YMMV / Cody Rhodes

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • The original "White Towel" incident at Dominion 2017 that sparked the first hints of a feud between Kenny Omega and Cody. Was it a legitimate moment of concern for his friend and leader on Cody's part (And Kenny's own "white towel moment" a month later pettiness on his part)? Or was Cody trying to cheat Kenny out of a victory over Okada so that HE could be the one to do what Kenny couldn't. His post match challenge to Okada and the English commentary team suggested the latter.
  • Also, his apology to Hangman Page after ruining his moment in Honour Rising Night 1. Was he being sincere, or was he simply trying to keep the one guy firmly on "Team Cody" on his side.
  • In general, it's hard to tell if he's being sincere, or if he's just VERY GOOD at being a Manipulative Bastard.
• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • Stardust. A retread of his brother's gimmick, there were a handful of people who liked the gimmick, but felt it worn out its welcome after the feud with his brother was cut short. Cody has gone on record saying, while he didn't hate the gimmick, he was just tired of it. In 2016, after basically becoming a glorified enhancement talent, Cody left the WWE, as well as the Stardust gimmick, behind, and trailblazed a successful career in his own right.
  • In AEW, his later "Codyverse" era that emerged around the time he dropped the TNT Championship to Darby Allin. Before then, it had been observed that Cody's angles were often insular, revolving around a select group of friends and opponents that rarely interacted with other wrestlers elsewhere in the promotion. This seemed to go into overdrive in 2021, where that trait led to feuds that were poorly received (The Factory) or were brought down by the fact that they centred on Cody over an arguably more interesting opponent (The House of Black, Sammy Guevara). The fact that he seemed to have at least one segment on every episode of Dynamite also highlighted how insular the Codyverse was getting, which also wasn't helped by, in-hindsight, some extremely confusing attempts at teasing a heel turn that never came via indulgent Worked Shoot promos. Cody returning to WWE was seen as bittersweet for this reason: Bitter because of how influential Cody was during his indie and AEW run, but also sweet due to the widely-held acknowledgement that his Codyverse antics just didn't fit in AEW, and that he would be much more appreciated in the Fed.
• Awesome Music: Cody's theme since leaving WWE, Downstait's "Kingdom", is widely regarded as one of the best in AEW, in no small account because how well the lyrics mirror Cody's life and career.
  You took it all away, I give it all away
  Can't take my freedom!
  Here to change the game, a banner made of pain
  I built my kingdom!
  • His original theme isn't too bad either and is quite catchy.
  • Regardless of how bizarre the gimmick was, Stardust had one of the best new WWE themes of the 2010s.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Went from underwhelming to this in ROH. Initially the only people interested in his presence were those who felt he had been "misused" by WWE, with his promos and debut match failing to impress most ROH fans. There remained a vocal segment of the fan base who conspicuously had very little to say about Cody, not really caring for him or his push, with most of his fans ending up being those who liked him by association after Cody was revealed to be a member of Bullet Club. However, there are a lot of Bullet Club fans who attend Ring Of Honor shows and buy ROH merchandise, so Cody has about as strong a following as he could hope for.
  • Became this even moreso for a bit in February 2018 thanks to a Twitter spat, of all things, with a prominent YouTube wrestling commentator. Jeff Schlegel of OTRSCentral was one of many who questioned his diplomatic answer to a question about Vince McMahon on Twitter, resulting in a back-and-forth where Cody claimed Schlegel was spreading homophobia on Twitter using sockpuppet accounts based on dubious evidence (the "sockpuppet" in question was a fan from New Zealand who was also recognized in other communities). Whenever anyone asked for more concrete proof on the matter, all that would happen is Cody would double down on the claim while Schlegel would call it a baseless lie. Both of them took a hit as a result, even though it didn't last too long.
  • In general, Cody became a somewhat divisive figure as a result of being the most famous departure from AEW (a company he helped found) to WWE. Opinions range from praising him for betting on himself and finding a second wind in WWE (becoming the company's top Babyface in short time and revitalizing fan interest in the entire product) to finding him a hypocrite who betrayed his ideals (particularly after spending his entire indie-and-AEW career taking a multitude of potshots at WWE). Cody participating in WWE documentaries with creative opinions on AEW's history didn't help^NoteThe WWE documentaries state Cody Rhodes was the biggest indie star in the world and single-handedly founded AEW, with next to no mention of the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega (both parties much bigger than Cody in the indie scene and also much more involved in the birth of AEW by all accounts), and actual company founder and financier Tony Khan.
• Broken Base:
  • There are fans who prefer Cody Rhodes and there are fans who prefer Stardust. The man himself is a case of his own — although he initially felt the need to finish Stardust's story after his dad's passing, his written statement about his release a year later clearly shows that the man himself prefers Cody Rhodes.
  • Since leaving WWE, some say he's adapted really well to working New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and the independent circuit, with both very solid ring work and a determined character. Others say his matches are nothing to write home about, his charisma is lacking, he only looked good in comparison to some of what WWE was pushing, and he only exists in the business because WWE wanted to give Dusty's son a chance.
  • How good is he as a candidate for the next leader of Bullet Club? Is he a bad choice to replace Kenny Omega because he's not as spectacular a wrestler as Omega? Should Omega not be removed at all because the Elite brand has produced a merchandise bonanza that will then be missing from Bullet Club? Is he great for the role because of his ability to draw heat and maintain a heelish demeanor even among the pseudo-babyface Elite contingent, with his merely being a good wrestler actually working in his favor because he won't be praised to kingdom come like Omega? Or would Tama Tonga be better for the same reasons plus being one of Bullet Club's original founders and a NJPW loyalist without the "taint" of brand association with the Elite?
  • Cody Rhodes performing at "Hell in a Cell 2022" with a torn pectoral. It's one thing to compete in a match with an injury that will undoubtedly take you out of action for a period of time, it's another when the injury is so visible it causes people to wince in pain. Many say he should have not competed in the match, even wanting it to be called off during said Hell in a Cell match. Keep in mind, this was Cody Rhodes' decision, WWE most likely tried stopping him, but went ahead anyways. Was the pain worth it for Cody in the long run? Or did he shorten his career and damage WWE's plans in the long run?
  • Should he have dethroned Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania in 2023, or was the decision to keep the title on Roman ultimately the right one? This is one of those sine-wave questions that the broad consensus among the base fluctuates on over time, but as 2023 turned into 2024 and the backlash to Roman's eternal dominance, the Bloodline's story getting a little long in the tooth, both combined with Roman barely appearing on the show and winning the same way every time when he does, it's starting to move in the direction of just putting the title on Cody when the wind was at their back being the right choice all along, instead of trying to have Roman beat ridiculously long title reigns like Hulk Hogan's.
• Catharsis Factor: Night 2 of WrestleMania XL. It took two years since his return, but Cody Rhodes finished the story by defeating Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship which he held for over 3.5 years. In addition to his family - his wife Brandi included - celebrating with him, several of his fellow stars did as well: Kevin Owens; Sami Zayn; Randy Orton; LA Knight; CM Punk; Bruce Prichard; Triple H; Jey Uso; Seth Rollins; and last but not least, John Cena. The latter three plus The Undertaker and assisted him during the match as well.
• Common Knowledge: That Cody Rhodes, as a founder of AEW, used and abused his power to put himself over at the expense of the product. While there are certainly extremely poorly-handled matches and angles revolving around him that someone should've stopped, in particular his infamously tone-deaf feud with Anthony Ogogo, if anything Cody had the opposite problem, with accusations of being a new Jeff Jarett living rent-free in his head and driving him to permanently lose any opportunity to ever challenge for the AEW World Heavyweight Title ever again, or to put over talents like Darby Allin and Brodie Lee.
• Designated Hero:
  • During his Heel–Face Turn and feud with Damien Sandow. Cody is treated as justified because Sandow "betrayed" his friend to win the MITB briefcase... except the two openly agreed that it was may the best man win between them when it came to the match. It's even worse when you consider a similar storyline has been used before with Rey Mysterio Jr. & Batista, but Batista is seen as the bad guy for being petty and snapping at his friend for not letting him win. Corrected when Cody revealed the double-cross only upset him enough to question Sandow, and what set him off was realizing at that point that his best friend was such a major conceited ass.
  • His feud against Anthony Ogogo featured Cody temporarily becoming the American Dream in a way that just made him look like everything wrong with Eagleland stereotypes. The storyline had some weird beats including Cody implying racism in America is fixed because he has an interracial marriage and daughter, even though Ogogo himself is mixed race, and Ogogo complaining about actual real life problems of America on his twitter and coming off as a face for it to basically everyone except very patriotic/jingoistic Americans.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Despite the storyline obviously pushing him as the jealous, conniving Heel in his feud with Kenny Omega, there are plenty fans, even on this very wiki, who seem him as a sympathetic babyface rising up against a selfish, oppressive bully.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Narciss Prince" during his "Dashing" gimmick, after the Super Punch-Out character who would go into similar freakouts if you dared to hit him in the face.
  • Prior to his "Dashing" and "Undashing" gimmick, there was CAWdy Rhodes, for seemingly resembling a generic grappler you'd make in a wrestling game's Create A Wrestler (CAW) mode.
  • "Codylander" for the later part of his AEW run, due to him bearing a huge resemblance (both physical and in character) to Homelander from The Boys.
• Fashion-Victim Villain:
  • A couple of people have pointed out that his long jacket (which is white and a bright red) opens right at his trunks, drawing far too much attention to his groin area.
  • More generally, others have noticed that the cut of his most recent style trunks make them look like Underoos, and when combined with his wiry build and very youthful appearance, creates something of an uncomfortable image.
  • His neck tattoo has become a subject of mockery online, being considered garish at worst or ruining his corporate image he's been cultivating at best.
• Genius Bonus: The name "Stardust", for fans of Dusty Rhodes' independent "Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling" promotion in the early 2000's, where Cody was a ref under the nickname "The Stardust Kid".
• Growing the Beard: While the "Dashing", "Undashing" and Stardust gimmicks let Cody show off as being more than a generic wrestler, Cody's heel turn in ROH and American Nightmare gimmick have finally proved that Cody can be a main eventer.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Stardust's last public words to his father were, "Cody Rhodes is dead. And as far as I'm concerned, so is my father." Dusty Rhodes died less than four months later on 6/11/15. Whoops. Adding to the punch, Cody Rhodes never returned to WWE either. Despite the man's best attempts to make it happen behind the scenes, he was stuck as Stardust even through 2016 as the character treaded nowhere, prompting him to ask his release.
  • Cody's theme after his departure from WWE, "Kingdom", features the line "You took my dreams, but not my name", and then WWE filed legal action to stop Cody using his surname on the independent circuit. Did eventually become Hilarious in Hindsight when Cody not only got his surname back, but also kept "Kingdom" (which it and of itself is an entire Take That! at WWE) for when he ended up returning to the company in 2022.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Did several commercials for Gilette razors in 2009. In 2013, cue mustache.
  • While he and Goldust were Tag Team Champions, during one of the semi-frequent Q&A's he does on Twitter to pass the time in airports or long car rides, someone asked him if he planned to get new gear so they would match. His response was something to the effect of "No, and having us match doesn't seem all that important." Cue mid-2014...
  • The shorter, dark-green version of his entrance hoodie which he used when he first teamed with Goldust as the Brotherhood could almost be reminiscent of a Green Arrow outfit. Come 2015 as Stardust, he finds himself in a SummerSlam celebrity feud with Arrow lead star Stephen Amell. Then, just about a month and a half after SummerSlam, Amell's version of Oliver Queen finally becomes the full-on Green Arrow complete with sleeveless hoodie. He then later did a guest role on Season 5 of Arrow with an original character powered by a drug called Stardust, once again fighting Amell. And then in late 2017 Cody himself would induct Amell into the Bullet Club.
• Ho Yay:
  • As a member of Legacy. One of their Fan Nicknames was "The Ambiguously Gay Trio", due to their constant close contact and inability to ever wear pants.
  • YMMV on this, but his tag team with Damien Sandow, Team Rhodes Scholars, has taken to celebrating their victories by giving each other full-body hugs. Keep in mind that they've just finished a match, so they're sweaty. Actually, the subtext has gotten so strong that it's discussed in-universe, on Cody's end in particular - and Cody's Camp Straight personality likely doesn't do him any favors, either. For what it's worth, though, he has expressed a passing interest in Kaitlyn, and he and Sandow associated with the Bella Twins for a while. Considering Cody is so young looking and Sandow has a full beard going on, growing his "love-stache" started looking a little like a little kid who wants to look like his older brother. His explanation for turning on Sandow almost sounds like someone realizing how much of a douchebag their significant other was after being too in love to notice.
• Memetic Molester: Stardust's campier mannerisms often led to this. During its run, it wasn't uncommon to see a macro of Stardust's maniacal gaze with the caption "PREPARE YOUR ANUS".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • His mustache.
  • "WHOOOOA-OH..."^ExplanationThe beginning of his most well-known theme song in WWE, "Smoke and Mirrors". It even (maybe intentionally, maybe not) persisted in a way as part of the lyrics to his current, and undoubtedly definitive entrance theme, "Kingdom".
  • "Fuck The Revival!"^ExplanationHis association with the Young Bucks has led to him being a recurring character on Being the Elite where he has mainly adopted this as his catchphrase; the Revival are considered to be the Bucks' main competition when discussing the best active tag teams today, so Cody's use of this is meant to support his friends. The Revival had since played off of it with their own retooling of F.T.R.: "Forever The Revival", and when they left WWE to sign with AEW they renamed themselves "FTR"
  • "FUCK ON ME!" ^note  Actually indirectly from him, as it comes from Ted DiBiase Jr.. During a match on SmackDown with him and Ted vs. Ezekiel Jackson and Daniel Bryan, Ted screwed up and forgot to kick out of a pin, which caused the match to be cut short before the planned finished. Backstage, Ted went up to to Vince and told him "Where is that referee?! He was trying to fuck on me!" This was so narmy it even caused Vince to sit back down silent.
  • Did somebody say "AEW"...?
    • And now we got the WWE version!
  • Cody Rhodes: Civil Rights Icon^ExplanationIn the midst of his already ill-conceived and poorly-executed United States versus United Kingdom feud with Anthony Ogogo, Cody made the well-intentioned but spectacularly tone-deaf decision to bring up his own interracial family in the context of Georgia's history of segregation, making him look ridiculously self-absorbed, to say nothing of doing it as a blond-haired, blue-eyed man with a giant American-flag themed and America-shaped neck tattoo talking to a black man a few months after the George Floyd shooting. Cody has gone on record that while he stands by the raw emotion of the moment, he regrets the way it came across.
  • The Codyverse^ExplanationAlmost every thing that Cody and his family are doing on AEW TV is so detached from everything else on the show that the fans label his storylines the Codyverse and joke that he's forcefully pulling other wrestlers in there.
  • Because you're my favorite midcarder.^ExplanationA Twitter conversation between the user @_Wilson2002 and Cody quickly made rounds around the IWC due to its unexpectedly Brutal Honesty, with Cody's response of confusion becoming quite memetic in its own right. Quickly became a Heartwarming Moment where upon finally winning the WWE Title, Wilson would congratulate Cody, calling him his favorite World Champion.
  • "X has finished the story" ^Explanation Shortly after Cody's WWE debut, he coined his iconic phrase and it quickly went memetic after his shocking loss to Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 39. It became a running gag for fans to coin this phrase when seeing wrestlers across multiple promotions winning championships taking light jabs at Cody over his loss, and even became the tagline for WWE 2k24. Became a Discredited Meme once Cody himself finally finished his own story and actually beat Roman in the following year's WrestleMania to win the title.
  • WE ARE NOT FLINCHING ^ExplanationIn the build to WrestleMania 40, this became a popular phrase as it was widely expected that Cody should win the title at that show, finally finishing his story, even amid reports that WWE wanted to do a much-anticipated Roman Reigns vs. the Rock match.
• Moral Event Horizon: Removing Rey Mysterio's mask on national television for breaking his nose - which he's mostly responsible for by removing the protective padding around Rey's knee-brace.
• Narm Charm: "Smoke And Mirrors V1". It's so 80s it hurts, but you can't help but love it.
• Nausea Fuel: His torn pec injury during Hell in the Cell 2022 in his match against Seth Rollins, revealing a very large purple bruise. The audience drops to Stunned Silence and many streamers and reactions look in horror and disgust at how bad it is, wishing that Cody didn't go through with the fight..
• Older Than They Think:
  • He was giving "Dashing" tips way back in the middle of 2009 on WWE.com during a promotion by WWE partnering with Gillette called "Be a Superstar". Now, of course he wasn't referring to himself as "Dashing" and his tips were more serious and not hammed up like they became, but it's a subtle early look at his post-Legacy gimmick.
  • Much like Stardust was originally the name of one of his father's gimmicks, his latest nickname "The American Nightmare" was used by his half-brother Dustin during his late 90s run in WCW.
• Protection from Editors: Or at least, the wrestling equivalent. As one of AEW's founders and EVPs (alongside The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega), Cody is known to have had creative control over his character in AEW, but he also became known for being the one to exercise it the most out of the aforementioned wrestlers; basically, he didn't have to listen to anyone, and often didn't. Examples of this include but are not limited to, using pyro for every entrance on a weekly television show, even when he's only coming out to cut a promo (which included an incident of dragging his much-beloved dog out for an entrance with fireworks shooting off a few feet away, plus with 20,000 screaming people, terrorizing it as a result), giving long, rambling promos in an apparent attempt to recreate the promos from the era of his father's heyday, and disappearing into reality television for long stretches of time. Losing out on his editorial protection was allegedly a factor in his ultimate departure from AEW, the promotion he helped found, and back to WWE, a promotion his own theme song mocks for driving him away.
• Signature Scene:
  • If one moment could encapsulate Cody's career, it would be competing at Hell in a Cell 2022 and beating Seth Rollins with a broken freakin' pec, netting WWE (not including NXT) its first five-star match since 2011.
  • Him finishing the story at WrestleMania XL where he finally defeats Roman Reigns after three Cross-Rhodes.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Some fans have pointed out that the original version of "Smoke and Mirrors" sounds almost like a carbon copy of the Baywatch theme song. Word of the song's artist says that this was intentional.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Said in a blog that his one goal in wrestling was to put the WWE title belt on his dad's shoulder (Dusty only ever held it in a Dusty Finish). For a long time, it seemed like something that could never happen. He even referenced it during his return promo to WWE the Raw after WrestleMania 38 in 2022.
  • Losing to Chris Jericho in what he'd declared would be his one and only shot at the AEW Championship, the top title of the company that he himself had helped found. He gave everything he had to try and overcome the cocky Jericho, including a horrible bump face-first onto a steel ramp that ripped his head open, only to come up short, trapped in the Lion Tamer and with his "friend" MJF forced to throw in the towel. Perhaps the worst part is that MJF didn't blatantly screw Cody- as the critics pointed out afterwards, there was no way Cody was going to get out of the Lion Tamer. Jericho had beaten him. And then, after tearfully apologising to a bloodstained and downcast Cody for letting him down and being forgiven, MJF kicked him in the crotch.
  • His loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39. Everyone thought he was going to end the this legendary WWE championship reign, but it wasn't meant to be. Cody's family at ringside, even Brodie Lee's family in attendance. Everyone thought that was going to be his moment, but after one treacherous interference, he lost. The shot Cody sitting in the middle of the ring looking completely defeated, knowing he just let everyone down. This all made it even more better when he goes on to Mania 40 and get the job done.
• Win Back the Crowd: During his final days in All Elite Wrestling, Cody began to be increasingly seen by fans as obnoxious, out-of-touch, and unsuccessfully trying to emulate a bygone era of wrestling, compounded by an unfortunate tendency to cut entirely too many overly-sentimental promos and the fact that his high position in the company meant that he was almost certainly booking himself to look good at the expense of much more popular heel wrestlers. These very traits - his unashamed ego, his assertiveness, and his high-emotion promo style - ended up being exactly the reasons why his return to WWE was met with instant, universal acclaim, as his larger than life persona and gimmick made for a breathtaking contrast in the midst of what many fans consider to be the most unbearably stale, generic period in WWE's history.

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