The many sins of Cody Rhodes

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Question is, will WWE allow him to use his Kingdom theme, like they did with Mickie James using her Impact theme at the Rumble, or will he go back to using one of the many versions of Smoke and Mirrors?

Also if they bring Brandi back with him, will she manage him or go back to ring announcing? Is there even a place for her in that role considering they have Mike Rome on Raw, Samantha Irvin on SD and Alicia Taylor on NXT and 205 Live (to be renamed NXT Level Up as of tonight)

[Guest]

No chance they are bringing Brandi back to ring announce given her growth as a character the last few years. May not be fans of her act on here, but let’s not act like she’d not fit in as a character in wwe 

[AndyUK]

Wow. Shocked at this but it definitely suits everyone. Gets rid of a problem that AEW have while enhancing WWE's star power.

 

[Cannibal Man]

this'll be hilarious, can't wait

[IronSheik]

4 hours ago, AndyUK said:

Wow. Shocked at this but it definitely suits everyone. Gets rid of a problem that AEW have while enhancing WWE's star power.

 

'Star' is obviously a subjective term, but I've always thought Cody couldn't draw flies with a mouthful of shit on a mainstream level. 

Good colourful mid-card guy, but I can't see him anywhere near the main event level with WWE. 

And that fucking tattoo...

Good luck to him though, hope he proves me wrong.

[air_raid]

5 hours ago, AndyUK said:

Wow. Shocked at this but it definitely suits everyone. Gets rid of a problem that AEW have while enhancing WWE's star power.

I think it mostly suits people that like to watch AEW and want Cody wrestling for the promotion they’ve stopped watching.

Cody won’t be a star in WWE. Nobody is. Besides, you nearly always come back where you were when you left, or worse, regardless of what you’ve done elsewhere. Christian didn’t even get to come back as Edge’s buddy, he got left to rot on ECW for a while. Drew got forced to prove he could actually work in NXT before they let him back on the proper show. The only notable exception has been Bobby Lashley and I have no idea why they made a BIG HUGE MASSIVE MONSTER exception for him.

I fully expect they’ll reboot Velocity for the pure purpose of telling Cody that’s where he’ll be wrestling.

[Jazzy G]

We're getting Cody & Brandi Vs Miz & Maryse in the clash of the reality shows at Mania aren't we? 

[BomberPat]

4 hours ago, IronSheik said:

Good colourful mid-card guy, but I can't see him anywhere near the main event level with WWE. 

There's no way they've signed someone out of a top star and executive deal in AEW, right in the middle of Wrestlemania season, presumably on a salary that at least matches his dual salary at AEW (and potentially Brandi's too, and their reality shows and other commitments) just to stick him in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. If they want a return on their investment, they're going to need to present him as a big deal, and they will.

The problem is that "a big deal" in WWE is somewhere around the Bobby Lashley, Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre level, when one month you might be a dominant World Champion and the next dicking around with Madcap Moss. That's a problem of WWE creative, not a Cody Rhodes problem - if they bring him in for a Wrestlemania programme, I can't see the momentum or the novelty factor being kept alive for more than a couple of months after the fact, because they're not going to put him in that upper Brock Lesnar/Roman Reigns tier. 

What's potentially more interesting is whether he gets any non-wrestling responsibilities, given that he and Brandi have a few years' experience of that now. It'll be a very surreal situation if, after a bunch of Triple H's NXT stars have fucked off to AEW, Cody Rhodes ends up at the wheel of NXT.

At the AEW end, I don't think it's going to have much impact at all. They've dealt with it very professionally, they're not burying him on the way out, and their TV won't suffer for losing a particularly unfocused aspect of it. If anything, it might help them pull everything into greater focus to not have the "Codyverse" to deal with. As a performer, with the audience starting to turn on him, Cody was arguably a victim of AEW's success - it's not like Cody starting getting worse, his promos less focused, and his matches more nonsensical and overbooked as they went along, he was always that guy, from the beginning. His matches were always full of "moments" that didn't really make sense, his promos were always all over the place, and his sense of storytelling missed as often as it hit - remember how he tried to sell the match with Dustin as him "destroying the last of the Attitude Era", rather than being a match between brothers? - but the difference was just the amount of audience goodwill invested in him. In the beginning, he was seen as the face of the company, and as the guy who took a gamble on himself by leaving WWE. As Tony Khan became more visible, Cody felt less like the guy in charge, and as they signed more recent and bigger names away from WWE, the sense of Cody Rhodes as being exceptional for leaving WWE to try his luck elsewhere just didn't carry weight any more - not when you've got Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, CM Punk, even Adam Cole, coming in.

[d-d-d-dAz]

It’s also worth mentioning that Cody has had mainstream exposure in his WWE sabbatical, via TV shows and acting and whatnot.

Considering how bad the top of the card is in the WWE, he’s easily upper mid card/main event level. 

[Chris B]

4 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

As a performer, with the audience starting to turn on him, Cody was arguably a victim of AEW's success - it's not like Cody starting getting worse, his promos less focused, and his matches more nonsensical and overbooked as they went along, he was always that guy, from the beginning. His matches were always full of "moments" that didn't really make sense, his promos were always all over the place, and his sense of storytelling missed as often as it hit - remember how he tried to sell the match with Dustin as him "destroying the last of the Attitude Era", rather than being a match between brothers? - but the difference was just the amount of audience goodwill invested in him.

It's kind of interesting to think about the hits as well as the misses. If the match with Dustin hadn't been as good as it was, if the 'silver spoon' stuff with Jericho and the feud with MJF (particularly the strap segment) hadn't been as good as they were, that goodwill would have vanished a LOT faster. As it was, he kept it around longer than you might expect - the stuff with Brodie and his opening promo in the Covid era were all strong enough that the turn didn't really happen until the Anthony Ogogo angle.

[Pinc]

Its crazy that the fans were still with Cody as recently as that angle where he teased leaving his boots in the ring after losing to Malakai the first time. If they’d just written him out there his stock would be a lot higher (as would Malakai’s). Though we’d never have got Arn’s glock promo.

Cody’s debut and feud into Mania (if they happen) are bound to be the most interesting things to happen in WWE this year so I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Given Vince’s penchant for rotating people with real-world experience of running a show in and out of their creative positions its not at all out of the question that Cody eventually ends up in some kind of influential backstage role.

[BomberPat]

9 minutes ago, Chris B said:

It's kind of interesting to think about the hits as well as the misses. If the match with Dustin hadn't been as good as it was, if the 'silver spoon' stuff with Jericho and the feud with MJF (particularly the strap segment) hadn't been as good as they were, that goodwill would have vanished a LOT faster. As it was, he kept it around longer than you might expect - the stuff with Brodie and his opening promo in the Covid era were all strong enough that the turn didn't really happen until the Anthony Ogogo angle.

I'm still adamant that the programme with Ogogo could have gone a lot better, even knowing what we now know - that Ogogo had to take an extended leave of absence for his eye surgery, which was then complicated by Covid travel restrictions and visa complications, and that the initial plan had been for Ogogo to win a rematch in England - but they rushed everything into a couple of weeks of storytelling for what could have been dragged out over a few months, even accounting for Ogogo's absence. And it's difficult to argue that Ogogo benefited at all from working with Cody, as since he's been back he hasn't even wrestled on TV once.

For that sense of goodwill behind Cody, that angle was a perfect storm of the utterly tone deaf jingoistic aspect of it and Cody's "only in America could I raise a mixed race child" promo to sell a match against a mixed race non-American opponent, and then Cody going over clean against a wrestler with a lot of momentum that a lot of people had warmed to. It leaned into the worst aspects of Cody being seen as a peak Triple H/Jeff Jarrett figure, and then everything that followed was swallowed up into this quagmire of "is he being a subtle pseudo-heel, or is this just convoluted nonsense" and going nowhere angles like suggesting Arn Anderson was turning on him or that he might retire, but then none of them amounting to anything at all.

Meltzer touched on, not for the first time, this perception of Cody as someone who wasn't putting younger talent over, and said that it's an unfair criticism because of all the people he lost to - Sammy, Darby, MJF, Malakai Black, Brodie Lee - but it's really worth addressing how you can be someone who is, apparently, always losing to other people, yet still has the reputation of never putting them over. And it's because losing to someone and putting them over aren't necessarily the same thing - it comes down to execution, intent, and delivery, to where the focus of the segment is. And so many times, when Cody lost, the focus wasn't on "Oh my God, this person just beat Cody Rhodes", it was on "Oh no, Cody Rhodes just lost, what's next for Cody Rhodes?". I know overness and momentum aren't quantifiable video game stats or anything, but it'd be interesting to tot up the balance sheet and figure out how many people came out of a programme with Cody Rhodes better off than they went in and how many came out worse.

[Jazzy G]

Maybe being micromanaged by WWE's creative is what he needsto stop him from disappearing off on these outlandish flights of fantasy his promos and matches had turned into.

People are talking about him slotting straight into the main Event, but the only Main Event I see in his future is this one. Is Barrett fit to wrestle?

 

[69MeDon]

A pretty interesting read on this from PWTorch via Reddit. It's long:

Spoiler

On a recent PWTorchVIP.com audio show, Wade Keller gave some more insight on what led to Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes splitting away from AEW.

Keller said, “From what I’m told, Cody asked for more money than what Tony Khan was willing to spend…”

Keller continued, “it’s weird, because if it was nine months ago…Tony might have signed him for what Cody was asking for, or at least negotiated in good faith to a reasonable compromise. But Cody became a bit of a liability, Tony publicly would say, and he told me [that] ‘Cody still drives numbers, so I’m okay.’ But that’s not the biggest compliment. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I love Cody, and we’re on the same page.’ I was just like, well, you know, the undercurrent of what he said was, ‘yeah, he’s a headache, and every segment is a car wreck, but he’s still drawing numbers. So I guess I’m okay with it for now?’ Like, that’s how I read. — I kind of read between the lines on his choice of wording. I think the segment with Brandi two weeks ago did not help, didn’t belong on TV. It was just a disaster. But there’s been a lot going on with Cody. Pre pandemic, Cody was at the forefront of production meetings and, and really involved…”

Keller talked also talked about how Brandi Rhodes was viewed backstage.

He said, “So I’ll just say this. It sounds mean but nobody has anything nice to say about Brandi Rhodes and her disposition or popularity behind the scenes and I’m not saying that with any personal satisfaction or preference for her to be liked or not liked. I’m just telling you when I talk to people, Brandi has not been seen as an asset on camera, in the ring, or behind the scenes. And so that ended up being baggage with Cody because people like Cody, pretty universally like Cody. Even people who say bad things about Cody like Cody if that makes sense.

“But Cody wanted to be a superstar, and AEW signing big money contracts, especially with Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, changed the dynamic to a degree with Cody. And I’m not saying this wouldn’t have happened if that didn’t happen. But Cody knew and Tony knew that Cody became expendable. You know, he went from a clear essential top tier guy, top four talent in the company. And you know, Cody was fine obviously with Moxley being signed, and with Jericho being signed. Jericho was a huge boon to the AEW brand at the beginning. And Moxley was a great acquisition and disgruntled with WWE and not really a threat to Cody, because he was just so different than Cody, even if they’re not too far off in age. But Danielson and Punk and then Adam Cole to a lesser extent, changed things certainly more than Malakai Black or Miro or Christian changed things. And it did give Tony a sense of ‘I have enough top guys and then young guys on the rise’ that it took some leverage away from Cody, in terms of ‘you need me pay me’ and there’s only so much salary cap room that Tony has to spread around. And he had the good fortune to have Punk and Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole become available to him, but they were expensive. The top guys in WCW had the clause in their contract that if anyone got paid more than them, their contracts would go up to match it. And they knew politically that if you’re not the top paid person, you by definition lose leverage with the boss, with the network, with your co-workers, your peers. And Cody was no longer a top paid guy. And my understanding is he wanted to be and to a degree that just wasn’t seen by Tony as what he was worth to him in the current landscape. But it’s complicated and there’s not a single factor that plays into this because Cody might have been worth it if he weren’t getting booed and he wasn’t the subject of ridicule online and in buildings and frankly, behind the scenes in various ways.”

Keller continued, “Cody has always had some issues. There’s been wrestlers who have had issues with Cody even early on. But over time, Cody pulled himself more away. Like he got a really expensive bus and was driving that only to like the Florida shows, in part done for the reality show and stuff. I mean there’s more than two sides, really to everything. But it was perceived as ‘well he got this bus and it’s really expensive and its this giant gas guzzling unnecessary luxury is sending a different message than what the wrestler founded by wrestlers for the wrestlers were supposed to send.’ And it was like, ‘Oh boy, here he goes

Keller noted how Cody has talked about how much he looks up to Triple H. Cody said the following last year during an interview with Inside The Ropes:

"So I don’t know if I should share this, but, at some point, it’s going to come off my chest: Triple H is probably my favorite wrestler and was a role model. I only watched from a distance, but he reminded me a lot of my dad in the sense that I watched him do all the work, be this executive, and then go out there—and he was only part-time for the most part other than when I first started and had that run with him and Teddy and Shawn. He really was a model in terms of, “OK, you can do both, you can do both, but you have to be really disciplined. You have to take it really seriously.” And that doesn’t get you many friends when you’re the Hermione Granger of the company, and you just take it so seriously and are just a little bookworm.”

Keller continued, “So Cody wanted to be I think more involved with being seen as sort of an equal to Tony and it became clear over time this was Tony’s company, and you know, the EVPs had their titles and The Bucks and Kenny by all accounts are happy with their role as EVPs and they have some latitude. Kenny gets to work with the women and The Bucks get to kind of do their thing with their friends and get to show off their ring style. Tony is pretty hands off and open to their ideas about certain pockets in the company that they have. But I think Cody did desire to be something more substantial. Danielson and Punk changed that dynamic a bit and I think Cody knew from experience if you’re not the top paid guy, you’re not going to get pushed like the top paid guy, you’re not gonna have the leverage that comes with that. He was as much if not more than anyone the founder of this movement of AEW and Brandi put out public statements on Twitter about this and said nice things. I have not heard that there was a big blow up or that there’s a ton of hurt feelings with Cody and Tony. But, obviously, you know, it’s business.”

Keller noted how both parties said nice things to each other and that hopefully, those statements are genuinely how they feel about each other. Click here to read Cody Rhodes’ statement about AEW and Tony Khan. Click here to read Tony Khan’s statement

Keller added, “but the bottom line is Cody was not successful with this character and was stubborn or steadfast in wanting to be portrayed a certain way. And you can see it in that statement about the community outreach aspect of it. So when you’re trying to manage Brandi’s aspirations, and you’re also wanting to be paid a certain amount, and to match or exceed others, and at the same time the crowd is rejecting the character that you’re steadfast in wanting to continue portraying, it can become a problem. Then you have WWE that is willing to pay millions to acquire a co founder and EVP of your top competitor and make some waves with that going into WrestleMania season. I’m not surprised. People were really surprised. I heard some of the EVP’s were surprised about this, because it seemed like things had gotten better with everyone after there had been some tension. But if things got better, it might have been a loveless marriage in that sense. There wasn’t fighting but there wasn’t great chemistry and collaboration

"You know, everyone just kind of had their roles. Cody, if he wasn’t on his bus, he was in his locker room. He had his people, a small group who hung out with him, and he was open to hearing ideas and giving advice when people asked, but he wasn’t out there just making himself available and getting to know everybody and shaking hands and welcoming people into the company and getting to know their story. Cody was very focused on himself and the grandioseness of what he did. He recently bought a mansion — like a big house. And, you know, people are speculating about between that and the bus and all that, does he have the issue that his dad Dusty had, which is spending money that he’s expecting to earn before he has it or putting himself in a situation where there’s financial commitments and he just needs to get paid to match that. And I don’t know enough about the money he had [or] if he paid cash for the house, and he’s totally fine…so, you know, part of what Cody was going for is I think he just kind of assumed there would be a certain level of pay raise, and he was pretty forward on TV saying ‘quite frankly, I didn’t get offered what I thought I was worth or what I thought I deserved’, especially as a co-founder of the company and if that came with any extra perks, when there’s money to be spending on Danielson and Punk and Cole and now Keith Lee.”

 

[Guest]

It feels more sport like than wrestling. Cody was good when he was available, but he’s the xxxxxx who walked for man city so that Aguero could run once city had the clout to sign bigger names. Much rather people are moved on than stay still and get stale. Bodes well for those on the way up the card that they aren’t gonna be blocked forever from progressing. 

Edited February 16, 2022 by Louch
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