8 Radical Ideas To Save Cody Rhodes
7. Here's A Thought...
Don't give up on Stardust.
After all, Runnels is a genius in the role, especially as a heel: given a chance to shine, Stardust is usually one of the most entertaining characters on the roster. Imagine that this article was titled 'Radical Ideas To Save Stardust'. How might we go about doing that?
There's the obvious, of course: give him more mic time. Put him in a singles feud with someone that matters, a feud that makes it to television at least once a week.
Hell, put him in a singles feud with someone that doesn't matter, and give them both TV time and watch them both start to matter. Without TV time, nothing works because nothing's going to get over if no one ever sees it.
Even if you do get on telly, it’s how you’re presented that’s important. For the most part (and especially in the last few months) Stardust has been booked to lose television matches that very few people were expected to see anyway - Main Event, Superstars, dark matches, you know the drill.
He’s also booked to work a pretty flat, journeyman’s style in doing so, as befits an undercard jobber.
Not only that, but eight months ago, he was paired with a pair of bruisers to use as henchmen, The Ascension, leading to the creation of the Cosmic Wasteland stable... and then we barely ever saw them again.
And if you think I’m obsessing over television - on house shows in the latter half of March this year, Stardust was beaten by Zack Ryder, Sin Cara and Fandango in singles competition. Just let all of that sink in for a moment. It’s like being beaten up by the Three f*cking Stooges.
Is it really a radical idea to keep the Stardust gimmick and just give it a tiny push? Absolutely, when you consider that every single idea to push Cody Runnels as a wrestler in the last couple of years has revolved around him ditching this wonderfully bizarre hissing supervillain gimmick first.
There's no need for that: he's put so much into the character that it deserves a proper chance to get over.