First off, I've never watched AEW apart from some webms posted here and I am surprised as to how great Cody Rhodes is. There is no irony in my post, this isn't even a meme thread about Cody being the GOAT. At this point it's not even a meme and I shoot think he's the best of this generation.
How do you fail with this guy? How do AEW fans boo him relentlessly and throw his belt back at him while cheering over a 40 year old CM Punk becoming champion? It just shocks me. From the moment Cody debuted at mania he looked like a star. Every match was banger after banger. This recent match at HIAC was a man literally risking his career to gain the fans respect and he fucking did that. This man genuinely looks like a star and it's impressive how he comes in and makes Roman Reigns look irrelevant. A star from AEW comes in and makes the face of WWE for the past 7 years look like a midcarder. Nobody is there to see Roman anymore, they want to see Cody.
This is who Tony Khan let go. This is who the AEW fans boo. A man who looks, acts and performs like a star. He refused to pay him. All so he can pay the countless washed up indie lifers who never drew a dime. It's no wonder AEWs ratings are where they are. Tony Khan didn't want to become the big leagues like Cody did and now it's over.
Long story short, Cody gained the respect of Vince and the casual audience. The only two audiences that matter in this buisness.
>First off, I've never watched AEW apart from some webms posted here Then why the fuck would I bother to read the rest of your post, a paragraphs long novel about how he was mishandled in a company you admittedly don't even watch?
Isaac Jenkins
How come nobody questioned why he wasn’t getting cheered when he was in AEW for the last year? I’m pretty sure 95% of the people here wanted him to turn heel.
Henry Phillips
Tony is a pushover faggot and lets talent run roughshod over him. That along with Cody probably getting bored and sick of AEW so he just used it as a free platform to get himself, his wife, and friends over before he left. As someone who watched AEW most of his shit was bad. Even the "cool" stuff like going through the flaming table, he literally came out with his entire back covered in that Hollywood stuntman goop shit which made it entirely obvious and exposed it completely.
Zachary Hernandez
He was too big for AEW, physically and mentally. The guy transcends that shit mark promotion.
Jayden Gutierrez
You are completely forgetting the context of why the fans turned on him in the first place. Cody was put in these story's where he would try to make himself out to be this complex hero that was fighting for more than just a belt, whether it was racism, the soul of America, warding off outsiders, in aew every instance Cawdy denied the sensibilities of the fans at every turn.
In the WWE his story is very simple get the belt that his father could never hold. He is limited creatively to what he can do and say but it's much stronger a message because it's easy to understand. Before I didn't know what the fuck cody was trying to do he was just a psycho path trying to become loved by the fans, he still is that guy but the message is much clearer and reasonable for the average fan to digest.
Nicholas Ramirez
Weird how someone comes in, gets treated like a star and gets over. Vince should try that more often.
Camden Thompson
His lisp wears on you my man
Christopher Jackson
Cody has some good ideas but there’s also a ton that need to be filtered. He knows that’s part of being in WWE whereas he dictated entirely too much of his booking aew.
Mason Robinson
Not an argument I'm just wondering how Tony Khan could let go of the only chance he had to become the big leagues. >I’m pretty sure 95% of the people here wanted him to turn heel. Le hecking ironic heel that we cheer. If anything, Khan was smart to not do that.
Christopher Flores
Cody isn't making an entire segment of Raw about his baby's gender reveal or making a tearjerking scene about how he bred a black woman. As much as I liked Cody, he was in his own little world in AEW which made the crowd sour on him. Constantly trying to go over with the crowd didn't help things. The biggest I've taken from Cody's success is that maybe Vince has a point to having a death grip on what your wrestlers do.
The last big signing they had was Shinsuke Nakamura and they gave him a royal rumble win but he was just too lazy to actually put in any effort
Jackson Baker
christ I botched that post.
Charles Hughes
>I'm just wondering how Tony Khan could let go of the only chance he had to become the big leagues He has CM Punk who is their biggest merch mover and PPV seller to date.
Jordan Jenkins
WELL FIRST OFF YOU HAVE TO REALISE THE DATA WE'VE GATHERED FROM OUR ONLINE CONSULTANTS IS OFF THE SCALE IN FAVOUR OF THE WAY CODY WAS BOOKED AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CODY'S BOOKING EVEN IN HINDSIGHT. IT'S PROVEN. SO WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE STATISTICS AND CONSIDER THEIR FLAWLESS EVIDENCE THAT'S JUST HOW IT GOES. /TonyKhan
Honestly, AEW fans booed Cody because Tony's shitty booking of shitty promos was "validated" by suckups who spend all day reading Reddit and Twitter for a paycheck.
Cameron Ortiz
Jobbed to the Codester
Liam Barnes
>He has CM Punk who is their biggest merch mover and PPV seller to date.
Yeah I admit even I laughed while typing that response.
Tyler Reyes
Excellent post, OP.
I never watched AEW either but I was adamant about not wanting any of their garbage wrestlers (especially after they constantly beg WWE for table scraps). Cody showed me that his failure in AEW wasn't his fault, it was Tony Kwabs fault. Does that mean I want another AEW guy? No. Nobody can top The American Nightmare. He is worth all 40-50 E-jects we kicked out.
Here’s what happened. Cody was arguably the most over babyface in wrestling before the pandemic. Late during the pandemic he decided to feud with the Codyverse which resulted in horrible angles (cutting an anti-racism promo against a half-blind black guy) and doing shit like gender reveals. That stain was left with him and he was never able to get the crowd on his side. It was either turn heel or leave.
Liam Morales
>I shoot think he's the best of this generation hes one of the only guys who 'gets it' in that he tries to make all of his feuds have something that grabs you. whether its his try hard promos that seems to always hit a nerve to the smarts or the marks, the blurring of a shoot or work, or the just plain old insane blading/high spots/injury angle he incorporates. whether its a worked angle or something meta, he knows how to use it for his stories. nobody gets it more than cody because he knows you have to make the audience feel something, and in aew they did too, they just were mad because they didnt get their yummy heel turn and homelander storyline. if they dont get their smark booking then they pout because theyre huge self-marks.
