Paid Members BomberPat Posted January 25, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 25, 2022 15 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said: I still don't think he was that hard done by in his WWE run. Stardust couldn't have been fun, but Cody got a singles match at WrestleMania three years in a row at a time when most people only got on the card in a multi-man match, if they got on the main card at all. They did think something of him for a while there. I think Cody did fairly well for himself there - he always had something going on, there was always an effort to give him some kind of character to work with, and he generally took the ball and ran with it. He got the "coming out of retirement" feud for Booker T, he was involved with The Shield when they were the hottest thing going, feuded with The Authority, and even got the big celebrity match with Stephen Amell, so it's not like they treated him like an interchangeable face in the crowd. That said, the tail end of his run as Stardust was a big nothing, and I understand his frustration with not being given the go-ahead to drop that gimmick and go back to being Cody Rhodes, especially after Dusty died. That they never went anywhere with the feud with Goldust didn't help either - while the crowd shat on their one match together, I actually really enjoyed it, and I loved the premise of Cody becoming lost in the Stardust character and not believing he was Cody Rhodes any more, while Goldust, who's already been through all of that, tried to talk him out of it and warn him of the perils of letting that gimmick consume him. There just seemingly wasn't any interest from management to push any further with that idea. Ultimately, as we've seen from so many people who have left WWE since, you can be getting pushed well and featured on TV, and it can still be an utterly miserable time, and I respect that he took a risk going out on his own at a time when very few people did, even if he did that with the safety net that his surname affords him.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted January 25, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 25, 2022 5 minutes ago, BomberPat said: That said, the tail end of his run as Stardust was a big nothing, and I understand his frustration with not being given the go-ahead to drop that gimmick and go back to being Cody Rhodes, especially after Dusty died. Â Did he ever make that request? It's always stuck in my head that when he came back as Stardust both he & Brandi put out blog posts (which I've just found with a quick Google) defending/explaining why he was still in that gimmick, along the lines of not wanting to use his dad's passing as a stepping stone & having been taught by Dusty to "finish what you started, kid". I've always taken those to be genuine and have never seen anything to the contrary, which is something that's stuck in my craw about Cody (who used to be one of my favourites in WWE, if you can believe such a thing) subsequently complaining about being mistreated/mishandled, as I've always taken that to be a bit disingenuous. Perhaps those blog posts were in fact a bit of face saving & not a true representation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Factotum Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 I think Cody said in an interview after he left that he was offered to drop the Stardust gimmick when Dusty died but he chose not to and stick with Stardust as he thought he could make it work. Which he did really for a time. Problem was it should have led to him dropping it in a story but they just kept him doing it. He really did commit to the role though. I actually admire Cody the man in terms of what he did, and he seems elsewhere to have good wrestling smarts, but as a performer he's bland as hell. Put the mustache back on him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 35 minutes ago, Factotum said: I actually admire Cody the man in terms of what he did, and he seems elsewhere to have good wrestling smarts, but as a performer he's bland as hell. Put the mustache back on him For a fair amount of time after he left WWE he actually managed to have good wrestling smarts and back it up with decent performances in the ring and as a character. I don't think he would've been able to convince audiences worldwide that he was worth something more if he wasn't able to deliver something at least pretty interesting for them to digest. He is absolutely fully capable of getting a crowd to love him or hate him in the right way. He's done it for years and it was rarely just on his name alone. Now I'm not saying that I believe he's as good as he thinks he is, but for a guy like him half the battle is simply convincing others to believe it. And that's what he's lost along the way in AEW. He's lost the simple straight forward face or heel booking that worked so well for him. Maybe because he thinks he's beyond that now, or the fans don't want that anymore, or he thinks he's being super clever by giving them something else now.. but he's not. He only needs to look at the Hangman story to know the most successful storylines will always come back to the most basic story of good vs evil and not some shitty meta crap or blurred lines or whatever else. Sure, there's room for that now and again, but the backbone of the industry and everything at the top of the card comes down to audiences wanting to see their favourite wrestler kick some arse and win, and enjoy seeing the bad ones lose. But at the moment Cody is floundering in that middle ground where he might think he's presenting shades of grey and keeping people guessing or whatever else but nope - he's just in that "no one really gives a shit either way" place and that's the single worst place to be for a wrestler. And no, I don't consider a few "ooh!" moments during a meandering meaningless buzzword promo to be showing people as being invested. That's one of the cheapest ways to get a pop or a reaction that you can and he should be beyond that. For all the successful work he put in over the years post-WWE to change himself and the industry, he's doing a fucking terrible job with his own career right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
69MeDon Posted January 25, 2022 Share Posted January 25, 2022 One thing I really didn't like or understand about his promo last week was that he was talking about Cole and ReDragon and saying how we already beat them on Wednesday nights and something about hiptoss class at the PC. For as badly as WCW handled Bret Hart, could you imagine Eric Bischoff coming out that night after Survivor Series 97, on Nitro, saying, "lol Bret Hart? The guy who was their champion while we've been kicking their heads in on Monday nights for how long now? Who cares?!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Nick James Posted January 26, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 26, 2022 Cody's promo seems to have been viewed as either brilliant or terrible. I thought this tweet was satire, but going by the replies etc, I now don't think that is the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 26, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 26, 2022 Not a single mention of the promo building up or getting you excited for his upcoming match. Some GOAT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted January 26, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 26, 2022 6 minutes ago, Supremo said: Not a single mention of the promo building up or getting you excited for his upcoming match. Some GOAT. He did at the end didn’t he? To be fair it was a week ago I saw it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said: He did at the end didn’t he? To be fair it was a week ago I saw it He did, but the guy either didn’t tweet that because he was so taken with the WWE bashing & meta references, or he forgot about it entirely which means the promo didn’t do it’s job Edited January 26, 2022 by WyattSheepMask Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 26, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 26, 2022 Yeah, if the actual selling and hyping of your upcoming match and opponent is a forgettable footnote then it’s probably not a good promo. Honestly, did he even name Sammy at all? Or was he too busy naming everyone else that’s ever existed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 1 hour ago, Nick James said: Cody's promo seems to have been viewed as either brilliant or terrible. I thought this tweet was satire, but going by the replies etc, I now don't think that is the case. Ah, so that’s gmoneys other Twitter account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyAnderson Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Maybe this is just finding fault for the sake of it but on the AEW roster page, it gives you the option to check out title history and every time Cody has won the TNT title, he's got a different picture whereas everyone else has a bog-standard picture. They've even used the same pictures of Kenny and Hangman on their tag team title reign as well as their world title runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 He couldn't even be arsed to enter the Royal Rumble. Dick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 9 hours ago, JimmyAnderson said: Maybe this is just finding fault for the sake of it but on the AEW roster page, it gives you the option to check out title history and every time Cody has won the TNT title, he's got a different picture whereas everyone else has a bog-standard picture. They've even used the same pictures of Kenny and Hangman on their tag team title reign as well as their world title runs. The business is fucking dead. Roll down the shutters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted January 31, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted January 31, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, DavidB6937 said: He couldn't even be arsed to enter the Royal Rumble. Dick. They probably couldn't assemble his entrance at the arena. And even if they had it would have spoiled the surprise. Bloody hell, he'd have taken so long over his entrance the rest of the Rumble would have taken place by the time he got to the ring. Edited January 31, 2022 by jazzygeofferz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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