Jimmy Redman Posted March 12, 2017 Report Share Posted March 12, 2017 The thing about Cody is that his strengths are far better suited to WWE than to the indies. He's not a workrate guy, he's not going to go on an indy tour and give you a bunch of awesome matches. He's good, not great in the ring. That wasn't why he was perceived as held down in WWE. It was more his out of the ring work. He was a strong character worker and strong promo, and with that along with the Rhodes pedigree, it always seemed like he was destined for bigger things than they ever got around to doing with him. There were missed opportunities during Legacy, during the Rhodes Bros/Authority stuff, during his Dr. Doom run on SD. Not everyone who is "held down" in WWE is suddenly going to become a super worker on the indies, because it's not always about ring work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted March 12, 2017 Report Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'm not even saying it to hate on Cody. I think he hit about the highest point that someone of his abilities could in the WWE. I think people forget that being a career mid-carder with numerous title reigns isn't being held down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrzfn Posted March 12, 2017 Report Share Posted March 12, 2017 It's also a question of relativity. During Cody's greatest WWE popularity they were throwing title reigns at guys like Del Rio and Jack Swagger, so by the bar WWE set for themselves Cody seems like a fine choice for that tier. It's very similar to what happened to Dolph Ziggler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 I'm not even saying it to hate on Cody. I think he hit about the highest point that someone of his abilities could in the WWE. I think people forget that being a career mid-carder with numerous title reigns isn't being held down. I think he peaked when he was teaming with Hardcore Holly. Legacy and Stardust were both pretty terrible. His Smackdown stuff when he thought he was Dr. Doom wearing the mask was alright but I think his tag stuff with Holly was his pinnacle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 Is Cody even the second-best Rhodes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 Hell no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Schneider Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 I can't imagine anyone thinking that. I wouldn't even understand the thought process Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 I do think Cody has evolved his character a bit on the indies to look a bit more "main event." He's carrying himself a bit differently. Maybe being a big fish in a small pond is giving him some confidence. He always read as mid-card to me when he was with WWE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KawadaSmile Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 I can barely say he's the 3rd best Rhodes when we factor Brandi into the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrzfn Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 Let's not go crazy here. Brandi sucks pretty badly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricR Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 I like Cody (though really can't care about his indy run. The guy literally has over 1000 matches in WWE, if I'm really dying to see a Cody match, I think the last decade has me covered) and think his team with his brother was really great. I could have watched their tags for years. But 2nd best Rhodes? NOBODY can make a claim that he's in the same conversation as Dustin or Dusty. He's not close to Trevor Rhodes either. I don't think you could even make an argument he's near Dirty Rhodes. He scrapes in as a top 5 Rhodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 I don't know if I'd put him below Trevor Rhodes/Murdoch, but he's certainly well, well below Dustin or Goldust as individual characters, let alone if you consider Dustin's entire career as both. Cody's whole career has basically been "what if you made a CAW in Here Comes the Pain and named him Rhodes?". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 If I'm making a Rhodes CAW, there's no way in hell I'm making him look like Cody. He's gonna have a belly that's a little too big and his heiney's gonna be a little too big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilTLL Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 Yeah, I would agree that one of Cody's problems as a Rhodes is looking like the athlete of the day is supposed to look. Dustin did not, in his own way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 16, 2017 Report Share Posted March 16, 2017 Cody set expectations really high for me when he cut a great promo inducting his dad into the WWE HOF. Unfortunately, that was the best promo of his career right then and there. Drew Galloway is of course better (and bigger) than Cody, just as he is a bigger case of WWE missing the boat in just about every conceivable way. Of course, if he went back to WWE tomorrow, he'd have the confidence beaten out of him again and would probably have a disappointing run despite having pretty much everything he needs to be a major star. That's how it works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted March 17, 2017 Report Share Posted March 17, 2017 Garrett Kidney made a great point in the podcast/rant he did reviewing the Impact reboot mess. Heel Cody doesn't just play to the people in the back row, he's playing to the people 150 feet away from the entire arena. He's so over the top and cartoonish and without being surrounded by the other wacky parts of the WWE Cinematic Universe it sticks out like a sore thumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzombie1988 Posted March 17, 2017 Report Share Posted March 17, 2017 I've been watching Cody Rhodes since his OVW days and he really hasn't changed that much since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Posted March 18, 2017 Report Share Posted March 18, 2017 I would argue he had more charisma in OVW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 18, 2017 Report Share Posted March 18, 2017 Can't show much less charisma that Cody Rhodes anyway. To me he was one of the poster boy for WWE mid-00's cookie cutter bland guy, only with a last name. His faction with Randy Orton and Ted Dibiase (Jr) was the perfect picture of the WWE black hole of these years. No charisma, robotic work, bland as fuck look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Can't show much less charisma that Cody Rhodes anyway. To me he was one of the poster boy for WWE mid-00's cookie cutter bland guy, only with a last name. His faction with Randy Orton and Ted Dibiase (Jr) was the perfect picture of the WWE black hole of these years. No charisma, robotic work, bland as fuck look. An issue that I would argue has been around since the WCW Power Plant days. Remember how boring, bland and generic the Natural Born Thrillers were? For awhile in WWE, everyone they cranked out felt like they were interchangeable with the Shawn Stasiaks and Mark Jindraks of the world. Randy Orton has gotten himself over - mainly I believe still solely because he uses the damn Diamond Cutter. But still, he's a helluva lot better off than guys like Lance Cade, Matt Morgan or Tyson Tomko were ever going to be. I've been wrong several times before too, of course. Like I never would have predicted that Batista would turn out to be so good or that Brodus Clay would be so bad. Maybe I'm not the best judge of character but WWE for awhile definitely felt like they had the cookie-cutter factory thing going for a good while. Clean cut white dudes that looked like Ambercrombie models with bad (usually tribal) tattoos. Everyday frat house douchebag look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Why would you have expected Brodus Clay to be good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffey Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Why would you have expected Brodus Clay to be good? Pre-debut internet hype, basically. Before he came out as a fat dancing dinosaur. Sheer ignorance. I was hoping for a John Tenta worker and instead got Junkyard Dog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Clean cut white dudes that looked like Ambercrombie models with bad (usually tribal) tattoos. Everyday frat house douchebag look. I couldn't have put it better myself. And yeah, the late Powerplant era definitely seems like an unexpected influence. The tribal tattoos were such a lame stamp of these years too. And again, for better of for worse (speaking about some annoying working traits), the influx of different body type/looks and actual characters came from the indie scene, CM Punk being the most notable. I was going through the Rumble matches post 2001 last month and it's interesting to see how things slowly evolved on the roster through those years. I guess there would be an interesting, almost ethnographic study to be made about the evolution of body types and characterization in the WWE through these Rumble match alone over the years, complete with the looks (I mean costumes, hairs and such) and names of the workers (complete gimmick names, names that belong to the workers, copyrighted WWE names etc...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stro Posted March 21, 2017 Report Share Posted March 21, 2017 Why would you have expected Brodus Clay to be good? Pre-debut internet hype, basically. Before he came out as a fat dancing dinosaur. Sheer ignorance. I was hoping for a John Tenta worker and instead got Junkyard Dog. Pre-internet hype also got people thinking Dean Ambrose and Sami Callihan were top tier talents. You can't trust pre-internet hype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted March 22, 2017 Report Share Posted March 22, 2017 Brodus was actually quite good as a heel monster squashing folk, both before and after that, and not a bad promo to boot. But that's not what they went with for that run. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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