How AEW Failed Cody Rhodes Before His Epic WWE Return 

HE HAS FINISHED THE STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People don't get how over Cody is, I've never seen such backlash from someone not winning a championship than for Cody not winning at Wrestlemania 39. Not to mention, He got the wrestling community to turn on THE ROCK of all people, and #WeWantCody was the highest trend on X for three days straight. Nothing wrestling related has ever trended that long. Whether you like him or not, Cody Rhodes is truly UNDENIABLE!!

The story of Cody Rhodes is The Lion King. His father dies, he leaves his home where he meets new friends that help him to become the best version of himself! Then he returns to his home to take the throne from a ruthless villain.

Cody Rhodes is legitimately a real life 10 year challenge and definition of betting on yourself. Definitely finishing the story this year

You can say. Cody pulled the Ultimate AEW heel move in going back to the WWE.

A predictable story can still be a great story, and so far Cody has had one heck of a story.

Who's here after Cody winning Wrestlemania 40???

From boos and comparisons with Homelander to top babyface, top merch seller, biggest crowd pops, WWE 2K24 cover star all within the space of two years. How did AEW drop the ball so badly with Cody?

Cody didn't fail at Aew he was helping Tony K run Aew he was the TNT Champion

What happened in AEW is that fans didn’t like how much the nightmare family started taking TV time. Brandi wanted to win the woman’s belt. Qt wanted to be a single’s star. Dustin was the only other guy beside Cody in that faction worth watching. The best moment of that group was Arn Andersons infamous Arn with the Glock promo when he was calling Cody out for being too soft. Cody did the right thing leaving because after that stipulation loss to Jericho, he basically wrote himself out of the big title picture and into a mid card guy. Whoops. It wasn’t worth the shock value of losing. He realized he still has the desire to be the #1 guy and he went to pursue it. If you noticed you haven’t seen Brandi wrestling on wwe. Not even on nxt. They didn’t cater to any of the bs she was doing in AEW. Tony’s a nice guy, but sometimes too nice. Cody has earned a lot of non believers including myself about his appearance in wwe. No one can take away what he’s done for wrestling.

The "cody cant win the title " angle booked themselves into a corner. Thankfully it helped MJF get more heat but still.

I know it's corny to say, but honestly, Cody has been an inspiration for me. Like Cody, i have professionally struck it out on my own and bet on myself to succeed. Although my "story" as it were is far from over. So far, it has been successful. Hard work and self-belief, and honestly, a little bit of luck can do wonders.

Cody walked past me on his way out of the arena at Dynamite once. He realized he had missed my hand and actually doubled back to slap it. I’ve been a fan ever since

Dusty Rhodes did NOT lose the match for the WWF title against Superstar Billy Graham, he WON the match but it was on a count out so the title didn’t change hands.

Cody has to Finish the story, because I’ve never seen someone as over as him besides Daniel Bryan in 2014.

He made people turn on The Rock. THE ROCK. That's all you need to hear

Cody Rhodes is 38 years old, he might still be active for ATLEAST 5 years from now, but there have been more miraculous appearances and with older wrestlers, even if temporary

I watched Cody Rhodes for the first time this past Sunday (after more than a decade of Pro Wrestling hiatus) and I am already a fan of his. I am doing a deep dive on the guy on YT and this is one of the best videos I've seen. Also shout out to Dustin "Gold Dust" Rhodes. He was one of my favorites back in the attitude era.

Can't believe how a storyline can make u boo someone and later cheer for the same guy...I'm a a #codycrybaby....this time story needs to finish...#codyrocks

AEW was always just a part of the long game Cody played to get to the top in WWE

The best thing Cody ever did was leaving WWE and joining NJPW with the Bullet Club faction. Adopting the American Nightmare (HEEL) persona. In doing so, his matches and his ideas of a good storyline were must watched across the world, along with building a trusting friendship with the Elite and other indie wrestlers. Hence, the creation of AEW was made for wrestlers who want to get recognized by western audiences and live up to the 90s wrestling fans. A succession AEW has become, all while he became a standout star and the company can succeed without him, as he was ok with. Now that WWE brought him back again, he proved to HHH/Vince that he can live up to his dad reputation...and he has so far. All while trying to obtain a WWE title that his father was robbed for throughout his career. I do believe he will become the WWE Champion at Wrestlemania 40, he'll finish the story.

Cody is the main protagonist of Wrestling at the moment

The moment Cody came to wrestle with that torn muscle, that was the moment he became a made man

Cody Rhodes is just simply beyond just being a PRO Wrestler. He is a genuine great HUMAN BEING. And also, what he's done for the Pro Wrestling World in general, and so many young, grooming Wrestlers over the past decade, will always be instrumental & will NEVER be FORGOTTEN!! He's just, altogether, CHANGED the whole the LANDSCAPE of the Pro Wrestling Business!!!!

While some of Cody's time in AEW was definitely due to his own decisions, I'm sure Tony Khan never really bothered to push Cody towards any other ideas & directions, instead simply allowing Cody to do what he felt was best, even when it really wasn't for his own benefit. In essence, and it kind of matches what was recently happening with the whole Rock situation for Mania this year, Cody seemingly wants to be the least selfish guy in wrestling, even when said behavior actually might do more harm to him than good &, ironically enough, may actually be selfish, in its own way.

Cody previously used the American Nightmare name in the WWE. Funny enough Dustin originally used that as his ring name in the indies and WCW.

Cody from zero to hero from aew to WWE from tnt champion to undisputed WWE champion 🏆

The Homelander version of his entrance gear is still very Homelander. I can't believe that was unintentional.

To be honest, bit of a tin foil hat moment. I think a WWE return was likely always on the cards for Cody Rhodes. I think the formation of AEW was maybe a means to an end for Cody to prove to WWE higher ups that he could be "the guy" in front of an American audience as many within WWE at the time didn't really care much for fame in Japan and didn't believe their audience did either. I think the lack of a heel turn when the AEW audience began to turn on him was because he maybe had 1 eye on what Roman Reigns was doing in WWE and thought "I cant be the guy to return and take on Roman if my character is also a heel." I also think the ring gear, the presentation all lead to him being portrayed as a very new age Hogan/John Cena-esque, All American hero type superstar. The kind that WWE historically have always liked to have as one of, if not their main guy. Even the Anthony Agogo feud was a very typical older WWE style "I'm the foreign heel and I hate America!" type feud which is probably why the AEW audience didn't exactly eat it up and became more divided on him. You could also say the timing fits the bill too, as he was one of, if not the first big AEW star to jump ship to the WWE. Meaning he would become the precedent and WWE almost needed to push him to the moon to show other big stars within AEW that "if you jump ship, we wont bury you, we wont screw your character, we will welcome you and help you thrive!" All of that, while also not forgetting or short selling his own mic and in-ring ability resulted in his current super stardom. These things always require a bit of luck and fortuitous timing. But I don't think you can say there aren't at least shadows of a plan for a big return there. Just in my opinion at least. I'm also not saying this is a bad thing. Much like Drew Mcintyre/Galloway slightly before him, he took himself from being forever mired in the mid card, bet on himself on the indies and in Japan and turned his career around to become a legitimate main eventer whilst also (unlike Mcintyre) leaving a path behind him, making each place he stopped on the way more relevant in the eyes of the wider wrestling fanbase so that other wrestlers may legitimately be able to follow his example and do the same. Already you can see a lot of the people he inspired/coached along the way starting to follow his foot steps. Jade Cargill being one example. All in all, his rise has been great for fans of wrestling and helped lead the industry into a boom period. But I think it's misleading to say AEW failed him, because I think the way things have unfolded, with the exception of AEW fans calling for a heel turn after a fairly average feud, may have always been according to plan.

WM 39..I wasn't a fan of Cody (as I wasn't into WWE) yet was tired of Roman..hence wanted him to win..but the loss didn't matter WM 40- oh God I'm such a cody cry baby..Id never watch wwe ever ever again if he doesn't win..

He ended racism. You can’t be pushed harder than that.

The aew fans were the problem

I think you encapsulated the entire aura around Cody really well at the end of the video. People are behind Cody, not the character. In real life, he did what we all dream of doing. He knew what he wanted, bet on himself, worked his ass off, and went out and got it. On top of that, you have the history with his family to add to everything. The real story is better than any storyline that even the best writer could come up with. Because of the real life drama in his story, people believe like they did in the kayfabe era, and that hasn't happened in 30 years. Cody has captured something special, and I hope he finishes the damn story.

This kid earned every single one of us that night in back watching the show

I tore my pec and i remember looking at my chest/arm 20 minutes later and it was exactly like how codys looked for a good week or two. I take nothing away from that gutsy move, but once you tear your pec major, not much else can happen. Its not like you can end your career. It cant get worse and surprisingly its not really painful as much as it is annoying that you literally have no strength on that side. In orher words, it looks much much much more painful than it really is. And yes... i think the 4 steel anchors drilled into my bone holding my pec tendon in place makes me quallfied to speak on it

Cody Rhodes, a real American. Give that man the title.

Time to put Heyman with Punk again, and work on Punk vs Rhodes.

Actually what he is doing now is basically WHAT HE WANTED TO DO IN AEW! BE THAT BABYFACE WITH A STORY. I believed locking himself out of the AEW Championship in 2019 working with the young guys eventually with the TNT Championship he was on the way to possibly challenging again for the AEW Championship but with new renewed babyface gimmick but what did that AEW faithful do? They didn't give it a chance to blossom and Cody took it to WWE and made himself the most prized commodity in wrestling today. HE BASICALLY SKYROCKETED INTO THAT JOHN CENA LEVEL CATEGORY OF BEING THE FACE OF THE COMPANY.

Just the same way WWE blew it before, AEW also blew it. They had a real SuperStar in their hands and did not know what to do with him. Finally WWE is making it up to him and he should finally make it to the top, where he belongs.

AEW didn't fail Cody. It was always in his plans to return to the WWE and prove them wrong for not recognizing what he truly brings to the table. The dude is solid and is going to succeed wherever he goes. The way folks from AEW continue to give him the "nod" only enhances what we are seeing now. Bravo to Cody and to what he helped establish on the Indies, AEW, and what we are witnessing in the WWE.

I think he can a great heel , idk why but his face feels like a final boss type of person. I really wish that at some point he turns heel in his WWE run but keeping current gimmick 🖤

Man, you are one hell of a video producer and narrator. I love your presentation and informative description of everything. You leave no questions to be asked. Very informative and to the point. Great stuff! You got yourself a new sub!

I’ve actually been expecting for an Endgame way of finishing this saga. I hope wrestlers who were wronged by Reigns come back and show their support for Cody

This is genuinely just a really good video about Cody Rhodes‼️ Great Job, man‼️

People love cody not the codyverse

The answer is brilliant in its simplicity, WWE took Cody the talent and stripped away the Codyverse and his own terrible booking. Cody is an incredible talent and one of my favourites (I got the chance to see him on his NJPW circuit when he was running heel in 2018). But my gosh his creative is the absolute worse, I'm happy that he just gets to be Cody without trying to come up with creative now. As much as AEW supported him during this run, giving him creative freedom and carte blanche was the writing on the wall. For what it's worth I found that AEW overall for the better once Cody left, and WWE found their next babyface Cena.

Both Drew and Cody stories amazing Both went out showed who they are came back with a banger after banger

Mocking fantasy bookers really got me. Never stop.

I've been a fan of Cody since his heel turn as the Undashing heel turn where I realized he has the mic skill and charisma despite him being in the mid card at that time. Most of the time, his Undashing theme entrance always gave me goosebumps like chills

Cody failed himself in aew because he couldn’t handle the boos

I'm very happy to see cody as undisputed Champion

Just to be clear tony khan doesn’t own the jags, his dad does

Cody made the mistake of being a serious wrestler in an unserious company

It seemed they booked him to help talent and they failed at that. Not sure if that was his idea or someone else but he should of had a world championship run first before dropping to that someone and being in the midcard for a little while

i rememeber everyone wanted him to turn heel again in aew before he went to WWE. heel cody will slap. cant wait for heel cody in WWE. its gonna be sooooo good

Cody failed himself and not AEW, it was his idea that he can't challenge for the world title, he sometimes went over in feuds where he wasn't supposed to and he just didn't work in AEW as a face , a heel Cody would have been gold in AEW but Cody refused to turn heel and the crowd let their opinion heard which Cody didn't like , it is not AEW who failed here

Cody literally booked himself to not win the world championship and to not turn heel, all while assembling a stable with his wife and the most random group of his buddies that resulted in some of the worst angles and segments to ever be produced for the company.... and people wonder why things didn't work out and fans grew tired of him....

I still feel like an AEW heel turn would have been fantastic for Cody. It makes sense with the Homelander costume and Cody has always done great character work.

Cody is a mega babyface at a level that we haven’t seen in years. He’s pretty much got the entire WWE fanbase on his side, which is rare. Like with John Cena for example, there was a good 10 years where he was at the top and half the crowd booed him. The fact that they were able to get him this over, and get people to choose him over THE ROCK of all people is nothing short of incredible, especially considering how many boos Cody got during his time in AEW. Even Steve Austin wasn’t a mega babyface like this, he was the most over guy in the company, but not from being the good guy, he was usually this anti hero character that was against authority and looked out for himself. The last true good guy “American Hero” type character that people unanimously accepted was Hulk Hogan in the 80s. What Cody’s doing is special. 🙌

They didn’t fail him, he failed himself when he booked himself out of the title picture, and refused to turn heel. Could’ve easily been a Homelander like character, but he was too afraid. 🤷🏽‍♂️

He wasnt a failure. He booked himself horribly. Dude stopped himself from getting the world title forever then proceeded to "solve racism". He wouldve done better himself if he hadnt done those 2 key things

AEW didn't fail Cody. He didn't want to be aew champion. He knew people would say he had to start a company to become a Champion

Salute to Cody for persevering. Very admirable. But I look forward whatever story they come up with to elevate the next champ. Cody is too corny for my taste.

Lol wwe Stans love to say that aew failed him. Cody handicapped himself in aew and there was a conflict of interest between what he wanted to do and what the fans wanted him to do. Cody gave himself a stipulation that since he lost to Christ jericho, he could never challenge for the main title ever again. This limited what he could do in story greatly. Also after 3 years of the same baby face cody gimmick with no changes, the fans were tired of it. They wanted him to turn heel so badly, but he just wouldn’t, and it ended up being best for everybody that they parted ways

Cody Rhodes failed Cody Rhodes in AEW. Not AEW

AEW didn't fail Cody Rhodes, the fans failed Cody Rhodes. They weren't into his storyline with QT Marshall, they didn't like him putting over other talent, they didn't like him as a midcard babyface, Cody Rhodes simply couldn't win them over unless he turned heel which he didn't want to do. th/Hulk Hogan push, they

😮😮What happened to AEW it had so much potential

AEW and fail are synonyms

Kevin? Yeah ok Patton Oswald.

Loved this video!!

waited for this video

Well.... banning him from winning the AEW world title was the first mistake! 2nd was trying to use him to put absolutely every new signing over, thankfully it didnt damage his career, he helped make AEWs top guy MJF look like a megastar in every promo and every match! He deserved so much more and although I understood why they went with Jericho being their first world champ BUT i really think Cody should have had that title first

The old school way b4 Vince effed up the industry . Move from promotion to promotion growing maturing building your moveset and character. Wwe heroes undertaker, hogan,Hogan, macho, warrior, hhh, stone cold...

I'm sure WWE was promising Cody the world the entire time he was in aew. Much like triple h did when having so called secret meetings with punk while he was out the first time he was injured in aew.

AEW did nothing for his career except run it into the ground. I remember on several occasions he and his wife were receiving high levels of disrespect. I think once he stepped out on the wrestlemania stage he realised that this was where he needed to be.

Cody's character arc is absolutely epic. You can't write a better story of a hero.

That match w Seth Rollins at hell in a cell was an epic match one of my favorites of all time

AEW is literally the reason why cody rhodes is a big name in WWE, without AEW he would be a jobber like he used to be, or wouldnt even be in the WWE

How did aew failed cody? You presented absolutely nothing that relates to your title.

Never give up in life ❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉 Congratulations Cody for finishing the story ❤❤❤

It's pretty dumb to say AEW failed Cody when it was Cody himself who was responsible for pretty much all of his own AEW run. So in that sense Cody failed Cody. The WWE move made sense - Cody needed the fresh start, & Cody benefits from not being in control of his own booking, partly because, as evidenced by AEW, he's bad at it, & perhaps more significantly, at least when WWE books him badly, it actually bolsters his fan support rather than hurts it.

Every time you say, "I was there." 👏

His dad owns the jags

Signing Cody Rhodes and CM Punk was the best decsion made by WWE ove AEW.

How did AEW fail Cody when he basically had a hand in booking there when it started? He's the one who said he would never challenge for the world title if he loss to Jericho. Which limited him to only work the mid card and for the midcard title. He derailed his own momentum there. The only reason he went to the WWE is because he was promised things from a world title run, along with being able to keep his Downstait Kingdom theme and schtick from AEW.

this might be a mark saying this.. but i knew Cody was gonna be huge when i saw his Stardust promos. Yes go watch them again and you ill see how he improvise all of it. When left WWE, Indie Wrestling knew that was the case. but now its a new era of wrestling. Just because you came from the indie scene and "you can wrestling" doesn't mean you can entertain in a global scale or finding a new audience. This man is getting ready to fight THE ROCK and Roman fricken Reign.. Cody Rhodes is One of the most important figures in wrestling today.

Wasnt he booking his own segments in AEW? I believe had he turned heel AEW would be very diferent today much bigger for sure.

AEW started falling apart when Cody Rhodes left...

Let’s go Cody

Cody wrestling with a torn pec elevated his stardom and certified him as a badass

Cody also won the nwa championship against Nick Aldis at All In

When AEW started he went by "Cody" only because WWE held the Trademark to "Cody Rhodes". When he suddenly got his name back. I immediately said there's been a back door agreement and he will go back to WWE with Tony's blessing. That's exactly what happened. He didn't fail in AEW.

I haven't watch WM- in decades but ima watch this one..

Wasn't that his company how the hell they fail him in his own company?😮

Didn't WWE have Cody before AEW? Did you see how they treated him then compared to AEW? WWE got the idea from putting Cody in the main event scene from AEW, which put him in the main event seen as soon as the company was founded. Cody is the one who took himself out, AND prevented himself from being able to get back in!

people liek to run this narrative that aew failed cody . cody had the most creative freedom in that company the codyverse was hot garbage and the fans booed him

There's a lot of info here missing that makes AEW seem like the ones who ruined Cody's run there, you missed out on the parts where he had the biggest Pyro entrance, the elevator, the 10 person entourage walk to the ring, how he even put a bus of his nightmare factory on a match, how he started cutting promos that made no sense to the current storyline he was on, he was shown multiple times in the back "running" the show behind a headset also, TK around that time started taking control of the company more after learning the ropes, Cody was booking most of his stuff and after his amazing TNT open challenge run he started to feud with his friends on TV and that soured the fans, he had heel tendencies but never wanted to go heel, everyone expected him to go full Homelander thus the meme is where that came from, the Codyverse, but he never turned, the fans soured on him but it took a long time and he knew what he wanted because he started having differences with the bucks and TK about where he wanted to company to head towards to. I think Omega or one of the bucks even said that Cody was the one guy who was " Us vs WWE" but the rest just wanted to focus on AEW. As someone who watched since the start and still is enjoying AEW I am happy for him and what he achieved in WWE but a lot of his run in AEW was him sabotaging himself and trying to showcase his friend group a bit too much, he was also being part of other TV shows and what not so he was definitely not focused on AEW as a whole at times. With that being said, he's one of the best to convey feelings on the mic and he's great in the ring as well so is no surprise he finally had his moment after Vince finally lost control of WWE.

cody and otis together is my fav thing in wrestling

The biggest mistake Cody made in AEW was restricting himself to Midcard by never being able to challenge for the World title that was the end of his AEW story

AEW bought back Cody to mainstream TV .....And pushed him as far as they can.....