8 Wrestlers Cody Helped To Get Over In AEW

If people can agree on one thing about Cody Rhodes, it’s that he’s divisive. Some people love him, some people hate him, some people used to love him but have been put off by his sometimes confusing recent character development.

There are many valid reasons to dislike any given wrestler, even if it just comes down to personal taste. Don’t confuse that, however, with certain bad faith arguments that have followed the younger Rhodes brother around since before AEW was even a thing.

Some have said that “The American Nightmare” is an egomaniac. That he will use his power behind the scenes to get as many wins and championship runs as he likes and that by serving his own needs he holds other talent down. But that take belies the number of losses Cody had taken in AEW. It also demonstrates a lack of understanding of how this whole business works.

Cody has to win regularly on TV to continue to resonate as a star. That way it means more when someone does beat him. His weekly defences of the TNT title in his first run helped establish the belt as a prize worth fighting for and gave credibility to the person who finally took it from him.

It turns out that if Cody has a thumb on talent, he’s probably only using it to give them the rub. So, with that slightly unsettling image in our minds, let’s get on with it...

Not, you understand, that the wrestlers on this list would have been lost without him. Certainly, your writer isn’t suggesting Jon Huber and others didn’t have everything it took to succeed without the help of “the son of the son of a plumber.”

Still, however over Mr Brodie Lee was in AEW, the Dark Order’s head honcho was even more revered after his delirious squash of Cody for his beloved TNT title. Still massively over as a top babyface, Cody cut a distraught, broken figure. the result was a shock, the excellent title run curtailed too soon. Nonetheless, so glorious was Mr Brodie Lee’s performance it was impossible not to revel a bit in Cody’s destruction. Such is the wonderful cognitive dissonance of professional wrestling fandom.

You can argue back and forth about whether or not Cody should have taken this or that victory but it can’t be denied when he loses, he loses definitively. Cody wasn’t protected by heel run-ins, he didn’t have a comeback to get his sh*t in. He was demolished.

The rematch, while levelling the score for Cody, was another great showcase for Jon Huber and remains a fitting final match for a man who should have had many, many more.