Why Cody Rhodes Is the Impending Almighty Villain of AEW
All Elite Wrestling’s Cody Rhodes is the ultimate babyface. He’s the everyman, grandson of a plumber, and always does not what’s best for him, but the right thing to do. The ultimate babyface.
Except…he’s not.
Despite what we all think (Maybe just me but ok), Cody is not the ultimate babyface. His charisma and likeability makes you think that the man you see on television is the ultimate good guy, doing whats right and beating all the bad guys, and doing whats best for the company, when in reality he does what’s best for himself at any given situation.
Take for example the first episode of Dynamite:
The first match ever broadcast on television in AEW’s history was Cody Rhodes vs Sammy Guevera. Whilst Sammy has shown himself as one of AEW’s best young prospects, back then he had barely done anything to a mainstream audience, and surely was well below the calibre of wrestlers Cody had also been 3 singles match wins in a row at AEW events prior to this episode, so his ranking should have been higher than Guevera, who’s only AEW prior was a 6 man tag match victory, so not counting to his singles record.
Cody clearly used his power as an executive vice-president to give himself the spotlight. The first ever AEW match can always be said to have been won by Cody Rhodes, you can’t change the history books (Unless, ya know, Benoit). Is Cody angling to be the next Chris Benoit? We can’t rule it out.
One thing not yet mentioned about Cody which is a huge red flag on being a good guy – A hugely elaborate entrance. A usual entrance theme may or may not have a prelude, if you will. A little something to add to the song, such as Stone Cold’s Glass Break. Bret Hart’s Guitar tune thing, or Jesse and Festus’ ‘BISCUITS AND GRAVY!’. All add that little je ne sais quoi to make you really stand out in your entrances. Cody has not one but TWO. First he has the biblical sounding choir signing the prelude to his entrance theme, then he has the audacity, the GALL to then have a clip of HIMSELF (You are not the Rock do not pretend to be) saying “Wrestling only has one royal family” which while arrogant also vastly overestimes how much Goldust did back in the day.
Thirdly and finally, Cody has shown just this week on his Twitter account and possibly he said it on Dynamite, I’ll be honest I cannot remember. Jake Roberts, also known as the Snake due to his love of frozen mice, challenged Cody to a match on behalf of his Client Lance ‘Vance’ Archer. Cody immediately said no about facing the big man, citing the rankings issue I mentioned early. He’s quoted as saying ‘He has zero record with AEW, me wrestling him does a disservice to others climbing into the Top-5’ (Quoted by himself as he tweeted it).
And the final final final point.
That neck tatto.
Hamish is a writer and podcaster and wrestling fan who is a key part of the Atletifo team.
After playing countless hours of WrestleMania X8 on the Gamecube, he discovered Rey Mysterio getting his head crushed by The Great Khali, and thus a love for professional wrestling was born.
He is also a Media Graduate, as well as writing for multiple sites about Premier League football and the culture of Wales – his home country.
That tattoo though.