Cody Rhodes signs with WWE

General
41

Who knows…….a year ago I would have said here was zero chance in hell Cody jumps. If 6 months ago I said “Cody/Owens, one re-signs, one jumps”. I think we all would have said Owens jumps, Cody re-signs. Anything can happen.

From my understanding, the next two big free agents on the AEW side are Omega and Jericho. Apparently, they both signed 3 year deals and this past January had a 4th year option picked up. So in January 2023, they would be in play. Now do I see omega jumping? No. Jericho, I could see that.

MJF isn’t a free agent until 2024 I believe, Punk I’d be shocked if he jumped as long as Vince is in charge. Only way I ever see Punk jumping is if Vince was gone, and Heyman was booking.

As for the WWE side, I’m not sure who’s contract is up anytime soon. I think most of their big names recently signed contracts. Owens, Styles, Sami, Roman, Brock, Rollins, Becky, I think they are all locked up. Charlotte maybe is a free agent soon? I’m not sure.

42

Moxley has gotta be coming up soon if they normally do 3 year deals in AEW.

1 Like
43

I wonder if he also has an option? I didn’t even know that was a thing prior to the Omega interview a month or so ago. But ya you’re right. I think he should go back eventually because there will always be money in a shield reunion and/or feud, but not yet.

1 Like
44

image
image966×1101 155 KB

1 Like
45

I don’t want to veer so far away from the fanboy tribalism that I end up in a place of complete cynicism, but…

I largely think that if you start from the position that 90% of the time, people in wrestling are trying to work you, you won’t go far wrong. Cody hit his ceiling in WWE (or the ceiling the company saw for him at any rate), and left. He did his best to carve a niche as one of the spearheads of a “revolution”, because that’s an angle that clearly (as evidenced by AEW’s success, NJPW’s growth until recently etc.) has some juice.

But…Cody’s not a revolutionary, wrestling wise. He’s the son of one of the pillars of old school booking, he’s a product of WWE’s development system. He’s mainstream, down the line wrestling through and through. Not a criticism, not a bad thing, but he always struck me as being an odd fit, or at best, a marriage of convenience with people like Kenny and the Young Bucks, whose entire basis was indie and Japanese wrestling, and so largely divergent from what I perceive Cody sees pro wrestling as.

I’m not a big Cody fan, but he has a role in wrestling, clearly. But look at him in Japan when he’s stripped of the big entrances, the big promos etc. People could not have cared less. Couple that with CM Punk, Bryan Danielson etc. coming into AEW, making big money, grabbing the spotlight, and being far more in tune with philosophically with people like the Bucks, Kenny, and, you’d imagine, Tony Khan (as a former ROH superfan and message board warrior).

For me, Cody was always as much of a revolutionary as Luchasaurus is a dinosaur. Now that it’s run out of road, he’s going back to what he knows. Whether they value him any more than they used to remains to be seen, but it feels like a much more natural fit to me.

2 Likes
46

I don’t think Cody is revolutionary either, and I’ve always said he was a bit overrated. With that said, think you are making him sound worse then he is.

I’ve found that since Cody left AEW, the narrative surrounding Cody has completely changed. On Tik Tok for example, all I used to see is how great of a promo Cody is and how he needed to turn heel. Now, all im seeing is that he’s overrated and a sellout. I’m not accusing you of this (more of an observation since we are on the topic), but in general I think the sentiments about Cody and all the toxic negativity thrown his way now is very much tribal in nature. To be blunt, AEW fans that hate WWE and want to believe the narrative that nobody wants to go to WWE and that AEW is the be all end all, are pissed that one of their originals jumped ship because it hurts their narrative. I rolled my eyes at this thinking back in the 2000’s when people would chant “you sold out” towards former ECW guys, and I roll my eyes at it now.

I’ve said it before, I love the jump. For me, Cody is a lower end main event level guy. He’s not a guy I want in the main event for years, but I’d like to see him get a run on top, and I’d like to see him cycled in and out of the main event. I always thought he was overrated though as a pillar of the company. I don’t think he’s at the level of an Omega, Hangman, Roman, Brock, Rollins, AJ, Bryan, Jericho etc.

As for the bold, 100% agree. I’ve always thought that those guys were saying what they needed to say to get fans to watch their product. They played the part of being anti WWE, and fans bought in hook, line, and sinker. Can’t blame them, it worked.

1 Like
47

Just watch Top 10 which is the only WWE I watch these days and the Seth story is brilliant. It is showing how awful the WWE is that one of their top stars has got to a point 2 weeks from the SuperBowl of wrestling and as they’ve had absolutely no direction and story they have one fight for a chance to have a place. If they win, someone who has had a bit of direction losing their place…why? because we decided it on the cuff on Monday night. It all makes no sense and their own story telling just shows how much of a complete mess they are in.

Seth and KO have had each others backs for the past 12 months why didn’t they just start feuding and have a fight that would mean a little something and would be a good match. Instead KO will do an awful segment and Seth will have a meaningless match only to give someone else a pop. wow…

48

I agree with parts of this, but not all of it.

From a storyline/kayfabe perspective, I have zero issues with Owens story, I believe it makes sense. Why would Owens want to wrestle his “friend” when instead he can face-off against greatest wrestler off all time in his home state. It makes perfect sense. Now if you want to argue the “its been 19 years” BS, and the fact that its not a match, I can’t argue that part.

Now, from Rollins perspective, I don’t like his story. In other instances WWE has shown how easy it is to get on the card (ie. Natalya/Shayna attacking the tag title contenders once, or Edge just making a challenge etc. so to see him acting like he can’t get on the card is silly.

As for Austin/KO doing an “awful segment” I doubt that. Austin is not Goldberg, he is used very sparingly and when he is used its usually very well received. Saying the Austin segment in Texas is going to be awful it about as likely as saying a CM Punk segment will bomb in Chicago. Maybe you won’t like it which is totally cool, but I don’t think it bombs with the majority.

I also disagree that Rollins vs Cody will be a meaningless match. When Cody comes out at mania I think he’s going to blow the roof off the place and I’d be shocked if they didnt have a kick ass match. To be honest, its probably the match I am most looking forward to (that or Edge/AJ), which likely speaks to the poor booking and repetitiveness of the other matches.

49

I’ll probably be proved wrong as Wrestlemania does usually come up with some good highlights that are better then expected. I just see the Ko-Austin section as the Rock-Wyatts was a few years back. 6 seconds to bury Rowan then joined by Cena to destroy the others. I think this will be the same and KO deserves more after signing a new contract…I’ll wait and see - sorry to be down on the product maybe I should keep my mouth shut

50

I may disagree with you, but I have zero issue with you giving your opinion. This is just healthy discussion, and while I don’t think your prediction is going to be right, you still very well could be. I’d much rather a person disagree with me then to “keep their mouth shut”, no ill will from me at all, it’s not crazy lol to expect the WWE to burn people.

We’ll see what happens, I just think Austin is very protective of his likeness and will fight if Vince tries to turn it into something stupid.

51

It is definitely gonna blow the roof off the place. Complete with the fools who try and get themselves over and on TV with the fake reactions of jaws wide open and hands on their head, as if they didnt already know he was going to show up.

1 Like
52

Ya, this is fucking annoying. This is the one thing I’ve always disliked about the raw after mania crowd and some AEW crowds, the reactions don’t always feel genuine. I think it all stems from the memes when takers streak ended.

53

Check out the guy in blue with the mullet at 2:07 here Funniest moments of 2021: WWE Top 10, Dec. 16, 2021 - YouTube he is amazed at whats happening. Maybe these guys are just easily pleased in life…definitely not as miserable as me ha ha

2 Likes
54

Those fans clocking to ensure they’re on camera before “reacting” need to be put in the same rocket as the Shawn Michaels/NXT folks (Cole, Soho etc.) who have an existential crisis when they only get a two-count and fired into the sun lol.

1 Like
55

:joy: that’s funny.

At least with performers they are being paid to be over the top, with fans it’s just annoying.

1 Like
56

That guy doesn’t seem amazed at all to me (blazed, sure), he’s just doing an exaggerated laugh and point, playing along with the silly 24/7 title bit he’s witnessing. He looks like he’s just having fun; I had to re-read your post to spot who you were even talking about.

1 Like
57

Reading this thread back has been interesting. I think it’s safe to say that after year 1, the WWE has done a much better job with Cody then anyone expected.

And to be clear, I don’t blame anyone for being skeptical, the track record for WWE in booking people making the jump from anywhere has not been great.

3 Likes