Where Did Cody Rhodes Go Wrong in AEW? 

Cody rhodes ended racism and we should thank him.

Damn right! He's a true American hero!

It was the neck tattoo that gave him those super natural plumbing powers.

More specifically, ended racism by beating up a black man.

@@berneebern Cody isn’t the American hero, he’s the American Nightmare.

Cody being the face in that was strange, but I think it was especially bad against Ogogo of all people. His backstory in particular made Cody trying to come off as the good guy even worse.

Yeah the video mentioning he seemed like the wrestling Homelander made me wish he like went full Villain but using the Tropes of old Faces

Yeah he would have had to take the belt from Kenny at the time so that prob wouldn't have worked. Using the Homelander character we though it was leading to would have been better. I also think it would have been better for him to maybe beat Mox or Archer for the IWGP US title, and really hammer home the Pro-America gimmick

@@badladyami I don't think it was tho, Maybe ROH was so he could get his Business minded Character off the paper. But I think after the success of All in, he wanted to be The reason why they succeeded and maybe Vp of Operations when he retired. Kind of felt like it really went downhill for him after he was pulled out of The Team Taz vs Sting/Darby feud

That would have been cool. Him basically saying "forget you, you want to boo me, ill give you something to boo...oh by the way, i'm winning the title so shove that up your...."

Absolutely 💯

And then HHH booked Cody to get cooked by Roman Reigns and the Bloodline

@@abelpantoja7134 doesn’t mean they don’t like him, it was definitely a bad call though

@@KKris-h I definitely think they're going for the longterm story line type thing, whether its satisfying or not tho, I guess we'll see

Stellar wrestlers? LMAO

Yeah. Cody tried that with a fake "story" and he's been marginalized since

Unless he becomes a WWE lifer from now on, which is def possible, i think Cody will have a nice run in WWE then head back to AEW for his final big run, hopefully as a heel.

Considering how many fans of The Biys were shocked to be told Homelander was supposed to be the bad guy. I honestly think Cody was one of those people. He probably thought being Homelander was being a babyface.

It is crazy how he is okay with being heel in WWE but not AEW.

That's the great thing about having two big promotions. Some wrestlers can work as a heel in one promotion and a face in another. Cody is a face in WWE, but needs to be a heel in AEW. Same as Hogan had to be a heel in WCW but when he returned to the E even him committing attempted murder on The Rock still got him cheered by the fans.

I needed that storyline 😂

He built that place up and now it is being destroyed.

booker of the year! lmfao

Now we'll never get Rhodes vs Shitinaki Matsimiuira in a 17/32 falls match in the Tokyo Dome

😂😂😂

and both of them have been screwed since!

Tony is so good at his job that he managed to repair one of the most volatile relationships in wrestling by firing the biggest star his toy box hobby will ever have. And it's all because he genuinely believes the Elite sees him as a friend.

21:23 is where I stand with Cody 🥂

The most reasonable take in these comments.

THIS IS THE ANSWER.

This is fair OP. Some people are going a bit ham but this is the most nuanced and succinct take. Not going to get any better than this. I'm done scrolling. 😂

And i put another thing in the mix. AEW doesn't know how to book a classic main event Babyface. Cody, Page as a champion... They're really good with more "violent" baby like Mox and Punk, but the classic face is something they don't know how to treat

@@ds4life886 idiots in here.... i guess you forget that cody booked himself to NEVER get a shot at the aew title, which was stupid. Cody going away to persue a career in hollywood every single chance he get instead of focusing on wrestling was stupid. Him saying that hes the guy who solved racism.was stupid. His annoying wife getting constant airtime was stupid. Always finding ways to self mutilate himself was stupid.

Agreed, he should’ve turned and challenged for the title anyways

It was less Ogogo and more the not wanting to turn heel. All would've been good had he gone with the flow instead of swimming upstream. No one wanted John Cena 2.0. It was completely tone deaf.

@@SMOKETHECONQUEROR The "John Cena Playbook" should be burned and the ashes thrown into a volcano ! 😡

Who is ogogo?

@@BrokenNoseola Anthony Ogogo. A former boxing prospect who switched to wrestling after an eye injury, debuting with AEW a year ago. He had a feud with Cody that was turned into a GB vs US angle, where Cody was the babyface but was booed as it was the typical America vs the evil foreigner despite the feud certainly not really needing it. Combine that with Cody winning when many thought he should've put Ogogo over and you have the "official" start to the entire Coy booing thing (combined with a promo that's now gone on to being satirized as "Cody Rhodes ends racism" within the community, as well as a weight in segment that was a disaster).

Cringe

@@kyleh636 grow tf up!

@@kyleh636 how is it cringe? It's facts

@@kyleh636 Butt hurt individual spotted.

@@Ktig88 Just a moron, nothing to cure that.

The "Codyverse" did seem real. All the feuds he had in AEW seemed to be cut short and involved, with a couple of notable exceptions, talent that was not quite ready. Almost like he was constantly in mid card feuds that were given excessive TV time. Brian kept using the word gatekeeper in the video, and he was when you consider he was always the biggest name in the feud. Oh and Brandi didn't help at all. He got alot of referred heat from her.

Lol I hate Brandi and there’s a reason why she didn’t show up with Cody in wwe but she was gold on the mic. That open mic night line was hilarious 😂

It definitely didn't that he put an immediate ceiling on which stories he could participate in within the company's first few months

I thought it would be a vehicle to cement him as a heel when he turned

And then nobody said a peep when Kenny won the World Title which makes Cody's caution seem even sillier in hind sight.

@@patrickswasey5301 or the Young Bucks winning the Tag Team Titles the first time against FTR

He gave us MJF

Holy shit really? I’ve never noticed

Tweener?

yeah Cody wanting to be ULTIMATE babyface boss while Brandy wanted to play a HEEL didn't jive

Is this open-mic night, bitch!?

Yeah they should have turned hard into her being a heel since fans clearly wanted to not like her.

Don't forget that god awful, self-absorbed reality show. So idiotic.

In out of character interviews, Brandi always comes across as aloof and hyper-defensive of her and Cody's angles, which never helped.

I always liked Cody. But sometimes the crowd gets bored of needless preening. A good example is Rhonda Roussey in WWE. She needs a big heel turn quick to keep the crowd properly engaged. Same thing is at the end stretch of Cody's AEW run - he badly needed a heel turn to keep himself relevant.

Cody’s “American Nightmare” character is a heel by nature. The suits, the long winded promos with big words, it’s all the stuff he did as a heel ROH champion, and the idea of him being a baby face is only because of his association with the birth of the company. Should he have decided to stay in the company, a heel turn would have been the only way forward.

If he turned he would have become a huge baby face within the year. We love heels

Cody sucks 🤡

Muh politics made me hate the thing I loved

I think Brandi was supposed to be the face in the ATT feud. Dan Lambert was going full-on heel mode with her (comparing her to strippers, etc) and the fans still chose him over her. IMO, Brandi and Cody could have been the heel power couple of AEW. Sort of like HHH and Steph in the late attitude era. But for some bizarre reason, both desperately wanted to be face.

@@fattiger6957 I think Cody once said he wanted to remain face because he was heading AEW's charity wing and it wouldn't be right for a heel to be doing charity work a.k.a. the John Cena Make a Wish-type stuff. I don't know if he mentioned this translated the same for Brandi.

Wrong she was both Face and Heel when facing ATT

Yep, Brandi's influence is under the radar on so many fans.... It is also shown when Cody get good reaction in WWE and it seems like he fit right in on the lower main event scene with Rollins... I think WWE is smart enough to not signing Brandi too.. once Brandi is also involved with Cody's storyline in WWE, I bet Triple H gonna cut them ASAP

Brandi has been a heel her whole time in AEW. It's her natural state. Nothing wrong with it. There isn't anything wrong with Heel and face pairings. Sting and Luger were always friends on screen even when Sting was always heel and Luger would be a heel. The problem is when you take that heel and try to get the face over with the crowd using them.

Triple H whispering in his ear telling him what to do and what not to do will help him long term

@@MetalMadness_00 Cody is way more entertaining the HHH, not sure what he can take away from a guy that boring.

Wow what a speech. Problem is TK lets the immates run the asylum and even Jericho is getting fed up

​@@robertdesantis729NDA Jericho ? 😂

you mean if he returns, not when, dude is having a blast at WWE@@redred1952

I can definitely agree on the Agogo stuff. Personally it started with the 1st TNT Championship for me. Then his constant almost crying in every promo mixed with some of them feeling long winded got to me. I wonder why do you think him not challenging the AEW World Champion again was where it went wrong? I think it alleviated fears people had of AEW being an Elite Vanity company but what’s your take?

@@Jnwboss I've always found the whole can't challenge for the championship stipulation to be dumb. Also at that point Cody was one of the few established babyfaces that could've taken the title from Jericho without needing to be elevated.

@@Billy-ot8mk I can understand that it makes sense. It was either him or Moxley at that time well whenever Moxley was done with Omega anyways

@@Sky_Blaze good Point

@Rob F 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

"Open mic night is over, bitch"

@Rob F yes..the Pile driver though the table caused Brodie's lungs to collapse

*stares at the Ten Pounds of Gold*

Highly agree. I loved that Cody never turned heel in AEW. The crowds reaction to his entrance at this time was some of the best stuff in AEW.

Perfectly said my brother

Sadly Omega beat him to the punch (the HHH-style reign of terror I mean).

Would’ve made too many smarks stop watching

@@cameronlapage7386 Omega had the World Title and the handlebar mustache and people still said Cody was the HHH of AEW.

Yep at the end of the day can’t say he didn’t do the right thing. Cody remained a baby face in AEW and carried that to the WWE where he became arguably the biggest baby face star in the company.

In the case of The Bucks & Omega, they were concerned about their long term story arcs. Kenny needed to lose, which drove him to hang onto Hangman even with all his problems. Their program w/ The Bucks showed us that the Bucks weren't operating on their previous IWPG/ROH level. It also showed us that Hangman was a champion as a functional alcoholic; what could he do sober? While a collective as internet savvy as The Elite surely felt the oncoming "they book themselves to go over" wave of hate, I feel the year plus direction they took in making literally ALL of the members hit rock bottom in one way or another was all about character building. And hell, they all ended up champions a few times over. 2 World title reigns & 3 Tag Title reigns among 4 dudes is a hell of a percentage. The Bucks & Kenny (the original Elite) had to go ol school & bring back that IWGP vibe, stooping so low as too align with that carny POS Don Callis. Hangman had to have NO friends, them be embraced by the (Kayfabe) biggest losers on the roster in the Dark Order. In the end Kenny & The Bucks had to pay for their sins w/ title loses ON THE SAME PPV! And Hangman rode off into the sunset World Champion and (semi)sober, but without the guys he'd spent the last 5 years or so with by his side. I'm telling you, when the Elite (including Hangman) reform....its gonna be TOO SWEET.

Damm bruh thanks for the info !

they weren't jokes, they were being serious bc that's exactly what happened in wcw with Hogan and the outsiders.

@RU-vid Viewer you looking so goofy selecting portions of triple H as if he's not notorious for the reign of terror.

@RU-vid Viewer Still one of my fav logos in wrestling. That omega sign w/ the antlers coming off the sides...*chef's kiss*

He's like the Ric Flair of this generation. Ric grew both brands, but the brand Ric cared the most about was his own name brand

Are you honestly comparing Ric Flair to Cody Rhodes to Cody couldn't even lace rics boots man .......good lord

@@thewindozer True, I don't think Cody is going to wait until hes past his prime by 20 years to finally retire.

@@conversationtosaurusrex I would also rather not hear about Cody's penis.

Funny you say that, I always saw this but I never bothered to watch it until that video came out. Told myself, meh might as well now

Same

Now he’s being set to be the biggest star in the world

@@MetalMadness_00 you mean in the world of wrestling

@@clintstewart5545 yes

If Cody went heel and 100% bought in, he would not be in WWE. Tony Khan would then see the value of keeping Cody but because Cody refuses to cooperate, wants to remain babyface when the fans reject it and book his own storylines that feel out of place to the rest of the show, then he's not worth the money. I actually wasn't seeing what the fans were complaining about until Cody's program with Malakai. It was at that point I'm like "yeah, he's getting annoying. This should lead to a heel turn." And it didn't.

Y'all know not every red white and blue themed attire is a Homelander reference right? Cody himself even debunked this on WWE's 'The Bump'

His Homelander gimmick will do wonders in wwe cuz they have billy butcher drew Mcyintyre

@@Sheriff_Curtis I mean, he could 'debunk' it all he wants, but even if he wasn't intentionally trying to be similar to Homelander the vibes are definitely there.. White dude with blonde hair walks out in gaudy, obnoxiously nationalistic flag-colored apparel with golden shoulder pads with a worryingly rightwing approach to patriotism? Come on, man.

Money. He and his bimbo wife had that god awful reality show. You can't be a hated heel and have a successful reality show meant to portray you and your family as likable, relateable family-man junk

I think eventually fans will turn on him in WWE for similar reasons

@@kidz919 I have to disagree for two reasons. 1. Cody is no longer booking himself, HHH is. 2. He can compete for the heavyweight title, so he can always seem involved with the rest of the roster.

@@kidz919 nah wwe Stan’s wont turn on him , they have low standards, adores everyone Vince straps the rocket too. They already tweeting alleging Logan Paul is better than half of the aew roster lol

@@tyrelbass Vince doesn’t own the company anymore but you don’t watch so you wouldn’t know

@@victoriakollie9574 no shit he doesn’t work for them anymore, but they guys he strapped the rocket too still work there you bozo

Yourrrrrrrr FULL OF SHITTTTT!!! Lolzzz

Cody really fucked himself with the "can't challenge for the title anymore" stipulation. Apparently everyone tried to talk him out of it. There's no doubt in my mind he would've been AEW champion if it wasn't for that dumbass stipulation. It's hard to get invested in someone when you know there's a limit to how far they can go without some booking shenanigans. He basically put a ceiling over his own head and then wondered why he was hitting his head against it.

@@KingsizeKini Yes, that's the first straw most people would point to I believe. But my thing is, *he could've easily walked out of that stipulation just by turning heel. He chose not to.* He was the most over babyface in AEW in 2019. By 2021 he wasn't even in the top 10. He refused to see the writing on the wall.

Cody had all the ingredients to be AEW's top heel. Those thousand dollar suits, a beautiful woman on his arm, a corporate position. Hell, he called himself "The Prince of Pro Wrestling". But for some reason that only made sense to Cody, he stayed a face. Absolutely baffling lack of sense.

@@fattiger6957 Don't you see. He's playing 5d chess. You're being worked, brother. He's taking you in for the ride of your life. Lol no but seriously. I can't think of another wrestler for whom the table was laid out more perfectly for a "delusional psychotic heel" run. Like Cody is the one wrestler who could've cut a "you people made me do it" promo and it would've actually been 100% true. What a missed opportunity.

Also the incessant quoting of his father on his latest promos, like geez dude we already know your father was Dusty Rhodes. A total shame because I really think Cody grew up a lot as a performer after leaving WWE, but as you guys have said his pride took the best of him. It's gonna be interesting to see how he manages now with Hunter on charge

I remember watching cell phone footage of one of those shows and even when Tony Kahn came out and tried to get the crowd to applaud Cody, they instead doubled down and boo'd even louder. Shit was brutal.

True wrestling fans can appreciate him honoring the Crockett family.

@@Finfection AEW in general is just a hot mess like they put these potentially great storytellers on their roster only to knock them down after they've built them up. Cody should've saw that train wreck a mile away before he joined AEW.

The irony of course being he deserves booing much much more now than he ever did in AEW.

@@donkeysaurusrex7881 what is about Cody Rhodes that people don't like? I've always addressed him far as making good choices but not as a person.

To all 3 remaining fans, perhaps.

He's the companies #1 babyface, and depending if he finally beats Roman at 40, he could have one of the most cathartic victories in recent wrestling history

The loss to Roman was actually the right call looking back. He got another Rumble win and he's now also feuding with The Rock. That wouldn't happen without the WM39 finish.

@RU-vid Viewer Ok, I'm not saying that Ted DiBiase Jr. was the most charismatic wrestler since Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Steve Austin, or Kurt Angle, but I am definitely saying that he had that same "It Factor" that a successful wrestler of their caliber requires to advance to the upper echelons of the business. Now, did WWE utilize it correctly and capitalize on his talents... No, they didn't. They gave him a decent character and the beginnings of a push, but completely let it fizzle out before it had time to develop and could catch on with fans at the time. In my opinion, TDJ is one of the biggest "What If's" of the WWE during that time period.

@RU-vid Viewer I agree. The only thing Ted had on his side was he had an awesome finisher, but other than that he was just meh

@@lordevyl8317 Yeah I can't really remember much about him besides his time in Legacy and his later theme song. I think it would be pretty cool to see him have a one-night return in the Royal Rumble though. Maybe reunite with Randy Orton & Cody Rhodes in the ring (if they're even healthy by then).

We like him as a worker, the tweener isn't for him. They really should have just let him turn heel

I think the retiring thing was solely for Black to say he had obe foot in tge grave during one of his rambling promos

My wife hardly ever cusses. When he came out with that neck tattoo she loudly asked "What the fuck is that? ".

Yup, this is it right here. As soon as he became corny there was no looking back. That neck tattoo is unforgiveable as well.

It took me out of the match I didn't enjoy the match until time I watched.

Ya'll wierd asf jus because a cat wants a tattoo wtf hahaha if the dude wanted a neck tattoo so bit it ya'll are corny hahaha

As if wrestling wasn't already corny. Stop pretending you're cool. You're not.

The main change was the audience

@@solkey1781 and what's that tell you?

Wwe fans are the easiest to please. Will pop for food

@@MatthewBreck What? AEW fans cheer everything including the referees. Would be nice to hear a good ol fashioned "f*ck em up Hangman, f*ck em up" chant

@@KHayes666 maybe because the referees have character in aew lol, meanwhile wwe fans were cheering the dogshit raw booking for years

Well yeah, The TNT title was Cody's own FTW championship. Functioned exactly the same except had more branding.

Thats probably the majority of AEW fans as well. When and if he comes back to AEW, it will be interesting to see how the fans respond to him

His last year or so in AEW showed that the company had moved on from him. After the Malakai Black feud, he seemed to be just drifting along with no purpose or passion. And it didn't help that he seemed to constantly be taking breaks from TV to do other things. It was best for everyone that he left.

《Edit: ayo, just the first paragraph is really the relevant reply. Everything else is just the Special Edition Extended Cut with Director's Commentary. I.e. it's long af and I know people tend to have short attention spans. My bad? 🤷🏻》 @@fattiger6957 my guess is that somewhere around that specific time is when they were having trouble coming to terms on what was supposed to be his upcoming contract renewal. So they didn't want to keep him off TV completely, but also couldn't commit to any long-term plans. Not to mention the whole uncertainty with the dynamic between him and the fans making it all feel... weird. 《So yeah, all of this is... extra. ↓have fun but like, yknow.. you've been warned》 I personally think he wanted/was trying to work the Homelander-style "delusional heel who thinks he still is, and acts just like a (traditional) babyface" gimmick.. mostly because his hand was forced by the fans turning on him, sure. But I think he didn't want to do a boring old traditional heel turn and is clever enough that he figured out something better... albeit a long-term slow burn. Problem is his long-term future was still uncertain with the contract negotiation trouble. And in the end, the timing of it all was just.. so perfectly terrible. It still feels, to me, like we were smack dab in the middle of the story. The tiniest of hints had been dropped alluding to the heelish direction he was going. But they were still too few and too subtle for.. well, really MOST fans (who aren't as smart or as keyed-in to the psychology of it all as they like to think) to ever even pick up on any of it. At least not consciously, which is good if the story progresses, but so, so much worse if it gets cut short, because they don't even get to realize that he is TRYING to make them hate him more. Just not overtly yet. And wrestling is so over-the-top, that if it's not overt, they're probably gonna miss it. And from everything I can tell, the majority definitely missed it. Which is fair, because I don't think it would have been good if it was obvious where the story was going. Because Cody wasn't sure where HE was going. If he had been able to settle on a new contract, the story could have progressed and the clues to his heel turn could have then gotten more noticeable. But incase things ended up not working out with AEW (which they didn't) he wasn't, as a character, too committed to this heel persona he was undertaking to the point of creating a weird disconnect from the inevitable TRUE babyface personality shift when he went to WWE. And, just as an aside, I think Cody seems like the kinda guy who wants his his character, the wrestling personality he has carefully and actually rather meticulously cultivated, to stretch across promotions. I mean, that's why he left WWE in the first place. His character. It matters to him... enough to walk away from the biggest promotion in the world to take a gamble on the indies where he could re-craft it to what he felt it should be. So even if not everyone watches both WWE and AEW (hell, I didn't. Til HHH took over, I watched Rumble & Mania with a few other random bits occasionally. I'm giving Trip's WWE a fresh start, and thus far thing are looking up. I WANT to watch both. But only if both are worth watching. Fuck tribalism.) those that did would notice. They might not care, but I think he would. And so, in the end, what we wound up with was... weird. And honestly I think most wrestling fans are too quick to jump to conclusions. If they just paid a little more attention to nuance, detail, subtlety... they would notice so much more. If they maybe thought about it a little more... Hell, the fucking wrestlers do. The good ones, at least. Listening to some of the greats talk about wrestling psychology is fucking ridiculous with just how much thought can go into the tiniest of things most people will never notice. And don't forget, Cody has spent his entire life just absorbing all of the best knowledge from all of the greatest wrestlers like some kinda dashing, blonde Wrestling Sponge with a Dusty lisp and a bad neck tattoo. He knows wtf he's doing most of the time. Not all of the time, Ogogobviously, but he seems to learn from his mistakes. He managed to get a shocking amount of freedom with Vinny Mac still running WWE, so I'm honestly pretty fuckin' hyped to see what he can do now that Trips is at the helm. So if anyone made it to the end of this essay, then just do a few more little thing for me: -Pay more attention to the little things. Trust me when I say Holy Shit is wrestling so much more rewarding when you do. -Fuck herd mentality. Think about shit more, don't just listen to what the toxic fucks online think they know (yes I see the irony in that statement, except I'm not toxic. Maybe some kinda fuck, tho 🤔) -Hydrate. Nothing to do with wrestling, just drink more water. I'm told it's good for you, despite the fact that fish fuck in it. 👍 《...jfc why did I pour half my goddamn Codylander theory into a reply to a tiny thread on a comment halfway down the main comments page.... 93% of people won't even see this shit.. 🤦🏻 maybe it's time to go touch that grass I've heard so much about》

"He badly wanted to be AEW's John Cena" Then he technically succeeded, because the people who supported AEW would have HATED John Cena a few years earlier. Just as they hated Roman a few years ago. He tried to fit into a mold that was overused and overexposed in front of people who were most thirsty for something different.

And then HHH booked Cody to be cooked at WM 39 by Roman Reigns and the Bloodline

​@@abelpantoja7134 Cooked as in take not even a clean loss, then get put over clean by Brock freakin Lesner twice. Boohoo.

@@elamcyril Cody has been waffling in the breeze, man. If it weren't for Rollins and Gunther, the men's title scene would be non-existent. And, just to be clear, Cody was put over Lesnar clean once. The first win was a Dusty-finish.

@@Humorless_Wokescold Is he though, he was put over by the same Rollins freaking 3 times in a row, given Royal Rumble win in his first year coming back as well as mainevent of WrestleMania, first win vs Solo by anyone in main roaster. The guy hasn't taken a single clean loss since he has come back but has clean win over Lesner. That dusty win is still a win over Lesner, even freaking Cena & Undertaker don't have a clean win over Lesner, but Cody has. If that's waffling, almost every single one in wrestling apart from very few would be begging to be waffled like that.

well said

man this is exactly how myself and a lot of people feel, really well written. Like yeah, it's wrestling but a lot of us came back to wrestling because of AEW and the words cody was saying. I guess it's on us to buy too much into the 'sincerity.' I think going back to WWE was the easy move, that audience will eat his shtick up. It's brand new to a lot of them and with the content they're used to it's a breath of fresh air. But for people who were big fans of his early on in AEW it's just lame.

@@M1keFoxxx not really

@@CantRead1 How so?

Almost like he was playing a parody slow smarks didn't get. You can't claim to be a wrestling fan and constantly armchair book.

His Babyface character worked better in WWE and not the AEW audience.

Yeah But Cody is a way better heel, that is the problem and no, being an idiot wrestling a match he had no reason to wrestler due to a torn pec, so he could get Vince to Viagra cream his pants, don’t impress me much

This so much. I honestly think the crowd just wanted to hate him. I'd he'd lost to Ogogo the crowd would have booed him for losing to someone greener then grass. It's weird when you look at the who the crowd dies cheer. Malachi straight up buried the blondes in one of the worst segments ever (the crowd even booed The Lucha Bros. when they came out) but practically worship him and cry fowl when someone kicks out of him or his Nerd brigade. Or Jade who fir quit a bit was clearly barely able to do 1 minute matches. (Granted se got way better and is amazing now.)

Exactly. I also think his idea of wrestling is closer to the sport entertainment ideals of the WWE. Whereas AEW seems to be focused on more of a niche indie style. So Cody left.

I don't know... didn't he recently say that he did not want to have a position in the office any time soon anymore because of his latest experience, that he would rather be an in ring talent?

@@jmiyagi12345 Still falls in line with what I was saying, his experience of being stripped from the position of being behind the scenes running the company and having a say. He could of still been in ring talent in AEW but the fact that he left to do it in the very company he wanted nothing to do with prior and that AEW are trying to compete against kinda speaks volumes.

@@damienhextv6699 maybe there are other interviews where he clarifies this, but I don't quite see it the same way: "Never say never, just general because in six years if we're having this conversation again and I've completely gone back on what I said, I don't think I want a management job in wrestling ever again," Rhodes said. "I don't think I was mature enough for it. And -- I tried." From this article here: www.f4wonline.com/.amp/news/wwe/wwe-cody-rhodes-i-dont-think-i-want-a-management-job-in-wrestling-ever-again

Glad she lost, hope she never comes back

Cena didn't take his ball and go home though