10 Biggest Disappointments From Cody Rhodes’ AEW Career
6. The Anthony Ogogo Feud
Some fans will tell you that Cody Rhodes buried Anthony Ogogo at Double Or Nothing 2021, but that’s not really true. There is no problem with a star on Cody’s level beating a green talent like Ogogo at this early stage in his career. Cody beat the likes of Sammy Guevara and Ricky Starks in their first encounters too and far from buried, they’ve gone on to become two of the hottest young stars in the company.
Besides, it was the wrong time for Ogogo to get a big win. He needed six months off for surgery on a pre-existing eye condition. Why have him beat one of the company’s top stars when he won’t be around to capitalise on the momentum.
The problem started when Cody decided to play up his national pride and Ogogo was presented as an old fashioned “foreign menace”. The feud already had a perfectly serviceable babyface heel dynamic with Ogogo as the ace up QT Marshall’s sleeve. There was no need to paint Ogogo as an enemy of the entire USA.
Cody’s cringy, jingoistic promo also drew criticism for dragging in the subject of race relations. To be fair, Cody had expressed his regret for all of this:
“... a white guy talking about race relations, who has an American flag tattoo on his neck, I can see why people would use the term, 'tone deaf'”
His words were supposed to rally the fans behind him but they just made him look out of touch.