Cody Rhodes left the WWE in 2016 as Stardust. He was seen as someone with a lot of potential but many wondered if he would ever reach them. Cut to 2023, and the American Nightmare is scheduled to main event the biggest wrestling show of the year, WrestleMania 39. In those 6 years, he was also instrumental in creating and getting over WWE’s biggest rival AEW. In fact, he is the first person from the promotion and this has been dubbed a huge mistake on the part of Tony Khan rivaling Eric Bischoff letting Stone Cold Steve Austin go to WWE as well.
As we all know now, Stone Cold was not seen as a major prospect in WCW. However, fans took to him in droves during his time in WWE. He became their top babyface and was influential in WWE beating WCW during the Monday Night Wars.
Tony Khan letting go of Cody Rhodes compared to Eric Bischoff letting go of Stone Cold Steve Austin
WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page was recently a guest on Inside the Ropes. He revealed that Cody Rhodes taught Tony Khan how to write the TV shows. He then went on to express regret on Tony Khan’s part for letting the American Nightmare go.
DDP admitted that the promotion had several other important stars but if he were the AEW President, Cody Rhodes would be someone that would never leave the promotion.
“He (Cody Rhodes) would write the TVs. Like it’s challenging to write TVs and storylines and all of that. And Tony was right there, but Tony didn’t know how to do that. He learned that from Cody.”
“There is no way if I was Tony Khan, I’m losing Cody Rhodes. There is no way. I mean the other guys are important too, big time, they’re monster superstars but the guy who technically knows how to do the behind-the-scenes storytelling.”
“If I was Tony Khan, I never would have let him go. To me, it was like when Eric Bischoff let go of Stone Cold.”
Cody Rhodes was getting stale in AEW
AEW and WWE are both wrestling shows but the planes they exist in are different in a lot of ways. There is a reason why Vince McMahon calls his product Sports Entertainment and not wrestling.
Unlike the wrestlers in AEW, Cody Rhodes was seen as somewhat different in the promotion. He had a sports entertainment flair about him and the contrast between him and the others just grew week after week.
The crowd booed him week after week but instead of using it as a catalyst to turn heel, Cody doubled down on being a face. Several fans saw him playing the delusional heel. However, it soon became apparent that there was no slow burn going on and the American Nightmare genuinely didn’t want to play the bad guy.
He has since switched promotions and it can be argued that this has worked out majorly for all parties involved.
Cody has now become the top babyface in the promotion. Something he always desired and was unable to do so in AEW.
Cody could have become the top heel in AEW if he had just turned but that is not what he wanted. AEW let go of a star they clearly didn’t know what to do with, freeing up TV time for other wrestlers and WWE received a baby face they could believably pit against Roman Reigns.
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