Cody Rhodes’ Humility; A Gift for AEW

Say what you want about Cody Rhodes but you have to give him this.

No matter what happens, he is the consummate professional in that he refuses to take personal shots. You never hear him talk ill about his former business partners or his formers friends to the media. They can talk bad about him behind his back, they can have the trolls rag on him on social media, talk about how he was the 5th Wheel.

And yet Cody Rhodes continues to view AEW as his baby and wishes them nothing but love and the best.

I am here to set the record straight because this game of “AEW Good” and “Cody Rhodes is BAD” is getting old fast. If you thought the political games in real life between Republicans and Democrats were crappy, what has been going on between the AEW fanboys/Elite against Cody has been just as bad.

This war was almost inevitable ever since they all formed All Elite Wrestling back in 2019 as it was formed on the foundation of five different personalities between the Young Bucks, Cody, Kenny Omega and Tony Khan. They all wanted to shape professional wrestling in their own world and make it something that would revolutionize the industry for generations to come.

In the beginning it worked and part of the reason was because of what Cody was able to bring to the table that the others didn’t have: credibility and old school mentality. When you go back and watch the early days of AEW, the show is nothing like it was compared to today. There were more angles, more promos, things dragged out more and you had even better production.

But even then, it was a ticking time bomb because of the major crux of the issue between The Young Bucks/Omega and Cody Rhodes; no matter what was going to go down, they were never going to be on the same page because they couldn’t see eye to eye on even the basics of pro wrestling.

Cody came into the relationship fresh off being humbled by the WWE with his horrible Stardust run. He had left the company on his own terms part because he thought he could do better but also because he was so miserable that he wanted to find happiness. He had his love of wrestling stripped by the company he came up with that had hired his father to train the next generation and he left.

He often talked about his run in the independent wrestling scene as his way of falling back in love with wrestling and doing what he wanted to do. Wrestling guys who were on his bucket list and in the process building HIS name up. And along the way he established good contacts with TNA, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling with in turn helped with creating All Elite Wrestling.

For the Young Bucks/Omega, they have always been about the branding and creating the 4th wall which they did during their runs in IWGP and ROH. While critics have hated their style, it allowed them to become darlings with independent fans and together with the Bullet Club, they built an empire that allowed them to flourish.

The partnership with Cody took them to bigger heights then they could have ever dreamt of and to many, AEW was too big to fail. And in hindsight, maybe that was the biggest problem, was that they were always doomed to fail from the beginning.

One source told me “Cody’s biggest problem was he tried too hard not to emulate his father and Triple H and do the opposite”.

In retrospect you can understand why Cody booked himself the way he did as he saw the sins of his father and his mentor. Power corrupts, people get pissed when you book yourself to be the world champion and eventually you become the asshole, they say you are. Instead, he made sure he never won the world title and stayed away from the picture instead trying to build other wrestlers careers in the process.

Thanks to Cody, AEW was able to get over younger stars like Darby Allin, MJF, Sammy Guevara and Wardlow. That was part of Rhodes original plan was to build a training development center similar to what the WWE had in the Performance Center. The Nightmare Factory was going to be that with QT Marshall being the head trainer

But even the trouble began with just simple things such as all parties having different camps. The Bucks/Omega and their own people and Rhodes had his people and according to numerous sources, they rarely interacted with each other if possible.

Something that also had been a sore subject was the crossover appeal of Cody compared to the rest of the Elite. For as “cool” as the Bucks, Omega and the rest of the gang liked to portray themselves as, in reality Rhodes is the one with the connections.

“Cody is the guy who has Hollywood people calling him to do business with him. Nobody knows who the rest of the Elite are.” One television executive stated to me.

Look at the debut of Jade Cargill and her debut with Shaquille O’Neal and you can thank Cody for that and his celebrity connections. That is what he brought to the table that without him, the Elite and Tony Khan would never have been able to have brought.

Cody also gave Tony Khan something that his money nor his father could give him which was important in his wrestling bid; credibility. Most wrestling old timers were and still are leery of outsiders and new money for obvious reasons. They are often considered marks or suckers at best or crooks or hustlers at worst and neither are to be trusted.

With Cody on board, it helped Tony reach out and bring in established wrestling minds like Jim Ross, Arn Anderson, Diamond Dallas Page and Dean Malenko to help run the company. All of these men were not just part of the WWE machine that helped make it run successfully in the past but also knew Cody well and knew what kind of man he was.

“Maybe things could have gotten better… I don’t know, but once Tony took full control of booking, I think Cody knew, it was over” One ex AEW wrester told me.

To many the turning point was when AEW started the Forbidden Door and bringing more talent from other promotions. Behind the scenes several AEW executives and Cody were worried that the expansion was growing too fast and too soon. What Cody had envisioned for the company was building young talent, developing storylines and using his father’s branding and legacy.

The Forbidden Door was more what the Young Bucks and Omega were familiar with as it was patterned after the IWGP model. Invasion angles, fantasy booking matches, high flying matches, Japanese stars and lucha libre style six-man tag matches were more the norm. Cody had promised that AEW was not going to be the home of every “EX WWE Star” and Tony Khan was all too quick to sign every WWE cast off that he could.

But worst is that for Cody, the Elite and Tony made him look like a fraud to everyone in the wrestling world. He had gone to TNA, Ring of Honor, Major League Wrestling, NWA and other promotions and told them to trust them. That they were going to treat them right, be their partners and that they were going to be the anti-WWE and be in this all together.

He didn’t promise over the top deliveries or goods according to many sources and his expectations were tempered. But he had assured everyone that he was not going to sabotage people and had no desire to have AEW to be another WCW or WWE.

It’s ironic how even the AEW fans turned on him first despite the fact he gave them everything they wanted. The AEW fans wanted to see indy stars get the rub that WWE vets had never given to those before them. The IWC had complained how when TNA would sign Angle, Nash, Sting, Lashley and Booker T, that they would beat up the homegrown talent and go over them consistently.

Cody did everything short of giving his sanity for AEW and still the faithful never were satisfied. They wanted the heel turn from him despite it making zero sense at the time just because he was an ex-WWE guy. They complained he held talent down even though he was the guy who helped launch MJF and Darby Allin into super stardom for AEW.

But the latest dig was the Young Bucks book “Killing the Business” and the digs of referring to Cody as the 5th member. If you read the book and listen to AEW people, Cody is as important to the brand as your average New Japan Tag Team champion or CMLL Luchador.

Meanwhile the WWE Universal Champion has done nothing but continue to praise AEW and his former bandmates for their creation. He is the tolerant and loving parent who despite them being the drug addicted leach, he still loves them and will always welcome them back at Sunday dinner and even give them a Christmas gift.

A lesser man could easily just mock them right now and pour salt all over the wound. You know WWE would love to just kick AEW right now as they are down. It’s too easy with their dwindling crowds, lack of apparent TV deal, low tv ratings, Tony Khan’s childish antics and the shit show that is AEW booking.

Hell, TNA right now looks more professional than AEW thanks to NXT and you can bet Paul Levesque is just rubbing his hands at ways to steal another top free agent away from Tony.

Even the Young Bucks look like cosplaying dorks compared to the way Cody looks and everyone knows it. Omega’s career could be over and Tony is a hot mess but Cody has refused to take zero shots.

Maybe this was never going to work and Cody was always going to go back to the WWE all along. Maybe the end game was that Cody Rhodes grand master plan WAS to build AEW up, flip it into the WWE run, become world champion and retire in the WWE.

But deep down if your Tony Khan, you have to wonder if you could redo things, if you should have just backed Cody and done the original plan. To stay off camera, let the wrestling people run the promotion and be the true alternative to WWE. We would have gotten MJF and Punk without the Elite Drama and the real final run of Sting in-front of big crowds.

Instead, though Cody has gotten the last laugh and yet he has chosen to be the bigger man and continues to turn the other cheek in a world where mudslinging is the ultimate sport.

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