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Rhodes To The Top - Season One


LoneWolf&Subs

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Wednesday 9/29 at 10 PM: Everything is About to Change

Inside the lives of professional wrestlers Cody and Brandi Rhodes as they navigate their growing family while building AEW’s global wrestling empire.”

Wednesday 9/29 at 10:30 PM: You Can’t Unsee This Sh**

Cody takes a big risk with an emotional live promo; Brandi and Cody are excited to give their first child on the way, but will their highly opinionated family and friends rain on Brandi’s baby shower?”

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2021/09/details-on-upcoming-episodes-of-rhodes-to-the-top/

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I had a helluva time sleeping so figured to put this on.  And no, that's not a dig at it being a cure for insomnia.  I just had extra time to watch.

And to my shock I didn't hate it.  I still think there's a lot of fake elements especially with the Jade/Velvet thing at the end.  But I also think there's a lot of authenticity to it particularly with the wrestlers they feature.  It's a weird mix of spelling out what wrestling's like, putting a spotlight on the company and getting Cody and Brandi on TV more.  Because bless their hearts those poor kids need TV time, man.

As for the stars I honestly think that they were maybe 75% authentic throughout this.  So if true then I saw them as being truly obnoxious with bits of self-awareness.  I did end up sympathizing with Brandi when talking about struggles as she's said that many times in interviews or online.  And Cody is pretty obtuse but I sense he means well.  I still have my BS meter on high alert but given what we've seen of them in shows and interviews I don't think it's been as high as expected.  So sure I'll stick around.  I don't have anything on DVR to catch up on on Thursdays so when work's hopefully slow it's a way to kill some time.

Now to Gordberg's point yeah it's a bit chaotic with the jumping around.  I don't blame him one bit for tapping out but once it came back from commercial it didn't see as bad as before.  I guess that's they edit reality shows so what the hell.

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It was all right. I have to assume that all the Nightmare Family/Factory stuff was a feud done for this show so it will be interesting hearing Cody try to reason a high profile match with QT Marshall will sell tickets. He was really going in about that since it's what his Daddy used to say. Do a promo, you got 3 minutes...go sell me some tickets.

Teil is going to be an interesting antagonist on the show. Brandi got Dusty's blessing to use the Rhodes name and that wasn't good enough for her.

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The best part of this show was MJF telling everyone to go fuck themselves at the very end.

EDIT: Why was Cathy Kelley backstage at Double or Nothing? She was in the split second backstage "everyone watching" clip, in between Wardlow and... I dunno, one of the guys from FTR, their names are weird. Abadon has casual zombie makeup, hilarious.

Edited by Casey
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8 hours ago, TheVileOne said:

Disappointed they didn’t address the backlash.  But this tells us the degree of bullshit, so at least now we know.

33 minutes ago, EVA said:

Trying to frame Ricky Starks as a guy who was unsure of himself on the mic and needed to be coached up to cut a promo was some first-class phony reality drama. 

I thought it was more about coaching Ricky to get back on the horse.  His devastation about the injury news felt very real.  The trio meeting with TK much much less so.

I enjoyed this show.  Fun reality trash.  No surprise to hear the regular Cody haters hating.  I wonder, what did you expect from a reality show about Cody and Brandi Rhodes?

Edited by HarryArchieGus
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This was...not bad? I think my biggest complaint was just how all over the place the editing was. They're showing a ton of stuff that happened weeks apart and trying to frame it up as stuff that looked like it was all happening that week.

Like, they show Darby beating Cody for the title, Darby talking to Cody backstage before he loses to Miro, Darby getting thrown down the stairs, and that all happened months apart. Meanwhile, so much else is made to look like, "THIS IS HOW KA-RAZY IT IS WORKING IN AEW!" 

The manufactured drama was whatever. I'm used to all of that shit after watching way too much Real World, Road Rules, and the Challenge. Can't wait until we get episodes where Brandi is mad at Cody because Cody had a bunch of the boys come over and they all make a mess of everything that Cody cleans up and then Brandi is happy with Cody again. Remember this paragraph. It's getting C&P'd when this happens because it's going to happen.

I couldn't stop staring at Cody's paper thin lips...It's...weird...

Yeah, I mean, this was every reality show trope ever, but it wasn't terrible and I liked some of the backstage stuff.

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I think they think The Promo has mainstream American appeal and that's why they did it and then made such a big deal about it. Pontificating Cody at his worst. I mostly watched to see how greedy/extra Cody would be now that I've come around to being worked. He tried to be charming and it's incredibly annoying because he is not. I appreciate the grift but this isn't for me. 

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I fear that if they addressed the backlash it would only serve in trying to make Cody look more like a martyr. "I was trying to do something nice and important! Why is everyone rejecting what I said! I was being sincere! I focused tested it!" Would come off like Zack Snyder's Superman, and no one likes that.

At the same time, not addressing the backlash at all made the show feel even phonier to me.

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I know this was marketed as and even presented with some of the trappings of "reality" television, but I'm really happy with that we got. I saw it more as a hard-hitting docuseries trying to balance out the negativity of something like Dark Side of the Ring. I'll be really interested to see how the ratings compare between the two shows. This was a great behind the scenes look. I know we had a lot of questions about Cody's motivations when cutting his uber-patriotic promo earlier this year, and it's great to see his mindset and his earnestness with regards to that. And his mentorship and support is clearly invaluable to Ricky Starks right now. 

Also, for as positive an environment as AEW likes to present itself as being and that Cody and Brandi and Tony try to cultivate, it's nice to see a real honest look behind the scenes at the acrimony that does exist in that locker room just like any other. Really happy Brandi's seemingly smoothing things out with Red Velvet and Jade. With that story being covered in this series, I hope we're also going to get some dirt on what happened to Shaq in the ambulance. 

I'd love to try Cody's champagne slam cake. 

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