10 Wrestlers The Fans Turned On

For so long, AEW treated Cody Rhodes like royalty. It’s not a stretch to say that without him leaving WWE and showing the industry that life existed outside the market leader, All Elite Wrestling might never have come to fruition.

Fans were drawn to Rhodes, who spearheaded the first main rivalry with Chris Jericho in the maiden year of the company, where he lost the chance to ever challenge for the top belt again. Inspired booking, and the ‘American Nightmare’ went on to have some ace rivalries with MJF and Lance Archer.

But with Cody granted too much control of his character, and his refusal to turn heel, the fans soon turned on him when he began beating their favourites or new arrivals. Somewhere along the way, the fans who treated ‘the son of a son of a plumber’ as a god now booed him out of every building.

Suddenly, every feud was skewed, every promo was interrupted by the AEW fans telling him to ‘shut the f*** up’, and even his own weight belt was hurled back at him after he had tossed it into the crowd.

It was clear that it impacted Cody’s final few months with the company and was a main driver for his sensational return to WWE when his AEW contract expired. No one could believe it, least of all the fans, who accused the man they had turned their back on of betrayal.

Wrestling fans, eh?