If Only WWE Cashed In On Cody Rhodes
Vince McMahon has no one to blame but himself for AEW.
Cody Rhodes is arguably the biggest name in wrestling today after linking up with Tony Khan and founding All Elite Wrestling. Cody said it feels a lot like a revolution, but we have dubbed it a war. A war WWE is playing off in the mainstream public, but continues to make little moves to try and undercut the up-start promotion. Vince McMahon is known to do whatever it takes to win, but one has to wonder…didn’t he do this to himself?
McMahon has been known to put on a show he thinks is best, completely ignoring what the fans actually want. His most recent crime was at Hell in the Cell with making not only Bray Wyatt look bad, but supposedly babyface Universal Champion Seth Rollins. This type of booking has crippled many careers, and for some, ended them. Cody was one of those victims when McMahon ignored all the momentum The Dream’s son had worked so hard to build.
On July 14, 2013, Cody was positioned to win Money in the Bank and change his life forever. The crowd was white hot for him, as it looked like his time was finally here and by the end of the year he would be firmly holding the World Heavyweight Title. Of course, this was never in McMahon’s plans, as the winner (Damien Sandow) wasted his chance and we got another boring Randy Orton vs. John Cena feud. For whatever reasons, the powers that be did not see Cody as a top guy, and boy were they wrong. Unfortunately for Cody, the worst had yet to come.
After the breakup of the Rhodes Scholars, we still were not given a desired Cody singles run. Instead, we got the pairing of the Rhodes brothers, which gave us the worst gimmick Cody was ever asked to play. Following Goldust’s lead, Cody introduced the world to Stardust, a bootleg version of his older brother. Cody does deserve credit for making the gimmick as over as it became, but fans knew he was much more than a silly, cartwheeling, back up character. The powers that be sadly did not see his full potential, and after months of begging creative to end the Stardust gimmick, in May of 2016 Cody asked for his release.
Cody was granted his release and took to the independent circuit, hell bent on proving his former boss he had made a mistake. He made a check list and began to travel the globe, silently sharpening his craft while working with some of the best wrestlers on the planet. All while McMahon and even Triple H made little remarks that they were happy for Cody, you could hear the insincerity in their voices – they still saw him as a B+ player. They didn’t realize he was about to change the landscape of the wrestling world forever when he showed up in Japan.
The Bullet Club was the hottest thing going in 2016, a cool foreign heel group that started by disrespecting all the traditional values of New Japan Wrestling. Their newest member, The American Nightmare, gave the group even more buzz. Cody continued to take shots at his former employer on Being The Elite. Whether Cody was screaming Fuck the Revival, invading Raw or going after a WWE stooge, it was clear that he still had something to prove to McMahon. Throughout his Bullet Club run, Cody showed a side he hadn’t in WWE: he was the leader now and whether the Bullet Club was fine or not, they were the most talked about group for the better part of two years.
Cody and Kenny battled over control of the Bullet Club and the world watched with pure delight, even when they wanted to boo Cody, it was hard to because you were seeing Cody finally get the attention he deserved. At the same time, Cody was also signed to Ring of Honor, and he and The Young Bucks became the company’s top stars. Dave Meltzer thought what the trio was doing was fine, but that ROH still couldn’t sell 10,000 tickets any time soon. Just like McMahon, Meltzer underestimated Cody.
Not only did All In sell out, it did so in only 30 minutes. The show itself saw Cody win the same NWA World Title that his dad had won. Just from the crowd reaction alone, everyone knew that Cody had arrived. With 2018 coming to an end, everyone wondered where the Elite – Cody, the Bucks, Kenny Omega and Hangman “Adam Page” –would end up. Rumors circulated that they would go to WWE, but deep down they already had their new home.
On New Year’s, we not only rang in 2019, but also brand new wrestling promotion AEW. Cody, along with Tony Khan and the Bucks, created the WWE’s first real competition since the Attitude Era. The revolution had begun, led by a man once forced to paint his face and cartwheel for our entertainment was now finally getting painted in the light he truly deserved to be in.
McMahon can play off liking competition all he wants, but the reality is if he would have pulled the trigger on Cody that night at Money in The Bank, we may not even have AEW today. Cody continues to stick it to his former boss by not only landing AEW on a major network, but by competing with WWE product NXT on a weekly basis. Cody listens to his fans, friends and most importantly, his doubters. As AEW enters its second year, Cody Rhodes plans on once again revolutionizing the business.
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