Hawke Ranks Cody Rhodes’ 2016 Independent Wrestling Matches

Since quitting the WWE, Cody Rhodes has managed to work BOLA, Evolve, TNA, Final Battle, win fake championships for fake companies like Jeff Jarrett’s Pyramid Scheme and What Culture, and has been slotted for a big role in New Japan by all accounts. That is impressive. The idea of “Cody Rhodes” is noteworthy. How has he been as an actual professional wrestler though? You are about to find out.

 

18. Cody Rhodes vs. JT Dunn – PWM – 12/11/2016

This was for the WCPW INTERNET CHAMPIONSHIP LMAO.

This whole deal was some serious fucking bullshit. We got “treated” to a JT Dunn pre-match promo where he revealed he began harassing Brandi Rhodes for “heat.” The match was then largely built around an impossibly long heat sequence from Dunn. Brandi got involved. JT threatened to beat her up. Cody accidentally kicked her head off. Joey Ryan showed up to kidnap her with the implication he was going to sexually assault her. Cody and Dunn decided to finish their battle. Cody won (obviously).  Brandi showed up at the end with a giant lollipop.  What an absolute crock of shit. (DUD)

 

17. Cody Rhodes vs. Hernandez – RCW – 11/4/2016

16. Cody Rhodes vs. Ethan Page – Evolve – 12/10/2016

A Cody Rhodes vs. Ethan Page match does not exactly inspire confidence. However, you certainly would not expect that it would be a poor match for a lack of trying.

Something about their performances here just felt very phoned in unfortunately. They did some gaga to start the match. They did some basic stuff for a while after that. There were multiple ref bumps and then multiple run-ins from a whole cast of characters. Cody then kicked Page low to steal the win.

This was everything that Evolve should avoid being at all costs. The heel turn felt random and done against the worst possible opponent for that type of angle. The match featured labored ref bumps and run-ins. There was not a ton of effort displayed in the ring. It was just bad all-around.

Both guys have done some decent stuff in 2016, but this was one of worst matches either guy had this year. (*1/4)

 

15. Cody Rhodes vs. Marty Scurll – PWG – 9/4/2016

This was a quarterfinal match in the 2016 BOLA.

This consisted of Party Marty cheating, working Cody over, a brief comeback by Cody, a bizarrely constructed sexual assault spot with Brandi Rhodes, and then Cody losing via low blow. OTHER THAN THAT, Cody actually has a good sense of how to work in PWG clearly. He “gets it” here more than most wrestlers in PWG these days for whatever that is worth. (*3/4)

 

14. Cody Rhodes vs. Kurt Angle – WCPW – 10/8/2016

13. Cody Rhodes vs. Brian Anthony – NEW – 8/25/2016

Ricky Steamboat was the referee.

The minor league baseball stadium has never been a great look for independent wrestling. For lack of a better term, it almost always makes the action look…minor league. It always seems like five percent of the stadium is filled, and then the wrestlers work their matches like that. This contest suffered the from that desperately.

Cody and Anthony did not exactly phone it in, but they were certainly not working to impress. After a minimal effort match (that involved Cody running the bases), they then did a clusterfuck finish. Steamboat actually did a ref bump which he is supposedly not allowed to do anymore. Steamboat later ended up chopping Anthony to set him up for the deadly Cross Rhodes/Indian Deathlock combo from Cody to get the victory. Cody should not be judged too harshly for this one, but it was also certainly yet another contest where he failed to make a statement. (**)

 

12. Cody Rhodes vs. Sami Callihan – NEW – 8/28/2016

11. Cody Rhodes vs. Mike Bennett – TNA – 10/3/2016

I was getting all set to give this one my typical Cody match analysis: inoffensive if a bit boring. However, then Mike Bennett gave Cody a fucking pedigree. Thankfully, it got zero reaction from the crowd because it was so fucking pathetic. These two are perfect for each other. They’re all smoke and mirrors and really offer very little to the professional wrestling business. That is not to say they have never done anything of value in pro wrestling. The circumstances for their successes though have always been so random that there isn’t even a clear path of recreating their good moments. (**)

 

10. Cody Rhodes vs. Kurt Angle – NEW – 8/27/2016

There was not anything bad about this match really. However, Kurt is very old, slow, and broken and worked on top for the majority of this match. That is a recipe for boring right now and probably for the rest of Angle’s in-ring career. Cody clearly looked motivated, but there was not really anything that he could do here to make it more than not unwatchable. He ended up avoiding the Olympic Slam and hit the Cross Rhodes (for a second time) to pick up the win. (**1/4)

 

9. Cody Rhodes vs. Will Ospreay – IPW:UK – 12/18/2016

This was fine if unimpressive. In other words, it was a Cody Rhodes match.

Ospreay was working heel here and was incredibly broad with his facials and whatnot. I used to promote the idea that he would really take off as a performer once he turned heel. This performance made me far more cautious in that assessment.

Cody was his usual bland babyface self here. The Cody bubble has to burst soon seemingly. It’s hard to envision fans continuing to stay mindlessly excited for him all that much longer. Cody won cleanly. (**1/2)

 

8. Cody Rhodes vs. El Ligero – WCPW – 11/30/2016

This was for Ligero’s WCPW INTERNET CHAMPIONSHIP. CHAMPIONSHIP…of the INTERNET.

Much like the great majority of Cody Rhodes matches on the indies, this was fine and inoffensive. It existed. Cody won cleanly with the Cross Rhodes. Whatever. (**1/2)

 

7. Cody Rhodes vs. Travis Gordon – NEW – 11/5/2016

This was a perfectly fine and average professional wrestling contest. They did some dancing to start. They mixed in a handful of modest high spots. The tremendous flipper cut off Cody and worked him over. Cody made a professionally executed comeback as the crowd went mild. They started going back and forth. Flip Gordon eventually went for a 450. Cody got his knees up and then immediately won with a small package. You could almost describe this match as offensively inoffensive. (**1/2)

 

6. Cody Rhodes & Johnny Gargano vs. Chris Hero & Drew Galloway – Evolve – 9/11/2016

This was an odd way for Johnny Gargano to leave Evolve. Very little about the match was centered around him. The beginning featured a lot of dancing as the crowd amused themselves with pizza and other food-related chants. Cody took a long heat segment. There was an extended back-and-forth that felt forced. Gargano then got the clean submission win over Hero. I don’t know. Then you add in the fact that Hero’s involvement with Galloway is not organic and seems out of character for Hero in 2016 given his character’s self-centered nature. I don’t know. And Cody. Ehhhh. The crowd was mostly into this at least, but there had to be about a billion better ways to write Gargano out than a meaningless tag match (and a post-match angle with Ethan Page of all people.) (**1/2)

 

5. Cody Rhodes vs. Eddie “Eddie Edwards” Edwards – TNA – 10/4/2016

This was for Eddie’s TNA World Heavyweight Championship.

This was solid. It was one of those sprints Eddie works where everything is silky smooth and easy to watch. There is a distinct lack of tension that takes away from the action though. Cody actually does well in these kinds of matches, as he is able to keep up and not look out of his element. They just never got to that next gear unfortunately which would have been nice for a world title match. Eddie won with a small package after Cody hit a superplex. (**3/4)

 

4. Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Hero – Evolve – 8/20/2016

This was a mixed bag to say the least. The hottest portion of the match was the first third or so which featured them brawling around the building. Cody truly embraced some shtick at times and also completely dominated Hero for a lot of this.

The former was annoying but did not linger. The latter was just downright bizarre though and plays against internal logic and storytelling logic. It felt like a self-serving sequence to make Cody look tough and strong in the way that the first half of the Zack match the night before made him look like he could “hang.” Regardless of that, this portion of the match was clearly successful.

The match then transitioned to an awkward portion in the ring that never really connected. It was not awful or anything, but it wasted the fairly rabid atmosphere created by the brawling. The real annoying part was that Cody only lost because Drew Galloway ran in and clocked him with a COWBELL. Ugh. This could have been more clearly. (**3/4)

 

3. Cody Rhodes vs. Zack Sabre Jr. – Evolve – 8/19/2016

This match can be broken down into three stretches of time: the first half, the second half, and the finish.

The first half was all back and forth stuff on the mat and trading holds. It felt a little like a masturbatory exercise to “prove” that Cody can “hang” on the mat. Normally, that kind of stretch is mostly useless. It was more forgivable here though due to this being Cody’s very first independent professional wrestling match. Nonetheless though, it was still not terribly interesting.

The second half of the match featured Zack targeting Cody’s left arm while Cody fought back by going after one of Zack’s leg. This was done mostly well, and it set the match on a much clearer and interesting path. Then the finish happened.

Zack had Cody in what was probably a triangle (not a submission expert admittedly). It was applied on the arm that Zack had been working over and clearly established to be injured due to the work. Cody escaped the submission. How? By doing a deadlift, one-armed powerbomb…with that injured arm. (Cody then won by immediately applying a submission to the leg of Zack’s he was working over.)

Now, it was one move and not an endless sequence of flips, dives, and power moves after a leg has been worked over half the match. However, it is certainly a cynical storytelling choice when there so many ways to finish that story. Zack constantly going after the one body part could be seen as a weakness since it makes him predictable. Cody could have baited Zack in or something and then caught him with something. Anyway but “I’m tough and filled with adrenaline so I can ignore all the work done in the last ten minutes.”

Anyway, this was solid. Zack has not exactly been Mr. Consistent in 2016 so it doesn’t speak all that much about Cody’s prospects on the indies one way or the other. He did not rely on shtick or dancing or Attitude Era cosplay though. These are positive things. (***)

 

2. Cody Rhodes vs. Matt Riddle – HOG – 10/21/2016

This was thankfully far more of a Matt Riddle match than a Cody Rhodes match. Riddle got to take the majority of it here, and the match was easy to watch as a result. The story at the end was that Cody survived the Bro-To-Sleep, and that caused Riddle to get distracted for a moment. That allowed Cody to catch him with a fruit roll-up to pick up the win. Riddle was so good here and really made this match worthwhile. Hats off to him. (***)

 

1. Cody Rhodes vs. Sami Callihan – PWG – 9/3/2016

This was clearly the match of the weekend up until this point in the tournament. Why? They worked the #SamiSprint.

Sami is terrible at so many things that have to do with professional wrestling. However, he is very fucking good at his namesake: The #SamiSprint. It features urgency. Physicality. Great pacing. Lots of action. These are all good things.

Kudos to them for figuring out which match to work for this weekend and doing it well. That is a concept that many wrestlers fail to execute in PWG these days. Cody won via Cross Rhodes. (***1/4)