10 Biggest Disappointments From Cody Rhodes’ AEW Career
3. The Lack Of Focus
Cody’s other projects for TNT and TBS had their benefits. Rhodes To The Top and The Go Big Show exposed a wider audience to a charismatic wrestling personality, making Cody an even bigger star. They helped reach a television audience who see wrestling as synonymous with WWE and draw their attention to AEW.
This sort of corporate synergy serves a purpose but it doesn’t mean much to those of us just wanting to watch the best possible wrestling show every week. Where once Cody seemed woven into the very fabric of AEW’s deft storytelling tapestry, his commitments elsewhere made that impossible. In 2021 it felt like Cody was being airlifted in for brief feuds when his schedule would allow. You couldn’t get too excited though because you knew before too long he’d be away again.
This all added to the sense that the Codyverse was detached from everything and everyone else on the show. AEW is at its best when storylines and characters overlap and intersect. AEW worked around this problem fairly well when Cody’s demolition at the hands of Mr Brodie Lee wrote him off TV for a while but everything after that was diminishing returns.
It’s harder to invest in a character if you suspect the wrestler’s priorities lie elsewhere. It’s no coincidence that this period marked a downturn in Cody’s popularity with fans.