The many sins of Cody Rhodes

[Merzbow]

AEW had a very "woke" crowd and Anthony's outspoken politics rang true with many fans including myself, so to have Cody be the face of the feud who was supposedly ending racism while also being jingoistic as hell was just tone deaf. Still one of the most idiotic decisions I can remember in recent wrestling history, Cody will likely always be that dickhead to me.

[Hannibal Scorch]

7 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Honestly I'm still convinced that a WWE return was always Cody's true endgame. Not a dig at him or anything, that's just the vibe I always got from him. 

His endgame in 2018 was to go back to WWE. He always thought he’d end up back there. He was the last member of the elite to sign (something the Bucks won’t about in their autobiography and Cody got upset about). Also HHH had meetings with the Bucks and Omega prior to the AEW announcement, but Cody didn’t. He was always destined to go back to WWE, once he got their attention. And when they got the opportunity to take one of the EVP’s of AEW they pulled out all the stops to get him.

[BomberPat]

On 8/3/2025 at 3:52 AM, LaGoosh said:

Yeah it can't really be stressed enough how bad the Codyverse was and it's all his own fault. Basically AEW started outgrowing Cody at the same time as Cody started getting worse and worse as a performer/booker. Or maybe once the initial sheen wore off it was just clear that there was nothing really much there in the first place.

I think "there was nothing really much there in the first place" is closer to the mark, at least for AEW; something I noted a lot in early AEW was that Cody's character work was all over the place, and that he had terrible instincts, but that because he was more or less the public face of AEW, he had a ton of audience goodwill, and the cracks began to show when that goodwill dried up - which I think was in part because Tony Khan became more and more visible as the actual person in charge. 

Ultimately, I think Cody Rhodes was a bad fit for what AEW has become, and a near perfect fit for WWE. It's almost impossible to imagine where you'd have fit Cody in around the storylines in AEW since he left, and I can't imagine any of them having been improved by his presence. That's not a criticism of him, so much as it's a "pre-nWo Hogan in WCW" situation - a big star that's a poor fit for his environment, for any number of reasons.

The Ogogo feud definitely feels like a point where the bloom was coming off the rose, and I think that was probably heightened for a UK audience who just had no time for the jingoistic flag-waving element of it all, that just felt completely tacked on. A criticism I make of MJF a lot is that in his angles and promos he reaches to try and do three or four things at once, rather than doing one thing well, and Cody was even worse for that, and the Ogogo feud was a shining example. The sheer weirdness of Cody trying to cast himself as a symbol of America as uniquely a nation of equality because he had a mixed race kid, when his opponent was a mixed race kid and not American is as good an example of Cody's bad instincts as anything.

I know the feud fell apart for a few reasons outside of their control - Ogogo's health and visa status meant he was unavailable, and the plan had been to do a rematch in the UK, and they weren't able to get a UK show sorted that year - but I think they could have managed a more coherent story with the same elements if they had just allowed it to play out across multiple matches. You could tell they had lost the point of it when Ogogo was just hitting wrestling moves as soon as the match started. The psychology of the match should always have been Wrestler vs. Boxer, to the point that if it were up to me, I'd have had them do a worked boxing match and a wrestling match - do those on TV, showing how each man has strengths in their own discipline, then do the PPV match and start to show where they have learned and are trying to surprise one another. And if it gets over, then you can bring in the USA vs. UK element of it all, and do a Flag Match as the blow-off. A lot of Cody's stuff - and it's difficult to say whether it was from him or the booking process outside of him - suffered because almost every programme was a one and done, yet he tried to fit enough story points for three or four matches into the build for one or two.

[tiger_rick]

Saw this floating about this morning so went and found it. Credit where it's due. Cody is the perfect person for this role, has embraced it and puts in the hard yards. 

The ultimate example of why having other major places to work, hone an act and build a following is absolutely vital in wrestling.

[LaGoosh]

A fun look back at the Codyverse, one if the wackiest, ridiculous things in wrestling. Where you had a fresh promotion full of over acts putting on some of the hottest most exciting stuff possible and then you had this weird isolated pocket of TV time completely separate from everything where nothing made sense.

It's the four year anniversary of the infamous Arn Anderson glock promo.

If you haven't seen the full thing it's worth checking out. It's awesome and insane. But also it came out of literally nowhere.

If you're wondering what the pay off was well the next week Arn set fire to a bin in Cody's garden while he yelled at him from his bedroom window and then they never referenced the whole thing ever again. Classic Codyverse. 

[Arch Stanton]

Hahaha, I remember the mental Glock promo and the whole thing of Arn trying to toughen Cody up, but I can't believe that it's only four years back?! It feels like forever ago given everything that's happened for Cody since then. 

[Supremo]

Arn cut the glock promo and set fire to a bin in order to motivate him, then Cody went on to be the biggest star in the sport, winning the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 40. Job well done.

[mim731]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

Arn cut the glock promo and set fire to a bin in order to motivate him, then Cody went on to be the biggest star in the sport, winning the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 40. Job well done.

Plus, it got Arn back on TV ever so briefly at SummerSlam last year. Couldn't have asked for more from a bin fire. 

[SuperBacon]

I didn't even know Cody had a show/podcast but this with Timothee Chalamet was really good! 

Chalamet is a good lad, and clearly a fan, which makes the chat interesting. 

[NeverYield]

I'll watch that, Timothy Chamalet in The King was brilliant 

[LaGoosh]

 

[TheBurningRed]

Love Drew. 

[Supremo]

I like to think he’s not even upset about the retirement, just disgusted at the cheap, horrible looking shoes John chose to leave behind. Surely those Amazon Prime exclusive films pay a decent wage? You’d never know it looking at those rancid trabs.

Cody vs. Gunther at Wrestlemania? He’s already nailed the entrance gear. Hit that prick with a Sonic Boom!

Edited December 16, 2025 by Supremo

[Chili]

43 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I like to think he’s not even upset about the retirement, just disgusted at the cheap, horrible looking shoes John chose to leave behind. Surely those Amazon Prime exclusive films pay a decent wage? You’d never know it looking at those rancid trabs.

Cody vs. Gunther at Wrestlemania? He’s already nailed the entrance gear. Hit that prick with a Sonic Boom!

So jarring but also nice to see him with that fucking tattoo covered up. 

[Supremo]

Cody finally comes clean on the tattoo on his recent podcast.

“I stand by the fact that I think the work is great and the artist is great, but I also will reveal, as I think I’ve revealed on this pod before… The neck tattoo I would widely consider the greatest regret of my life.

You know what? I’ll live with it, you know, I’m not going to try to get it removed and we’re going to rock this till the very end.“

Weren’t there Cody fans who got matching tattoos? Must suck to hear this from their hero.