The many sins of Cody Rhodes

[Supremo]

In his defence, when you’re the love child of Max Headroom and Kryten from Red Dwarf, I think, “Artificial Intelligence,” is just, “Intelligence.”

[King Pitcos]

On 11/1/2024 at 10:07 AM, BomberPat said:

Yes, some of the biggest stars in wrestling have had incredible bodies. But plenty of them haven't. On top of that, and I think this is equally important and goes overlooked, there are way more wrestlers with incredible physiques who never amounted to anything, so it can't be that high on the list of essential qualities. 

Sorry for quoting an oldish post now, but how many WrestleMania main eventers from the last thirty years or so haven’t had good physiques? Bam Bam, Foley, Owens, arguably Sami Zayn at times (I can’t remember what shape he was in when he main evented)? And none of them were THE guy. There might be a few more but it’s definitely an exception to the rule thing - the mountain to the very top is higher to climb if you’re not in good shape. Even Daniel Bryan, who is probably the least visually appealing top guy (or top-ish guy) ever, was still built like a brick shithouse, he was just short and unkempt. 

Hogan, Macho Man, Warrior, Bret, Shawn, Austin, Rock, HHH, Lesnar, Batista, Cena, Reigns, Cody. Not all the same physiques but they all looked like a million bucks on a poster. They could all wear a Gold’s Gym shirt in public without it seeming sarcastic. To be the main man on the shower gel gift sets and Slurpee cups, you need a bit of Greek god about you.

[mim731]

"Adrenaline, in my soul...

this is the story of badger, toad and mole".

Seriously though, never turn this guy heel, he's the perfect robotic PR machine for WWE. 

[DavidB6937]

Getting a guy that takes that long to finish a story seems risky.

[Supremo]

Imagine all the mad words he’ll use!

“Jack and Jill vociferously went up the indelible hill…”

[mim731]

4 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Imagine all the mad words he’ll use!

“Jack and Jill vociferously went up the indelible hill…”

Plenty of weird pauses too.  

My daughter was listening to The Grinch podcast, and he randomly made an appearance on that recently, and despite not liking wrestling (yet), she was very excited. Between this, the podcast and his recent showing on Blue Peter, I think Cody will have done plenty of PR for getting kids to watch WWE over here. He's a great fit for that role. 

[BomberPat]

16 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

Sorry for quoting an oldish post now, but how many WrestleMania main eventers from the last thirty years or so haven’t had good physiques? Bam Bam, Foley, Owens, arguably Sami Zayn at times (I can’t remember what shape he was in when he main evented)? And none of them were THE guy. There might be a few more but it’s definitely an exception to the rule thing - the mountain to the very top is higher to climb if you’re not in good shape. Even Daniel Bryan, who is probably the least visually appealing top guy (or top-ish guy) ever, was still built like a brick shithouse, he was just short and unkempt. 

Hogan, Macho Man, Warrior, Bret, Shawn, Austin, Rock, HHH, Lesnar, Batista, Cena, Reigns, Cody. Not all the same physiques but they all looked like a million bucks on a poster. They could all wear a Gold’s Gym shirt in public without it seeming sarcastic. To be the main man on the shower gel gift sets and Slurpee cups, you need a bit of Greek god about you.

But again, the counterpoint to this is that for every Hogan or Warrior there's a Jon Heidenreich, an Ian Harrison, a Rob Terry, any number of bodybuilder types that never went anywhere, and any number of wrestlers who could have been a viable attraction if the business weren't overly oriented towards trying to find the next Hogan. 

Of course, this is professional wrestling, and they're athletes who need to be able to perform at a high standard, so when we talk about "good physiques" it's grading on a curve - the likes of Bret or Austin look enormous next to a normal human, but not so much by the standards of the WWF, so they're not the kind of wrestler I'm talking about. Obviously a wrestler should (generally) be in shape, but they don't need to be bursting at the seams. 

Outside of WWE, throughout history, I think there's an even stronger case for top drawing wrestlers not needing to be the bodybuilder type. I'm just always wary of any idea that there's any list of quantifiable things you must have to be a top draw as a wrestler, because there's always more examples who have it and don't make it, and exceptions to the rule who don't have it but become huge stars. If there was One Neat Trick to be a huge draw, everyone would do it.

[SuperBacon]

46 minutes ago, mim731 said:

My daughter was listening to The Grinch podcast

TIL the Grinch has a podcast.

[HarmonicGenerator]

29 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

But again, the counterpoint to this is that for every Hogan or Warrior there's a Jon Heidenreich

 

Hey! I’ll have no Heidenreich slander! He was … well, he was not very good, but I have an inexplicable soft spot for that guy.

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

44 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

TIL the Grinch has a podcast.

Gary Linker will sign up anyone now days.

[DavidB6937]

25 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Hey! I’ll have no Heidenreich slander! He was … well, he was not very good, but I have an inexplicable soft spot for that guy.

 

How could anyone hate a guy with THAT entrance theme?

HEI DEN HEI DEN REICH HEI DEN REICH! 

Catchy as fuck.

[wordsfromlee]

I can’t take someone serious as WWE Champion in a suit so well-fitting. 

[SuperBacon]

Yes Cody! Get that in for all the little toddler marks ?

Perrie Edwards...oooof.

[Devon Malcolm]

Have there been any other wrestlers who have done the CBeebies Bedtime Story?

[DavidB6937]

I heard Cody Rhodes is going to do the CBeebies Bedtime Story.