2022 WRESTLERS LEAVING COMPANIES THREAD (Releases, FAs, etc...)

[RIPPA]

Here is Meltzer's write up about what is happening with Cody from the new WON

Spoiler

The situation with Cody Rhodes took a major turn this week and everything is back up in the air.

WWE had its creative set up for a secret debut of Rhodes imminently, as in the next week or so, regarding how he was debuting and a match that has been confirmed would be with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania. But those in the company involved at the high level have said that they don’t know what happened nor has it for sure fallen through as talks were ongoing during the week and he still could debut imminently. The creative team was only told that it was not 100 percent that he was coming in, when they believed it was a done deal with the key parts of creative having already been worked out for him to debut.

They were told this week to hold off on working on Rhodes vs. Rollins until Rhodes signs the contract, because they had already worked on it, and then had to stop everything when they weren’t sure if Rhodes was coming. But it was not a dead deal.

Essentially the situation appears to be that he has offers from different places and will choose one as opposed to going to WWE as WWE believed it to be last week. Depending on if the show is renewed or not, he’d also have his role on “Go Big Show” with TBS. In a sense it appears he is in the position or at least outwardly giving the impression it’s a situation like Bryan Danielson more than Brian Pillman, but it could be a combination of both.

While many had speculated and were even mad that Rhodes didn’t debut on 3/5 in Madison Square Garden as one of the two mystery men that were to face Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, that was never under consideration. Sacrificing him on his first night in this situation where the WrestleMania headliners were going to be booked strong made absolutely no sense for anyone. WWE had never hinted Rhodes to be one of the guys and only stated that Lesnar’s opponent would be a world champion level performer who was befitting a Madison Square Garden world title match. I don’t think Austin Theory fits that description, but when that description was said, it was Theory who was the person they were talking about.

The terminology we were given from the WWE side was that they believe that Rhodes not signing a WWE deal is either him angling for a better deal with the idea WWE wants everything it can put on for WrestleMania so there is leverage involved. Or it could be that Rhodes is playing a Brian Pillman game (which even Rhodes hinted about ibn one AEW TV interview) or that the deal is not going to happen.

There was a lot of speculation regarding Rhodes somehow being involved with the ROH under Tony Khan as the public face of the company. We were told that tons of people have asked Khan about that, although in that situation only Khan and Rhodes would know where things stand with the two of them. Such a scenario does make sense to keep ROH alive, because owning two companies and doing a promotion vs. promotion angle can work, although it’s rarely done well but there has also been at times great success when it’s done right. But Khan made it clear he would be running ROH and booking ROH. That would in theory indicate that the idea of putting Rhodes in charge of creative and this all being a work to build to that doesn’t seem to be the case.

It is Dave speak but it looks like that Cody got multiple offers from places instead of WWE being his only option so now he is choosing

[PetrolCB]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

It is Dave speak but it looks like that Cody got multiple offers from places instead of WWE being his only option so now he is choosing

Cool, maybe he'll go to CYN.

[Log]

Call me dumb (You're dumb!), but there's still a big part of me that thinks this is some elaborate work by Cody.  It just fits so well with his "out there" thinking on how to do things from the last year or so.

[Technico Support]

53 minutes ago, Log said:

Call me dumb (You're dumb!), but there's still a big part of me that thinks this is some elaborate work by Cody.  It just fits so well with his "out there" thinking on how to do things from the last year or so.

Yes, but, and hear me out here...at some point, when nothing a person does ever pays off in a meaningful way, you have to stop assuming the dumb shit he's doing is a master plot to some greater end and just start judging everything as just the surface level dumb moves they probably are.

I think a lot of people realized, as soon as he got the neck tattoo, that Cody is all surface, no nuance, no deeper meaning.  He's high on his own supply and every action comes from that.

Edited March 11, 2022 by Technico Support

[S.K.o.S.]

Is Meltzer saying it's a "Brian Pillman game" if Cody is working us into thinking he left AEW but he really didn't? Wouldn't that be, like, the exact opposite of what Brian Pillman did?

[HarryArchieGus]

2 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Yes, but, and hear me out here...at some point, when nothing a person does ever pays off in a meaningful way, you have to stop assuming the dumb shit he's doing is a master plot to some greater end and just start judging everything as just the surface level dumb moves they probably are.

I think a lot of people realized, as soon as he got the neck tattoo, that Cody is all surface, no nuance, no deeper meaning.  He's high on his own supply and every action comes from that.

I thought the tattoo was as shitty looking as anybody, but suggesting he's all surface because of it seems as shallow as you're assuming he is.  The 'dumb shit' booking is what boggles my mind when ppl clamour for him to run the creative of ROH.  Sure, it sounds like a great kayfabe idea, but not at all an Actual Good Idea.  Tho, I would love to know what he specifically booked for AEW TV?  Even if TK got the final stamp of approval.  His own feuds were a bit unfairly maligned.  He was committed to trying to get lower card guys over (eg. the lengthy Factory feud) which I thought, whether hit/miss, was pretty admirable.  The only memorable misses to me were the ridiculous patriotic promo, the weigh-in, 'it's a girl', the no World title matches stip, and, most importantly, the worst thing he did... no selling Penta's armbreaker spot.  Other than that he always entertained me.  Tho, I will admit I feel a great sense of humour with Cody's cornball act that I don't believe is shared amongst most of my board peers.  I'm completely with the sentiment that he should've went with the flow and gone heel, but I was fine being patient with that.  I assumed the Punk namedrop in his underrated last promo was setting up that welcomed heel turn.

EDIT: okay, also having mid-card heel Shawn Spears kick out of the Cross Rhodes during the TNT title tournament, and that awful finish with Darby in the same tourny are also in his catalog of botches.  Assuming they were his calls.  Going the distance with Pretty Peter was dumb too, but sorta admirable. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by HarryArchieGus

[Log]

2 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Yes, but, and hear me out here...at some point, when nothing a person does ever pays off in a meaningful way, you have to stop assuming the dumb shit he's doing is a master plot to some greater end and just start judging everything as just the surface level dumb moves they probably are.

I think a lot of people realized, as soon as he got the neck tattoo, that Cody is all surface, no nuance, no deeper meaning.  He's high on his own supply and every action comes from that.

Oh, I didn't say it would be any good.  I just wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't him trying for something like that.

[Coletti]

Fucking hell, even Cody leaving AEW and going elsewhere ends up being as convoluted and polarizing as his promos and character work

[NoFistsJustFlips]

3 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Tho, I would love to know what he specifically booked for AEW TV?

This is purely speculation. But the early Dynamite feud with Jericho I have a feeling he had a large hand in. The segment that everyone loved where he was cutting a promo from the ring and said there was no invisible wall and charged up to the luxury boxes where Jericho was and smashed through the glass door with his fist feels like a Cody idea. Everyone loved that (me included).

Just wanted to get that out there. He did have some good stuff. It's a little more balanced than the narrative tends to remember. Yes that pro USA promo SUCKED. Yes that run with The Factory sucks. But his match and story with Dustin was fucking gold (pun totally intended). As was the I need my brother promo that led to a fun Young Bucks vs Brotherhood tag match.

I think the real catalyst to his stuff starting to falter has to do with whatever his beef was with the other Elite guys was. Because pretty much up until the pandemic, everything Cody touched was fucking dope. Once that War Games match didn't happen Cody started down a weird separate path while Matt Hardy took his spot in what ended up as The Stadium Stampede. And he was never the same since.

[Nineteen]

I really don't think Cody leaving was a work the way others posted about it, especially Aubrey and Amanda Huber. It's hard seeing a situation where him going back to AEW works though. At best maybe it'll be a "sorry guys, we worked it out" which will really cheapen all the heartfelt posts him and Brandi got. And if he does it'll hard to not acknowledge "well he kind of used WWE to leverage more money out of AEW." Even giving him Ring of Honor will be weird since it'll always feel like the B show, or what... the C show... below Rampage but above Dark/Elevation... Ring of Honor = AEW Worldwide?

I feel like Cody's given us way more good than bad in AEW, just feels like the bad stuff was all at the end. And as bad as "Cody Solves Racism" was, the company was still really built on his match with Dustin, the programs with MJF, making Darby. He's a complicated and interesting dude but I think people want to like him but there's this layer of self awareness he's missing that's preventing it....

It is kind of impressive how much oxygen he's taking up while being away too.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Let's not forget that Dynamite episode where he came out in a truck with his stupid tattoo on the hood, ran over a bin and didn't really do much else but rev the engine for like 20 minutes.

[Wyld Samurai]

1 hour ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

Let's not forget that Dynamite episode where he came out in a truck with his stupid tattoo on the hood, ran over a bin and didn't really do much else but rev the engine for like 20 minutes.

I did forget about that... and now I hate you for bringing that memory back up.

[zendragon]

I've always figured alot guys have a hand in writing their own stuff in AEW. I would guess that people approach the idea of Cody booking a company not that it would be good but from a perspective of Morbid curiosity 

[Casey]

I did find it a little suspect that supposedly the reason Cody left AEW was in part because he had a smaller creative role in things, so the idea of TK just handing over the book to him for ROH when he's rumored to have paid tens of millions of dollars kind of seemed... uhh, not right. He's going to buy this entire company just to 1) keep Cody and 2) immediately hand over booking duties to someone like Cody? That always felt like a recipe for disaster.

Of course, the other side of this is also funny, if he did indeed leave AEW because of lack of creative input - so your immediate decision is to sign with the company that famously DOESN'T collaborate with its talent? Unless you're someone like Becky, Roman, etc of course. And Cody is most definitely not in that tier of talent. He wasn't even in the top echelon of AEW after a certain point, because they kept growing so fast and eventually passed him by entirely. I know money rules the world, but still. For all his faults, he doesn't seem like the type of dude to just leave something like AEW and go to WWE because of money. But that's a fan on the outside looking in, of course. I don't know Cody, for all I know he's more of a capitalist than an artist or a dreamer or whatever.

The more realistic answer to all of this is right in the Young Bucks' book, I think. He's crazy indecisive. One minute he wanted to challenge the throne of WWE by founding AEW, the next he wanted to sign with WWE again, the next minute he wanted to leave wrestling entirely.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

2 hours ago, Casey said:

I did find it a little suspect that supposedly the reason Cody left AEW was in part because he had a smaller creative role in things, so the idea of TK just handing over the book to him for ROH when he's rumored to have paid tens of millions of dollars kind of seemed... uhh, not right. He's going to buy this entire company just to 1) keep Cody and 2) immediately hand over booking duties to someone like Cody? That always felt like a recipe for disaster.

I'm about as pro-AEW as anyone on the board. But a recipe for disaster is Tony Kahn trying to do everything himself. I think all the pleas from us are less we want this super Cody fed, and more we don't want TK to spread himself too thin. AEW has been pretty fucking solid for 3 years. Let's keep it solid. There's no need for him to be so directly involved in what is essentially the developmental territory. It's a tailor made situation for someone else to cut their teeth and test out their ideas. Treat the booker of ROH position as creative developmental. It could help AEW in the long run. Vince always needed a Pat Patterson. This is TK's chance to help learn and grow and develop a trusted right hand man. Cody or otherwise.


On the subject of Cody...

I really hope he takes time to consider who WWE is targeting for their future. Is he going to be happy wrestling a bunch of athletes that are taught to punch a time clock? Cody has this business in his blood. The passion is undeniable. It's going to be a frustrating experience when he is programed with the Omos' or the Ridge Hollands. They don't have that passion. They aren't standing up for themselves with creative. They get orders they go do whatever the agents tell them to then they punch out and go home. WWE in 3-5 years is going to be a soul-less environment. And no amount of money can replace the artistic outlet when you are on the same wave length with the person you are working with.

[HarryArchieGus]

Ha, have we ever seen a pro wrestler speculated about so much, with so few actual facts of the matter, yet treated as tho every little speculative newsbit or opinion is indeed a fact?  Cody's presentation seems to be pretty much the only basis of these constant confirmations of the rumour mill.

Edited March 12, 2022 by HarryArchieGus

[NoFistsJustFlips]

20 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Ha, have we ever seen a pro wrestler speculated about so much, with so few actual facts of the matter, yet treated as tho every little speculative newsbit or opinion is indeed a fact?  Cody's presentation seems to be pretty much the only basis of these constant confirmations of the rumour mill.

Weird concept here, but fans of wrestling on a wrestling message board are speculating about a wrestler lol. Not exactly breaking news.

I get what you're saying. But you're off base a bit. Lots of guys gets speculated about like this. Back before AEW was a thing every other post was about if Kenny Omega would be in The Royal Rumble in 2018. Punk was a consistent topic for his whole seven year absence. Kevin Owens was fantasy booked in AEW for months until he re-signed with WWE. When the dust settles on Cody someone else will be the one speculated about. It's what we do.

Don't mistake recency bias for hero worship, that's all.

[Technico Support]

3 hours ago, Casey said:

Of course, the other side of this is also funny, if he did indeed leave AEW because of lack of creative input - so your immediate decision is to sign with the company that famously DOESN'T collaborate with its talent?

I just assumed it was a matter of, "well if I can't get the book, I might as well go make as much money as I can." 

[HarryArchieGus]

I would suggest, as I already did, that there is a difference between fact and fiction.  So long as the fiction isn't presented as fact it's fine, fine fodder for a wrestling message board with wrestling fans.  Not such a 'weird concept'.

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Ohhh it was an anti Meltzer thing. Didn't pick up on that originally, my bad.

Don't get the hate for him. Also don't get the love for him. He's just reporting on what he was told. Sometimes things change. Sometimes sources feed him bad info on purpose. Don't see why people care so much. Don't shoot the messenger and all that.... but I digress. Carry on.

[The Natural]

Cody Rhodes:

AEW locker room:

Edited March 12, 2022 by The Natural

[HarryArchieGus]

34 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Ohhh it was an anti Meltzer thing. Didn't pick up on that originally, my bad.

Nope.    

[JLowe]

1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

I'm about as pro-AEW as anyone on the board. But a recipe for disaster is Tony Kahn trying to do everything himself. I think all the pleas from us are less we want this super Cody fed, and more we don't want TK to spread himself too thin. AEW has been pretty fucking solid for 3 years. Let's keep it solid. There's no need for him to be so directly involved in what is essentially the developmental territory. It's a tailor made situation for someone else to cut their teeth and test out their ideas. Treat the booker of ROH position as creative developmental. It could help AEW in the long run. Vince always needed a Pat Patterson. This is TK's chance to help learn and grow and develop a trusted right hand man. Cody or otherwise.

That guy should be Regal. 40 years in the business, long runs with WCW and WWE, years of backstage experience, trainer, etc. Regal is someone Vince should have kept on payroll just to keep him away from the competition.

[Wyld Samurai]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:55 AM, JLowe said:

That guy should be Regal. 40 years in the business, long runs with WCW and WWE, years of backstage experience, trainer, etc. Regal is someone Vince should have kept on payroll just to keep him away from the competition.

Absolutely. If I was to choose between Cody and Regal to run a promotion- I would be betting my last cent on Regal to make it work. Regal would respect the tradition of ROH and not use it for ego stroking. 

[Infinit]

1 hour ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Absolutely. If I was to choose between Cody and Regal to run a promotion- I would be betting my last cent on Regal to make it work. Regal would respect the tradition of ROH and not use it for ego stroking. 

Not sure they could do Cody as booker and in ring competitor the way everybody knows everything about the backstage aspect of the business these days. Would Dusty have been as much a beloved star in the 80s if people knew he was booking himself to be a beloved star?