THIS Is The Most Complete Pro Wrestler In The World Right Now
Undeniably.
They used to call him 'Three Star Cody'. Your writer used to think of him as Three Star Cody.
They called him that because his ring work, for a long time, felt imported from WWE's main roster because it was. He wasn't the heaviest hitter. He wasn't the most intricate of technicians. He wasn't the most explosive of athletes. He was a very well-rounded pro wrestler, and wore both the positive and negative connotations of that description. It didn't help, either, that Cody had joined the Bullet Club in 2016. Until he expertly toyed with the contrasts, he felt even more like the taunt in comparison to his Elite peers.
Between 2016 and 2018, Cody, when he played heel, adjusted to the epic lengths of the main event he never reached in WWE with a great deal of stalling and posturing. This was an effective enough storytelling technique - he knew damn well what those fans called him, and he luxuriated in the spaces between moves because they were into movez - but he sometimes struggled to weave it into the body of the match, where it mattered. Cody played the sports entertainer in the pro wrestling world, with a knowing relish, equipped with the knowledge that he wasn't, say, ROH Supercard Of Honor 2018 opponent Kenny Omega. He leant on the Three Star Cody perception to inform the contrast of 2018's hottest non-WWE feud, but his ambition made his big-drawing heel persona untenable.
Ahead of the All In event he in part masterminded, Cody promised to arrange the most interesting parts of the wrestling world beyond WWE, package them in an precedented big-time spectacle, and prove to the industry that it could be something far more than it was.
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