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The many sins of Cody Rhodes


LaGoosh

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37 minutes ago, CL Punk said:

The worse thing is that Cody believes that he is the babyface and he dresses up like Homelander. 

Kind of hearkens back to BomberPat's point: that he puts out content for stories he doesn't seem to understand the workings of himself. 

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It doesn't help that he's appearing for a company that delivered one of the best, most subtle and complex storylines in Omega and Hangman. Even if things hit bumps along the way, they were always able to course correct and end up where they needed to be. It shows up Cody's shit even more because there's nothing of that quality in anything he does.

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Cody the person seems like a stand up guy who gets the public aspect of the business. Cody the wrestler is no better than the hundreds of other mid card wrestlers that float around, possibly worse, because he never got the experience of working different styles in front of different crowds so, like mentioned, his matches are filled with moments, rather than structure, to try and force emotional responses. Good wrestling is about the little things and the nuances, Cody has none, he's the wrestling equivalent of a Wile E Coyote ACME catalogue; Need to stop a roadrunner? Use an overly elaborate 10 megaton bomb!

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49 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

It doesn't help that he's appearing for a company that delivered one of the best, most subtle and complex storylines in Omega and Hangman. Even if things hit bumps along the way, they were always able to course correct and end up where they needed to be. It shows up Cody's shit even more because there's nothing of that quality in anything he does.

The Hangman Story was a lovely details based meandering story that was allowed to happen in a way that properly progressed an organic arc.

Cody's best stuff relied on those Road To videos that were initially purely Codyverse based and shortcuts, lots of lovely shortcuts. 

He's also exhausted the good will attached to his family name. His match with Aldis at All-In for example was based on the goodwill engendered by Cody being a Dusty surrogate and relied on run-ins and the big spot where dastardly Aldis drops the top rope elbow on Brandy as she protects her husband. Fast forward 3 years, Dustin is in AEW to scratch the people's Dusty itch(!) and Aldis would get the biggest pop of the night if he did that. 

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I've seen nothing of Cody in AEW bar the one and only AEW match I've seen. I put on dynamite hoping it would get me back into wrestling and it was Cody Vs someone, I forget who but I think it was the first match on TV, and it was ok but nothing like the fans were making out it was. I switched off and never bothered to switch on again.

I like Cody, from what I have seen. He's a good midcard hand, fun and solid but ultimately uninspiring, but for some reason there was this narrative that he was more than that and I never saw it. I watched I'm at wxw and again it was ok but wasn't in contention for the best on the shows that weekend and this was a bunch of indy guys in an old warehouse.

 

Edited by Tommy!
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I liked the Dashing stuff, and when he was "disfigured", but it was mostly for the music. He made the best of what he had, but it always felt like it was done because he was Dusty's kid, whereas Dustin managed to carve his own niche as Goldust and semi emerge from the shadow, plus he's wrestled in so many other places. Even when Cody was being Stardust it still felt like he was Dustin's brother rather than doing his own thing, especially when they were being called the Dust Brothers (later the brothers dust because presumably E.Z. Mike & King Gizmo were making litigious noises). 

In AEW some of what he's been doing was decent, but I think between his mostly feuding with his mates and keep disappearing to be in TV shows has had an effect on how the crowd perceived him, especially combined with him being the only one with a special entrance. I did find it interesting that Arn comes out of the babyface entrance and Brandi comes out of the heel entrance.

Babyface Cody being married to heel Brandi was always a bit jarring as well, especially when they'd do things on screen together. None of it seems to have made sense.

He really could do with going away for a while, at least from on screen stuff, watching the show, understanding where everybody fits in, and trying to figure out how he can fit into it when he does decide to return.

And I don't mean pissing off to make another series of Go Big Show and his reality show, I mean disappear from TV etc completely. 

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23 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

- Firstly and perhaps most importantly: that fucking tattoo. The MJF match was a hot feud with great angles (the 10 lashes is an all time great angle) but regardless of how good the build was when he came out for the match with that ridiculous thing on his neck you could feel the air suck out the room. I think a huge portion of the fanbase lost a lot of respect for him as soon as they saw it. I know I did. It's hard to cheer for someone who would do something so stupid.

Beautifully put 👏 🤣 amen, could not agree more. That tattoo is absolutely belting of shit and was the catalyst for his downward spiral.

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As annoying as Stephanie is her character makes sense. She comes across as a self entitled, egotistical, attention seeker obsessed with power.

She's the daughter of the most important, influential and successful man in the history of the business and the reason every person in the western world making a living from wrestling today is doing so.

Her ego is explainable and having had a beyond priviliged life from birth right through till present day whilst also having no sense of self awareness that she hasn't so much achieved or earned positions she's been in but was given them because of whose daughter she is again fits the character perfectly whether it's an intended reflection of real life or not.

Add that to her being married to a guy who spent the majority of his career as a dastardly heel and who is widely thought of that he would never have had the career he did if he wasn't married to the bosses daughter and again it all makes sense.

Brandi acts like a heel 90% of the time, yet her husband is and always has been positioned as the number one babyface in the company and she publicly throws her toys out the pram at any form of criticism she gets or people not giving her babyface reactions to her heel behaviour. It makes no sense whatsoever and definitely isn't helping his likeability whatsoever.

I thought with the Aleister Black stuff they were maybe leading up to all Cody's hangers on turning on him for being too soft/nice.

If they'd have had everyone in the Nightmare Family (also shit) turn on him, the younger guys admit they only befriended him to get their feet on the ladder, admit hey hated him but went to his BBQ's, laughed along to his jokes, entertained his spoiled kid because they knew how easy he was to manipulate so took advantage.

Had Arn say he never cared about Cody but he thought he had one last chance to stick it to Dusty by turning his son into everything Dusty stood against but he didn't even need to try hard to do so, he just sat back and watched Cody self destruct as he did it all by himself as he was so influenced by Brandi and chasing fame and attention rather than being the best he could in the ring. Tell him as much as Dusty and he were enemies he respected him and Dusty would be devastated to see the man his son had became.

Have Brandi come out the next week to address them all turning their backs on him to then call him pathetic, talk him down say she didn't respect him as a man, a husband or a father and she only stayed with him as long as she did for the exposure on TV and his celebrity pals before telling him shes been shagging Lee Johnson behind his back for over a year now and not only that but Dustin has known the whole time and told him nothing because he knew Cody was such a bitch he'd forgive her and take her back and thats everything she's grown to hate about him as Cody stands crying in the ring his life turned on its head over the last 2-3 weeks 

That could have given Brandi the scope to play the Stephanie McMahon character she either is in real life or is desperate to portray.

Then it would have given Cody the chance of either being a babyface the crowd may have been able to get behind after having everything taken away from him and a new focus without all the confusing taggers on and heel wife.

Alternatively he then decides fuck all of you the fans included look where being a nice guy got me and he goes on a rampage and turns full heel out on his own.

Edited by Jonny Vegas
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The Springboard Cutter he does is my least favourite move in wrestling. Firstly, AEW is full of people who do Cutters. Secondly, Sammy Guevara and Fenix both do springboard style cutters that are way more athletic and impressive. Thirdly, as one of the bigger wrestlers on the roster why the fuck is he even doing a high flying move? And finally, his version looks like shit.

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As I said in the Dynamite thread, for me the saddest thing is that Cody has become the thing he hated in WWE - he's basically now AEW's HHH.  He only has his spot because it's "his" company, he's part of a hugely unlikeable power couple, he cuts interminable promos and has slow matches, and is now in a hate-hate relationship with his own audience.

I'll be honest, since AEW started I didn't get it.  He has his OWN entrance, that they carry to every venue, that only he uses.  He is positioned as the number one act in the company, but he's NEVER been the number one act, so it comes across as hugely delusional.  And HHH, for all his sins, and despite those long years at the top, was actually a good main event wrestler and was in iconic matches.  Cody's not had a single match in his career that I can remember.  Apart maybe from that one with Dustin, and that was all Dustin.

AEW is at its worst when it's comparing itself directly to WWE, whether it's mentioning the Miz, or smashing thrones, or "subtle" references to WWE gimmicks and factions.  Cody emodies all of that in one package, which is ironic as the whole point of AEW was escaping the WWE universe.  I don't think Cody's ever got over failing at the big show.

 

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