10 Times WWE Dropped The Ball With Cody Rhodes
4. Feuding With The Authority
While Cody Rhodes was always a better heel, he had a chance to emerge as a breakout babyface in the summer of 2013. In failing to become Mr. Money in the Bank, the Philadelphia crowd at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view took to him as a fan favorite.
His popularity grew in the weeks that followed and, with a win over Damien Sandow at SummerSlam, he had plenty of momentum heading into the fall season.
He then had an extremely impressive outing versus Randy Orton, and although the end result was him getting "fired," he came out of the loss a hotter commodity. The angle that involved him, the returning Goldust and his father Dusty Rhodes battling Orton and The Authority was the sole saving grace of WWE programming at that time with the Rhodes brothers' match against The Shield at Battleground being one of the best bouts of the year.
Unfortunately, that was where the feud peaked, and it never had a proper conclusion. The Authority remained in power and the focus soon transitioned from the Rhodes family to Big Show. Cody and Goldust revolutionized tag team wrestling as a tandem, but Cody would have been a much more fitting championship challenger for Orton at Survivor Series than the overexposed World's Largest Athlete.