wrestling / Columns

An Open Letter To Cody Rhodes

January 3, 2020 | Posted by Steve Cook
Cody Rhodes AEW Dynamite 12-12-19

Dear Cody,

First off, I have to say that I’m a big fan of your work and have been for a very long time. Hell, I remember you teaming with some fella named Spears in Ohio Valley Wrestling on WBKI. That’s way back. Loved your team with Hardcore Holly, thought the Dashing & Anti-Dashing stuff was brilliant, and thought you were generally underutilized in WWE. Happens to many people. Nevertheless, you did the best you could with what you had to work with.

I’ve been very impressed with most of what I’ve seen from All Elite Wrestling so far, and your work in the ring & on the microphone has often been the highlight of a show. If AEW had an MVP award for 2019, your name would be right at the top of the list. I have been singing your praises on this very website for longer than I care to remember, and your success brings me a lot of unearned pride & joy.

However, I feel that some of the decisions you’ve been making recently are a tad questionable.

The whole “no more title shots” thing

I understand where you were coming from. I know that you, Nick, Matt & Kenny are very sensitive when it comes to the issue of pushing yourselves at the expense of the folks you’ve hired. You want to be givers, not takers. You don’t want people to think you formed a company just to become champions. So many men before you have pushed themselves on top forever, and you guys want to be different. It’s admirable.

I wonder if it’s…for want of a better phrase…best for business.

Your challenging for Chris Jericho’s AEW Championship was a great piece of business. Even though you came up short, everybody would have lined up for the rematch, because as we know from the last decade of pro wrestling, every #1 contender gets at least three PPV title matches. And Lord knows it would take most people multiple attempts to beat Chris Jericho. There’s no shame in losing to Le Champion.

Going all in on the first title shot? Not such a good play. Especially with that no-good yellow bellied egg sucking dog MJF in your corner. You’re probably sick of everybody telling you that you shouldn’t have trusted him. I gotta add my voice to that choir though. OK, so he was “your heel”. He was still a heel! Even heels can’t trust heels!

The whole thing just seemed ill-advised, and has placed you behind the 8-ball going forward. Which is fine, we all know that a Rhodes is at his best behind the 8-ball. Usually makes for a good story.
You’re a smart guy. Smart enough to realize that you haven’t been making the best choices lately.
So you’re getting somebody to help you with that. However. I feel this might be another poor decision.

Arn Anderson?

Honestly. Have the Rhodes not learned the lesson yet? Dusty trusted Ole Anderson one time and he got burned. Dustin trusted Ole’s nephew Arn one time and got burned. And now you’re going back to that well? I know that Arn is a vessel of wrestling knowledge. After he retired from in-ring competiton, he became one of those backstage men for WWE. He eventually became John Cena’s most trusted ally backstage, the man who helped plan out Cena’s matches. 

Since that ended, he’s been doing the typical “dude that left WWE” thing. He has a podcast. He’s made some appearances. One of them was even at All Out, where he helped you beat Shawn Spears. Arn has said and done all the right things since leaving WWE.

That all sounds well and good, right?

Wrong.

I know that you know this promo:

You alluded to it at Double or Nothing pretty flawlessly. For such a student of your father, I’m surprised you’ve forgotten one of his most important lessons. Arn is a walk-behinder. Always has been, always will be. He’s not a leader. Maybe he would be a fine defensive coordinator, but he’s not head coach material.

More importantly…he’s an Anderson! Andersons have spent their entire lives stabbing unwitting good guys in the back. It’s their nature, they don’t know any better.

Heck, ask your brother if you should trust Arn. He learned eventually.

I’m still a big fan and looking forward to how this plays out. Hopefully it’ll be in your favor, but I fear your choice of a head coach will go about as well as the Cleveland Browns’ last five choices of a head coach. 

Yours truly,

Steve

article topics :

AEW, Cody, Steve Cook