Why Cody Rhodes Leaving Is Best For AEW

6. The Fan Response To Brandi Rhodes

Tony Khan Cody Rhodes
AEW

While the recent fan response to Cody Rhodes could at absolute best be described as mixed, the response to Brandi Rhodes lately has been brutal.

In her final AEW interaction with Dan Lambert, Brandi not only nearly turned uber-heel Lambert babyface, but the promo battle ended up being one of the worst segments in the history of All Elite Wrestling.

For numerous reasons, Rhodes' on-screen presence has resulted in a negative reaction across the past three years. We'll never know for sure whose idea it was to put Brandi's character in certain situations, but the final result has often ranged from confusing to all out awful.

Take the former Eden Stiles' role in the early days of AEW, where she was heading up the Nightmare Collective and having Awesome Kong collect the hair of babyfaces for her. That group in itself was a total flop, but making things more perplexing was how Brandi would be portrayed as a villainous, maniacal, disturbed sort in these segments, yet she'd later appear on the exact same episode of AEW Dynamite as the smiling, cheery babyface at the side of Cody.

The Brandi Rhodes character was utterly broken in her last few AEW appearances, with audiences rejecting Brandi in a major way.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.