For Cody Rhodes, the decision to leave WWE was a huge move that played a bigger impact in wrestling. No one expected Cody to be a huge figure in changing the industry, but he ended up proving them wrong. Rhodes’ time in Ring of Honor and joining the Bullet Club in New Japan played a huge role in AEW starting.
Tony Khan banked on the momentum of Cody, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega thriving with their vision of wrestling by making them each Executive Vice Presidents. WWE could have easily found more success with Rhodes to avoid this all playing out. Unfortunately, WWE seemed to fail The American Nightmare on multiple fronts.
10 Tag Team With Bob Holly
Earlier on in his WWE career, Cody Rhodes was involved in an angle with Bob Holly. The two faced off in a couple of matches before gaining mutual respect to form a tag team. Holly was portrayed as the mentor of Cody as they won tag gold together.
Fans showed little interest in the run and Rhodes failed to gain any momentum. Holly was a lower card act for a few years, making the run insignificant when teaming with a rookie. Things eventually worked out for Cody when he turned on Holly to form a new team with the debuting Ted DiBiase Jr.
9 Forgotten Part Of Important Multi-Man Matches
Cody Rhodes didn’t have many big singles matches in WWE on important PPVs. The various Intercontinental Championship multi-man ladder matches and Money in the Bank matches could see Cody involved.
Those were the only times Rhodes seemed to have a chance at scoring a huge PPV win. However, he never won any of those matches and was a secondary wrestler compared to the bigger names or eventual winners.
8 Losing Tag Titles To The New Age Outlaws
The tag team run of Cody and Dustin Rhodes saw the real-life half-brothers becoming a hot act. Both Rhodes boys defeated The Shield to end their dominant tag title reign and become the new top face duo in the division.
WWE started to slow down on the push of Cody and Dustin when they moved away from The Shield. The returning New Age Outlaws were too old for full-time competition, but Billy Gunn and Road Dogg won the titles from the Rhodes Brothers anyway.
7 Trying To Keep His Last Name Away From Him
One of the personal things WWE did to Cody Rhodes outside of just storylines was what happened when he left the company. WWE held on to the trademark rights of the Rhodes last name since Cody’s real-life last name is Runnels.
It was a terrible look for the company to try to keep Dusty’s last name away from Cody as part of the business side. Cody never spoke much about it, but he got the right to use the name in 2020 as he started using it in AEW again after a few years going by just his first name.
6 Faction With The Ascension
Cody Rhodes was placed into a trio faction during his time as Stardust. The Ascension tag team united with Stardust to form The Cosmic Wasteland. All three wrestlers had unique personas and the face paint looks to bond them.
The Cosmic Wasteland saw them playing glorified superhero villains in an act that went nowhere. Cody started to lose his television time and was placed on the secondary shows of Main Event and Superstars to further inspire his desire to leave WWE.
5 Mustache Gimmick
The new-look of a mustache growing for Cody Rhodes would see fans chanting for it the first time. Crowds tried to get under Cody’s skin by chanting about the mustache and WWE wanted to keep it around for heel heat.
The odd look would become Cody’s identity even though having a mustache wasn’t enough to help him move up the card. Rhodes would always see his career stall whenever he was hoping to take steps forward due to ideas like this.
4 Making Him An Afterthought In Legacy Breakup
The run in Legacy with Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase Jr. helped Cody Rhodes break out in WWE. Orton was the top heel in the company with Cody getting to team with Ted in important tag matches. However, WWE clearly didn’t value him highly at the end of the run.
Legacy started to drift apart when DiBiase Jr. scored a few more victories and had the chance to compete for the WWE Championship in the same match as Orton. Cody was a secondary figure, but he did end up in the WrestleMania 26 triple threat match won by Randy.
3 Losing MITB Match To Damien Sandow
Fans rallied behind Cody Rhodes in 2013 during the SmackDown side of the Money in the Bank ladder match. Cody and Damien Sandow were still teaming as Team Rhodes Scholars heading into the match, but the audience felt a change coming.
The fan support for Rhodes ended up being for nothing as Sandow turned on him to win the MITB contract. Both men feuded for the next few months, but it did little to help Cody. Sandow didn’t even successfully cash in his contract as he lost his title match to John Cena.
2 Not Letting Him Ditch Stardust Gimmick
The Stardust gimmick was given to Cody Rhodes at the end of his time working with Dustin Rhodes. WWE hoped that a new version of the character would provide successful results for Cody the same way it did for Dustin over decades.
Cody ended up hating the gimmick towards the end of his run as his career was moving backwards. Vince McMahon refused to let Rhodes ditch the gimmick and start wrestling without the face paint. This played the biggest role in Cody leaving the company.
1 End Of Feud With Dustin Rhodes
The tag team run of Cody and Dustin Rhodes made fans believe in their bond since they won emotional matches over The Shield. However, Cody’s desire to work in a singles role would see their tag run end shortly into his transition to Stardust.
Dustin revealed many times he was upset about how WWE handled their feud. The brothers had a terrible match at Fastlane 2015 with the hopes of having a bigger stage at WrestleMania 31. WWE bailed on the angle and had Cody move into a ladder match as a secondary contender. The first AEW PPV featured Dustin and Cody having the match they always wanted in the new promotion.