Why Cody Rhodes Leaving Is Best For AEW
3. A More Cohesive Product
Despite initial proclamations - including from Cody Rhodes himself - of AEW having no clear babyfaces or clear heels during its formative days, Tony Khan's promotion has done a stellar job in very much establishing clear heroes and villains across its roster.
In this land of defined good guys and bad guys, there was a massive lack of cohesion whenever Cody or Brandi Rhodes were on our screens in recent months.
Far from being in sync with the rest of the AEW product, there was a distinct lack of harmony whenever either Rhodes was present lately. In the case of Cody, he'd be blindly peddling his babyface shtick to a crowd who were more interested in booing him for being what a portion of the AEW audience essentially saw as Triple H-lite. And not the Triple H of 2000 where he was one of the very best in the world, nor the Papa Triple H who helped steer the glory years of NXT, but more, whether fairly or not, the 'Reign of Terror' Triple H and the more infamous traits of the Game at his very worst.
As mentioned elsewhere, we'll never know if this was Cody intentionally leaning into what some accused him of being, as he got set to embrace the hate and fully turn heel. Either way, a lack of this negative, conflicting response to Cody will make for Dynamites, Rampages and PPVs that sees the crowd fully in-tune with the characters they're watching perform.