00:00 Man, Cody Rhodes was one of the best babyfaces in wrestling.
00:03 Until he wasn't.
00:04 Yeah, the story of Cody Rhodes in AEW is a fascinating one given that during the company's
00:09 first year on television, Cody was one of the very best, churning out great segment
00:13 after great segment.
00:14 The contract signing with Chris Jericho, the ungoddamn deniable promo, the ten lashes,
00:20 the moonsault off the cage, the man was on fire.
00:23 Well no, that part came later, but you get the point.
00:26 But over time, Cody Rhodes grew less bearable to a large amount of the AEW audience, whether
00:31 it be because of a distaste for reality TV shows, or maybe they didn't like the Cody
00:36 solved racism promo.
00:38 Bottom line, people didn't like Cody no more.
00:41 Thus, the last year of Cody in AEW produced a large number of dud segments, which for
00:46 the sake of parody with our last list, we must list here.
00:49 Not all the moments come from Cody's last 12 months, but rest assured, these are all
00:53 moments to erase from your memory as Cody makes his climb back to the fifth dimension.
00:57 I'm Tempest hailing from PartsFunKnown, and these are the 10 worst Cody Rhodes moments
01:01 in AEW.
01:02 You know what your worst moment in AEW is?
01:05 Not subscribing to PartsFunKnown.
01:07 You don't want to have a worst moment, you want to have a best moment.
01:10 So give us the old three click combo and make yourself a subscriber to PartsFunKnown.
01:14 There you go, you have no more worst moments, have a blessed day.
01:17 Number 10, Cody gets booed at Revolution 2021.
01:21 Boy have there been some weird reactions to these spots over the years.
01:24 You know the one.
01:25 A big star hurts his knee or something and gets carried away, only to come hobbling back
01:29 out 10 minutes later.
01:30 People cheered The Miz when he did it at Money in the Bank 2011.
01:33 Interesting.
01:34 But they sure didn't cheer Cody at Revolution 2021.
01:37 Aw man, this guy eats an appropriate amount of s*** entering the match with a hurt shoulder
01:42 and taking a Canadian Destroyer on a ladder.
01:44 Ouch.
01:45 But when he comes back out, the boos are raining down upon him.
01:49 It's one of the first big anti-Cody responses that I can remember, and it just kinda goes
01:54 to show that fans weren't going to welcome him in that kind of heroic underdog role.
01:58 Doesn't kill the match by any means, but this certainly wasn't the reaction he wanted.
02:02 Number 9, don't scare dogs.
02:05 Talk about a thing that feels like it was a million years ago.
02:07 Will my mind ever properly process time before 2020 again?
02:12 Who knows?
02:13 But unfortunately, this was not long enough ago for me to have forgotten this incredibly
02:17 unfortunate moment from AEW's infant days.
02:20 Back in 2019, Cody's Siberian Husky and all-around good boy Pharaoh was as much a part of his
02:25 presentation as anything else.
02:27 I love dogs.
02:28 Dogs are great.
02:29 Which makes Cody's entrance at All Out 2019 for his match against Shawn Spears difficult
02:34 to watch.
02:35 Cody and company walk through the tunnel as fireworks go off.
02:38 Pyro and Ballyhoo.
02:39 Which is not good when there is a poor, confused pepperoni present.
02:43 Sure enough, Pharaoh is having none of it, resulting in a good deal of criticism for
02:47 AEW and, well, yeah, don't scare dogs.
02:50 The Rhodes's-es-es-es-es-es-es.
02:53 Seem like wonderful pet parents though.
02:54 I just love dogs.
02:56 Number 8, Cody Rhodes vs Malachi Black 2.
02:59 Cody Rhodes' first match with Malachi Black was very effective and engaging.
03:03 Malachi kills him in 5 minutes, 1, 2, 3, simple and effective.
03:06 The rematch however, a bit less simple.
03:09 We get the return of Brandi Rhodes, who delivers a wonderful new gif for everyone to save and
03:13 react to things with on Twitter.
03:15 But Arn Anderson also falls off the apron while setting up his spot, and the match just
03:19 feels considerably more complicated than it needed to be.
03:22 The action is good as always, but the follow up to such a unique and decisive first match
03:26 was likely going to struggle to capture that same magic, but Cody vs matches did often
03:31 use a lot more smoke and mirrors than other matches on the AEW card.
03:35 Number 7, Cody Rhodes on the waiting room.
03:37 There were a lot of awkward Pandemic Era wrestling segments, but for Cody Rhodes, this one might
03:41 top the awkward pile.
03:43 Cody is a guest on Britt Baker's "The Waiting Room" to discuss his new baby and
03:47 the Go Big Show, which has always sounded like someone sending out a Pokemon called
03:51 Big Show, but anyway, Britt says Cody's baby will get an action figure before she
03:55 will, and the only thing Cody can do is put on a nervous smile.
03:58 Jade interrupts saying she'll beat Brandi's ass when she returns, another potential feud
04:03 loss to the universe.
04:04 Jade and Red Velvet brawl, Britt finds out she's wrestling Thunder Rosa, and meanwhile
04:08 Cody is awkwardly nodding and saying "okay".
04:12 The whole thing feels incredibly rushed and unfocused, and aside from a brief interaction
04:16 with Jade, Cody didn't even need to be there.
04:19 This quickly becomes not a Cody moment, but he was the top star of the segment, and he
04:23 didn't exactly do much to save it.
04:25 This is more an example of AEW throwing an excessive amount of information into one segment,
04:31 but that is a topic for another day.
04:33 6.
04:34 Cody Rhodes - QT Marshall Rivalry
04:36 If Cody's goodwill with the fans was teetering on the edge at Revolution, this rivalry with
04:41 QT Marshall shoved it right off.
04:43 QT Marshall turned heel on Dustin Rhodes at Revolution in the Tag Battle Royal, and demanded
04:48 a match with Cody shortly thereafter.
04:50 This rivalry just went on forever.
04:53 It went on for three pissing months.
04:56 QT Marshall is a talented man, but he was the heel that had to wrestle Cody while the
05:00 fans were turning on him, and it's not like they were going to cheer QT Marshall.
05:05 Cody beat QT at Blood and Guts, and it still dragged out until AEW's return to the road
05:10 at Road Rager, and what kept us entertained during those three months?
05:14 Well, all the Anthony Ogogo stuff is what, and that deserves its own entry.
05:19 Or in this case, several.
05:21 5.
05:22 Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo - Double or Nothing 2021
05:25 Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo had an uphill battle when they were slated to wrestle at
05:29 Double or Nothing 2021.
05:31 Their match was one of the least anticipated on the card, the fans weren't into Cody,
05:35 and Ogogo could count the amount of matches he had had on one hand.
05:38 Considering all that, they did pretty well, making it through the entire match without
05:42 any noticeable screw-ups, but the match still just didn't quite click.
05:46 It wasn't what the fans were excited to see, and on top of that, Cody won with his backup
05:51 finisher The VertiBreaker, or if you watch New Japan Pro Wrestling and play massive amounts
05:56 of Zelda, you'll know Cody's VertiBreaker is named Din's Fire, because despite the
06:01 suits, Cody is still a big ol' nerd just like the rest of us.
06:05 Still, the match is dull, the worst on an otherwise stacked pay-per-view.
06:08 4.
06:09 That Dan Lambert Segment - Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo
06:11 Throughout 2021, this backlash against Cody Rhodes grew, and then this segment took place
06:16 on the December 17th episode of Rampage, as Cody Rhodes was forced into a segment with
06:21 Dan Lambert.
06:22 Lambert cuts his usual anti-Tony Khan promo when Cody interrupts him, and at this point
06:27 in time, the fans became stuck between a Cody Rhodes and a Hard Place, wanting to cheer
06:32 for neither man.
06:34 Sometimes double heel rivalries can be fun, like with the Wyatt Family and The Shield,
06:38 where you just cheer for whichever side you prefer, but that just wasn't happening here.
06:43 I want you to think of magnets, and trying to push the negative ends of two magnets together,
06:48 forcibly refusing to cooperate.
06:50 The fans just weren't going to cheer for Cody, and having him play hero and try and
06:54 shut up Dan Lambert just made for a trainwreck segment.
06:57 Not to mention the weirdness of Cody and Lambert stealing the mic from each other a dozen times
07:01 before the fighting broke out.
07:03 The fans just weren't having it anymore, and this is a segment where you just wait
07:07 for it to be over.
07:08 3.
07:09 Teases Left Unanswered - Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo
07:11 Say what you will, Cody is a businessman, allowed to make a business decision and take
07:14 himself wherever best suits him.
07:16 Those who get angry saying otherwise on Twitter probably shouldn't be allowed to operate
07:20 heavy machinery, but I digress.
07:22 One major bummer about Cody leaving AEW is the sheer amount of seeds that have been planted
07:27 for future storylines that will now need to be dug up and removed from the AEW garden.
07:32 Cody and Sting will now not get to cross paths after Mr. Stink took an interest in Darby,
07:37 and Cody will now never get to work his way back around to having a rematch with MJF,
07:41 something Cody teased being a goal of his after Full Gear 2020.
07:45 You can't have everything, and that's fine, but it is a shame that these potentially great
07:49 storylines will have to be shelved forever.
07:52 Or until Cody comes back to AEW, because time is a flat circle.
07:56 2.
07:57 The Anthony Ogogo Weigh In - Anthony Ogogo
07:59 Boy you wanna talk about trainwreck segments.
08:01 This was such a trainwreck that there's like a whole episode of Rhodes to the Top talking
08:05 about how it's a trainwreck.
08:07 It's just, why did wrestling get in its own head that weigh ins and contract signings
08:11 are what fans love?
08:12 These segments are fine if they're used for the narrative purpose of just getting two
08:15 characters together so they can speak.
08:18 Cool, they're not that offensive, but when you get a weigh in like this, where the scale
08:22 isn't cooperating, Tall Paul is your mediator, and all of this is just going on forever while
08:27 unrelated fireworks start going off adjacent to the building, this is what I imagine a
08:32 nightmare feels like.
08:33 There's chaotic energy with nothing going right, it's just a bad wrestling segment.
08:38 This is a reminder that Dynamite does, on occasion, have some absolute gong show bottom
08:44 of the barrel moments.
08:46 Just like...
08:47 Number 1 - Cody Solves Racism
08:50 I mean, it had to be this, did it not?
08:52 Poor Cody.
08:53 I can't imagine anything he said during this now infamous promo had any malice behind it,
08:58 but man does that not make it any less bizarre.
09:01 Cody himself has expressed his regrets about this promo and the whole Anthony Ogogo feud
09:05 in general, so it's good to know that his head is screwed on right, but as it was happening,
09:09 Cody's pro-America promo in the middle of some very depressing American times just didn't
09:14 feel helpful in regards to any meaningful conversation about change and real positives.
09:19 Instead it was a wrestling promo about a foreign heel and Cody wanting to call himself the
09:23 American Dream.
09:24 In May 2021, when America was still feeling a great deal of tension politically and racially,
09:29 the optics of this promo were never going to be good and this was a very poor time to
09:34 choose to do it.
09:35 Regardless of your personal views, many people will point to this moment as where it really
09:39 went off the rails for Cody in AEW, which I don't understand because he clearly solved
09:43 racism with this promo.
09:45 What an incredible act.
09:46 And that's our list.
09:47 If there are any terrible Cody Rhodes moments we missed, make sure to let us know in the
09:50 comments and share this video around with your friends if you enjoyed it.
09:53 We appreciate it more than you know.
09:55 Until then, give us a like and a subscribe, ring that bell to stay notified, and until
09:59 then be wonderful and turn off the tap when you're brushing your teeth.
10:01 Okay bye bye.
10:02 (outro music)
Comments