WWE Just Changed The Wrestling World Forever
Cody was a needle-mover throughout his AEW tenure, certainly a focal point of the conversation, for better or worse, but the man was at his best elevating those he worked with. Everything Cody did felt big even if, at times, it was silly. Not since Mick Foley has a wrestler elevated his opponents so brilliantly. MJF was getting over regardless, but Cody introduced him to the wider audience. Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara evolved through the lens of Cody, who was so tremendous at working to his opponent's strengths that he all but convinced Khan to sign Eddie Kingston and Ricky Starks after five minutes of masterful TV work. During a pandemic.
Cody isn't just a star attraction, a fantastic and yet still underrated wrestler, a telegenic charmer who can act as bridge to new fans. He makes wrestling better. It might be impossible for him to make WWE better, but his exit might make AEW worse.
Who knows. Perhaps AEW might be better off without the worst of Cody's scatterbrained impulses; this is a man, after all, who planted the seed for a CM Punk match in his last promo, which was meant to build but didn't really build a match with Sammy Guevara (!), and has now left, meaning no match with CM Punk can take place (!).
It would be a very WWE thing to happen, were his valuation to fall below even Khan's after two months back in the WWE system, but Cody really is taking a part of AEW with him on the way out - a part of its old soul - and it's not so easily replaced, even if the work is done.