Ask 411 Wrestling: Is Cody Rhodes the Ultimate Face of WWE?

Welcome guys, gals, and gender non-binary pals, to Ask 411 . . . the last surviving weekly column on 411 Wrestling.

I am your party host, Ryan Byers, and I am here to answer some of your burning inquiries about professional wrestling. If you have one of those queries searing a hole in your brain, feel free to send it along to me at [email protected]. Don’t be shy about shooting those over – the more, the merrier.

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Sim is putting the “face” back in “babyface”:

Of all the “face of the company” figures we had over the years, it seems like Cody is the only one that managed to be the ULTIMATE babyface in WWE.

Let me elaborate. Cena for example, was liked by higher ups and colleagues, but for years loathed by “smarks.” Hogan was liked by Vince (for the most part) and a hero for lots of fans, but a lot of his wrestling pairs flat out despise the guy.

Austin was liked by everyone, but IN KAYFABE, he was hated by Vince (yes, I’m going that specific).

Cody however, no matter which way you look at it, managed the feat to be actually liked by everybody – co-workers, management, fans, kayfabe, not kayfabe, smarks, even the people he’s feuding with either end up showing him big respect once the feud is done.

So, being the first person to do so, can he be considered as the first ultimate babyface in history?

First, I don’t mean to undermine the question too much, but “liked by everyone in kayfabe” seems like a weird metric to evaluate a babyface by, because historically you’ve not wanted the bad guys and the good guys to show even the slightest degree of affinity for one another. However, I’ll play along with the question as it’s written.

There are really only two individuals who I would consider to be the “face” of the WWWF/WWF/WWE that weren’t mentioned in the question. Those are Roman Reigns and Bruno Sammartino. Regarding Roman, I think we can immediately scratch him off the list for the same reason that Sim scratched Cena. Regarding Bruno, I wouldn’t say that he had kayfabe respect from his opponents, because they were basically a Dick Tracy or Batman style rogues gallery. There also weren’t a lot of “smarks” in that era, but those who were around didn’t particularly care for Sammartino’s punchy and kicky style.

That said, I do think we have to carve out a caveat for John Cena. Yes, Cena became famous for his split reactions, in which a majority of women and children would root him on while a majority of men would shout him down. However, that wasn’t always the case. For the first couple of years of Cena’s ascendancy, everybody was behind him. It was only after some time as the company’s top guy that a portion of the crowd began to turn on him.

So, there was a period of time during which Cena may have matched Cody’s accomplishments, and we’re also early in Cody’s run as the tippy top guy, leaving the possibility that he may be turned on over time just as Cena was.

Stu from Liverpool prefers beta:

What is/are the biggest video tape libraries that the WWE don’t own?

The obvious answer would be the libraries of other wrestling promotions that still exist in some form. New Japan and All Japan have both been around since 1972 and all their footage is either owned by them or the television networks upon which they aired. Mexico’s CMLL is the oldest wrestling promotion in the world, being founded over thirty years before the WWWF and having its tapes for much of that time. Even though they are comparatively newer companies, the libraries of Impact Wrestling, Dragon Gate, NOAH, and AEW/ROH would all be pretty expansive by this point as well.

However, I suspect that what you’re really asking about are libraries of defunct wrestling promotions that WWE realistically could buy but hasn’t for some reason.

Probably the biggest library that still exists in some form that WWE hasn’t actually purchased is that of the Memphis territory. Wrestlenomics did a great interview a couple of years ago with a former WWE employee who was involved in many of their tape library acquisitions, and he reported that such a purpose was pursued but never finalized in part because Jerry Lawler, who owns a significant chunk of the Memphis footage, was hesitant to give it up. Also, ownership rights being split across multiple individuals complicated any sale.

Another large hole in WWE’s collection where we know the footage exists is the Houston wrestling territory promoted for many years by Paul Boesch. Billy Corgan’s version of the NWA actually held the rights to that footage for many years (I could not confirm whether they still do) and had it on an NWA Classics streaming service from 2015 through 2017, though that operation is now defunct.

There are several other large territories that WWE does not own the footage of, including Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland, but those are all situations in which there are questions about how much footage even really still exists given the old practice of territories cutting expenses by taping over shows due to a failure to realize that the footage may have its own value someday.

Tyler from Winnipeg is a hit with all the ladies:

When Dude Love was in action, what was your thought?

I always liked Cactus Jack and Mankind but felt the Dude Love gimmick was too goofy and distracted from what Mick Foley was capable of as a performer.

I really enjoyed his theme song, though.

Coming down the aisle, it’s Jonfw2:

Ryan, what was the origin of the modern day wrestling entrance with the music and the video and the lights and all the things my dad would’ve hated?

Was it Hogan in the early Manias? Or was there something before that that Vince just copied?

Thanks?
You’re welcome?

If your dad hates modern wrestling entrances, he must be REALLY old school, because the origin of what we see now goes back to the 1940s and Gorgeous George.

George entered to “Pomp and Circumstance,” which most folks reading this column will associate more with graduation ceremonies and/or “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Also, though large indoor video monitors and pyrotechnics were not yet technological possibilities at this time, George still added elements to his entrance other than just walking out to the ring, including throwing gold bobby pins (“Georgie pins”) to the crowd, having a valet spritz him with perfume, and having a red carpet strewn with rose petals laid out for him to walk upon.

It’s not near as elaborate as some of the things we see today, but it can be seen as their starting point.

Michael just wants to be, just wants to be luh-uh-uhved:

I was bored one night and went on the Network to watch some random episodes of Raw (mostly around the 2010’s time period), and most of the were just as boring as I remember…my question is, after the Attitude Era, can you list the top 5 (or 10) Raws that are must see or just great episodes in general?

This was a really difficult question or me to answer, because, frankly, there are very few Raws from the entire history of the show that are great top to bottom. When the show was an hour long, large stretches of it were often squash matches. When the show was two hours long, there may have been a great angle or great match that everybody remembers, but when you look at the rest of the program that surrounded it, it turned out to be a mixed bag. Then, when the show moved to three hours, the episodes were just too damn long to the point that I could not in good conscience recommend any one of them as being the best of anything because they drag, drag, drag.

However, here’s what I was able to dig up.

May 21, 2001: This show was headlined by one of the most well-remembered main events in Raw history, with Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho facing Triple H and Steve Austin for the Tag Team Championship (and I can say “the” Tag Team Championship, because believe it or not there was only one of them at the time.). There’s historical significance in that match as well, with HHH suffering the quad tear that kept him sidelined for the Invasion.

July 16, 2001: I’ve written about this episode in this column before. Steve Austin had turned heel and was a shadow of his former self. However, the WWF had been invaded by WCW and ECW, leaving Vince McMahon to feel he needed the “old Stone Cold” back. Austin seemingly was going to do it but, inspired by a speech from “Classy” Freddie Blassie, he comes through at the last minute to one of the craziest sustained pops I’ve ever seen. I love it when a storyline plays out through a whole show, and this was one of the best examples of it.

October 3, 2005: Billed as “Raw Homecoming,” this was the show’s return to the USA Network after its stint on TNN/Spike TV. Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels had a 30 minute iron man match, which Edge and Matt Hardy went at it in a ladder match. Plus, there’s a fun legends segment with guys like Dusty Rhodes, Kevin Von Erich, and Jim Duggan humiliating Rob Conway.

May 19, 2003: From Greenville, South Carolina, also known as Horseman country, Raw authority figure Steve Austin gives World Champion Triple H the ability to pick any former world champ to be his opponent for the evening. Thinking it’ll be an easy night, HHH picks his Evolution stablemate Ric Flair to lay down for him. Naitch is seemingly going to go along with it at first, but Shawn Michaels fires up Flair and convinces him to give it his best. It’s a grounded, realistic show-long storyline that plays off of Flair’s real life shaken confidence in the later stages of his career. It’s fantastic.

April 23, 2007: From London, England, Shawn Michaels and John Cena wrestle an hour long match that is among the best if not the best in Raw history and among the best if not the best in Cena’s career. With that match taking up an hour of the program, the rest of the show could be absolute crap with it still being a great episode in the end. (And that’s pretty much what happened, too, since the precursor to Cena/Michaels was The Great Khali taking on Carlito.)

Steve ain’t heavy, he’s my brother:

Why did Lanny Poffo not get more of a push in the WWF? Here’s a guy who was good in the ring, good on the mic, good look, good size, charismatic, was valued enough to hold down a WWF job for quite a number of years, but he never really rose above the lower card.

Of course, a lot of talented wrestlers never get the spotlight — even just getting to the WWF could be considered a huge accomplishment — but what makes me wonder about Lanny is that his brother, Randy Savage, was one of the WWF’s top stars. Everything I’ve ever seen suggests that the brothers always had a close relationship, and it seems like Randy was definitely in a position to stick his neck out on Lanny’s behalf. Randy was motivated to play politics for his family, too, as evidenced by his infamous move to get his father inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame.

Few wrestlers make it to the main event and even fewer did back in his time, but based on his talent and his connections, I would have expected Lanny to get at least the push of a Brutus Beefcake, who also had a powerful “brother” but wasn’t as good a performer.

The answer is most likely that the WWF never really wanted Lanny in the first place.

If you go back and watch the shoot interview that he did with RF Video he says that, when the WWF approached Randy Savage about joining the company, they already had major plans for him. Randy had to ask the WWF if they also had a spot for Lanny to even get Lanny’s foot in the door. (For what it’s worth, it’s not framed as Savage insisting that is brother get a job, just that he made it clear he would like for it to happen.) Lanny then goes on to say that George Scott, who was booking the company at the time, liked him and featured him in the midcard a bit, but subsequent bookers weren’t as interested in him, so he dropped down the card even though he remained employed thanks to the status of his brother.

In other words, it was a situation where Randy had already gotten Lanny the job and neither one of them really seemed to care to use the connection much more than that – nor did was the WWF brass particularly interested in pushing another Poffo.

Bryan is an endomorphic fighting machine supreme:

Pro wrestling is very physically demanding, but how is some guys who don’t actually look like athletes excelled at it and were known for their endurance? Harley Race was one of the toughest guys ever but he had a dad bod. Barry Windham said in a shoot interview he never worked out but was doing broadways with Flair.

Meanwhile, there are guys like Lex Luger and the Ultimate Warrior who got blown up in matches despite having 0% body fat.

How did guys with so little physical prowess become so good?

The answer is that guys like Harley Race, even with his “dad bod” as you say did not lack physical prowess at all. It’s just that there are different types of training and different types of bodies.

Training your body for cardiovascular endurance, i.e. having the ability to engage in a physical activity over an extended period of time, is completely different than training your body to look as jacked as humanly possible. You can engage in training to accomplish one of these goals and wind up with only minimal benefit in the other area. Guys like Luger and Warrior came from the bodybuilding world and, at least early in their careers, they trained to have the physiques that bodybuilders would have had in their era. Harley Race, to my knowledge, was never involved in that sort of athletic endeavor and

To put it more simply, there’s a difference between training for “show” and training for “go.”

Just take a look at the wide range of bodies that were on display this past summer at the Olympics. A female shot putter is going to look remarkably different than a female Olympic gymnast, in part because of some of the innate physical differences that make them better suited for their respective sports but also in part because of differences in their training. However, both of them are athletes who are performing at a high level – just with different bodies differently suited for the type of athletics they are engaged in.

Another factor is that human bodies are just weird. Two people can engage in exactly the same training regimen for exactly the same period of time and can come out with completely different looking bodies because of other lifestyle factors like diet and, perhaps most importantly, genetics.

The question also references Barry Windham and his statement that he never went to the gym – which is something that I can believe. Despite gym time, he was still in peak physical condition and able to have those lengthy matches with Flair because the simple act of having a wrestling match is an athletic feat that trains your body and gets it into shape. Think of it like running a race. You can probably become a pretty good runner never seeing the inside of a gym. Just go out and run in a bunch of competitive races and your body will adapt to doing that and, hopefully, become better at it over time. Wrestling is the same way.

One last consideration in all of this is that wrestlers have control over the pace, the ebb, and the flow of their matches. Though I’m not trying to take anything away from the athletic abilities of high level wrestlers, the really good ones also know how to put peaks and valleys of exertion into their matches not only to tell the best story possible for the crowd but also to conserve their own energy and not get horribly winded. There is a mental aspect to this in addition to the physical.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.