter from ECW where he came across as legit.

[Love-Wilcox]

I'm sure not one of you will agree with me but his neck tattoo has actually grown on me.

[DavidB6937]

11 minutes ago, Love-Wilcox said:

I'm sure not one of you will agree with me but his neck tattoo has actually grown on me.

I'd see a doctor about that.

[CavemanLynn]

11 hours ago, wordsfromlee said:

It’s a hell of a lot better than that period in WWE where he had just trunks and boots. No knee pads, wrist tape or anything.

One of the many shit hills I'll die on is that they should've made way more of this. If they can concoct an angle about a botched SSP suddenly being a killer move, then they could've definitely made a big deal about a guy choosing to kneedrop his bare bone knee into opponents' faces, especially when he was doing that (decent, IMO) Undashing/Broken clear-mask gimmick.

Most of the valid criticisms of Cody have already been made. Of all the Elite, he looks the most corporate, so LOOKS like he has the power behind the scenes; therefore when he comes out to excessive pyro, trying so hard to over-emote, while never quite keeping a natural smugness in check, I find it hard to separate the real from the act. I've joked (sorta) before about how JR pipes up about how "they love this kid!", but it's easy to get cheers when the ring's surrounded by guys whose wages you're paying. There's so much going on with him at any one time that I actually would struggle to tell you what his personality is. His promos, as good as they have been, for the past year have been insufferable, smarmy, and, ironically, unnatural, full of unnecessary pauses and thesaurus rotation ("right, ... correct..., APROPOS, even...") that WWE get rightly slated for. And he clearly loves it.

When he's good, he can be great. The smoke and mirrors around the Wardlow cage match were brilliant, and some of his angles have been for the ages. But there's been his fair share of shit, too, whether it be the conveniently-forgotten garbled overcooked build-up to Rhodes vs Rhodes, the TNT champion getting too cocky angle which went nowhere, the Robbie Rotten look for the dog collar match, booking himself into a "Face of TNT" match etc. However, I genuinely think he wants to do right by his wife and family. He's clearly ecstatic to be becoming a father, so the weird dour portentous VT about the pregnancy announcement, and this week's on-screen gender reveal (sure, set off tons of pyro around your heavily-pregnant other half, no problem) no doubt come from a good place. But they come across to me as the jock playing in someone else's sandbox because he's got the big kid's ear.

I think he'll always be a step behind his big brother and he knows it. It's why he tries so hard. Go back and watch Dustin at Cody's age and younger, and he was SO good. Like, I know hindsight is 20/20 and the longer you stay around the greater the legend becomes, but Dustin really was The Natural. Cody doesn't have that natural talent, or likeability, whether it be youthful fire or genuine hangdog emotion. So he has to act great, or what he thinks great is, and that stops him getting over with me.

[The Cutting Edge]

Semi related but Dustin really needs to be used more/better, other than his first match with Cody (which should've happened a year after AEW started and them tagging) I can't think of much he's done other than tag with the utterly dull QT.

I dunno why they don't go for a Dustin world title win, him vs Omega could build a good story, even if it's a short reign it could be great for them, yeah he's old and that's a "bad" thing these days but you can only tell certain stories with certain guys, Jungle Boy isn't the grizzled gun slinger with one last shot at the big time and Dustin isn't the plucky rookie that has heart etc.

Back to Cody he could turn heel on Dustin to take title off him (breaking that shit stip too) and doing the jealous brother bit.

[Chris B]

With all the discussion of it, I was really expecting the gender reveal thing to be more than the 20 seconds or so that it was.

[Factotum]

If anyone needs a few months off its Cody. His baby is on the way, so maybe step back form the ring and sort out the booking in AEW etc. Then come back when it feels fresh and there's something to do. At the moment him and Brandi are incredibly irritating.

[Joe Blog]

2 hours ago, CavemanLynn said:

The smoke and mirrors

Nice

[theringmaster]

I see Cody as the 'casual viewer' guy; he's the generic face for the casual fans to latch on to, I totally get why he's got the Shaq feud, Brandi baby reveal video etc. And as an old school mark he is totally going for the 'don't need a belt to be over vibe' (like Roddy Piper, Jake Snake etc).

 

If you're the sort of fan who writes on forums (aka all of us) then hes not really supposed to be for us, we got the Omegas and Bucks, he supposed to catch the channel hoppers who don't regularly watch wrestling.

 

That's how I view him anyway.

[Arch Stanton]

Cody's 'Throne Breaker' t-shirt makes him look like somebody owning up to the jobbies that won't flush in the backstage bogs. 

Every one of those digs towards Triple H has been a massive swing-and-a-miss for me. I don't actively dislike Cody, but I've never thought he was anywhere near as good as he thinks he is. I actually thought that WWE booked him at about the right level to be honest, as a fun lower-midcard character. Now that he's outside of the biggest company, it makes sense that he'd make a decent upper-midcarder on a smaller stage, but he's still miles off what I would expect to see from a main event guy.

[DavidB6937]

8 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Cody's 'Throne Breaker' t-shirt makes him look like somebody owning up to the jobbies that won't flush in the backstage bogs. 

Every one of those digs towards Triple H has been a massive swing-and-a-miss for me. I don't actively dislike Cody, but I've never thought he was anywhere near as good as he thinks he is. I actually thought that WWE booked him at about the right level to be honest, as a fun lower-midcard character. Now that he's outside of the biggest company, it makes sense that he'd make a decent upper-midcarder on a smaller stage, but he's still miles off what I would expect to see from a main event guy.

I actually really admired the fact that he managed to get out there and convince a whole lot of people that he deserved a lot more than he got in WWE. Sure, part of that is believing in himself but it takes a lot of hard work to actually win fans over to that level. He really got out there and did it. You're right though - it is all about context. It's easier to get out there on the indies, sell yourself as 'ex WWE guy screwed over!' and become a big star in that environment. But to be able to carry a bigger company on your back and convince a wider audience of you being at that level is a lot tougher.

[The Cutting Edge]

Never been a fan of anyone or companies doing the "WWE screwed me/didn't use me/brass ring" stuff or other what they think is clever sly digs, a small group of fans will pop for it but making fun of billion dollar company for what they do "wrong" makes them look small time.

WWE is far from perfect but promote yourself not the competition.

[DavidB6937]

Tell that to WWE Champion Kenny Omega.