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

[benj]

3 hours ago, Fartsauce said:

What will they name Cody? 

 

Jackson Daley? 

 

 

 

 

Mr. HHH 2

[A_K]

Rhodes has been poisonous for that promotion & TV show for going on 2 years now -- some were just a little slow to catch on. If they can transition him out without any great drama then that is a huge boon for AEW. Jericho is the other problem child they will need to navigate at some point fairly soon.

[Cobra Commander]

Kinda amused at what it takes to be considered "poisonous" to a promotion these days compared to 20/25 years ago when I started watching and guys were appearing in no condition to perform regularly and being a lot more unprofessional.

I guess Cody didn't handle being surpassed as nimbly as Ron Howard handling his disappointment that Fonzie became more popular on Happy Days before finally leaving to become a director (sorry, I just read "The Boys" a few weeks ago and Ron Howard was able to simultaneously be good friends with Fonzie while being consistently unhappy with the network pushing Fonzie at the expense of Richie Cunningham)

[paintedbynumbers]

2 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

Kinda amused at what it takes to be considered "poisonous" to a promotion these days compared to 20/25 years ago when I started watching and guys were appearing in no condition to perform regularly and being a lot more unprofessional.

I guess Cody didn't handle being surpassed as nimbly as Ron Howard handling his disappointment that Fonzie became more popular on Happy Days before finally leaving to become a director (sorry, I just read "The Boys" a few weeks ago and Ron Howard was able to simultaneously be good friends with Fonzie while being consistently unhappy with the network pushing Fonzie at the expense of Richie Cunningham)

But did Zack and Slater have the same bond?  We all know Screech got the shaft.  What about Dawson when Pacey became the mightier of the 2 ducks?

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Some takes in here are straight up dookie lol.

AEW exists because of Cody. Had he not had the chip on shoulder / Dusty's kid complex / motivation to push for more, All In never happens. All In was the catalyst for TK to start getting meetings with Warner and putting the pieces together. The Bucks alone, Kenny Omega alone, Ibushi, Hangman, ect none of them would be the ballsy guy making bets with Meltzer about drawing 10k. Cody's tweet bet doesn't happen, AEW doesn't happen. Simple as that.

Everyone's free to not like his segments and character and all that. But it's a weird situation where Cody is kind of the heart / balls of AEW. Being that it doesn't even exist without him making that bet. And I have a bad feeling this will set a precedent that AEW is less the fan friendly revolution that it's been positioned as and more just TK's personal WWE. I may not be making the point clearly that I'm reaching for. But if Cody can leave so can Omega or The Bucks. The idea was pushed as this group of unique ballsy self made draws were creating this living breathing haven for wrestling. But in reality they are all just the public face of another cooperate wrestling company.

The EVP positions are all just sham PR. I'm not sure if that is irrelevant or super relevant. Punk and Danielson and Mox are great. But the spark for AEW, at least from my perspective, was this anti cooperate self made rebel feeling. And that's just not what AEW is now. Maybe it never really was. But that was the thing I bit on the hardest.

[John from Cincinnati]

I'm just happy I didn't buy in hard enough to become disillusioned. Heart goes out to anyone wrestling with those feelings. 

[Cobra Commander]

MeTV was airing a Full House marathon on Sunday and I never realized until then that John Stamos got the "Starring" spot in the credits instead of Bob Saget. But fortunately Bob handled that with dignity and was good friends with the other dads on the show and Bob certainly didn't make any awkward jokes about the show later on.

But yeah, if the standard for being poisonous is that "people don't like you but they keep doing to shows".. it beats some of the other ways that people were pains in the ass before.

This thing sorta seems like a "welcome to the wrestling business" thing for Tony because this is sort of the first big professional adversity he has faced since the company started (I hope I worded that the right way). Tony can overcome Cody departing but this sort of stuff doesn't happen when you run a TNM fed or TEW or all the fantasy booking but it does happen when you get to deal with egos.

[A_K]

Cody loss being a “perception hit” .. this is the same guy who was show-central when they were c. 750k viewers a week, loafing around with a bunch of bums in the cringe-inducingly named “Nightmare Family”. Who was boo-ed out of the building because his corpulent, lame creative stunk the joint out week to week & brought people like Black down with it. Whose act sucked so much some people tried to trick themselves into believing it was some avant garde meta creation .. when in fact it was a pretty simple minded dude who can’t script logical creative stories and got a neck tattoo and bleached his hair at age 35 being .. the kind of simple minded dude lacking self awareness who gets a neck tattoo and bleaches his hair at age 35? This dude is going to be a loss when in the past 9 months they’ve added Danielson, Punk, Lee, Black etc. and grown the ratings as his influence has eroded? Yeah .. hard pass on that one.

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

If Cody really is leaving, it's probably best for everyone concerned. Hopefully he gets a big contract and a decent push from Vince.

I think it might be a good thing for pro wrestling as a whole if guys like Cody and (let's say) Jericho or MJF jumped back and forth between AEW and WWE every once in a while. 

I could easily see Cody going the WWE, being used near the top for a while, drifting in 50/50 purgatory until his contract expires, then being welcomed back to All Elite with open arms.

If this is a big swing at a Brian Pillman style "swerve everyone" storyline, I think it's doomed to fail catastrophically. Fairly or not, the lion's share of the AEW fan base has turned against Cody. Even if he came back as a full-on heel, I think he'd end up getting more "fuck off" heat than heel heat right now.

If he actually joins WWE then quits and returns to AEW before his contract expires and that leads to the Khans having a team of lawyers on retainer to take on WWE in court w/r/t the whole "independent contractor" thing... and it turns out that was the plan all along... that would be mind-blowing. 

I honestly think, though, that he's really moving on and as I said that feels like the best thing for everyone right now. Cody's got a legacy of getting the whole ball rolling, having truly great matches against his brother, Mr. Brodie Lee, Sammy, etc etc (plus the NWA Title match at All In 2018 that ties back in to getting the ball rolling), he's a genuinely big name now with appeal outside of the pro wrestling world... He's gonna be fine. Plus he might actually benefit from having someone else script his promos and character for a while.

AEW's roster is stacked, the Codyverse stuff wasn't really fitting in any more, and this genuinely seems like a fairly amicable split. It's not like they are going to struggle to put on great pro wrestling shows without Cody and Brandy around. 

Really, Cody jumping to WWE seems like a rare genuine win/win situation. 

Edit: It was cool to wake up to this, also. A really interesting and unexpected bit of news, and several pages of varied and interesting takes to read.

 

Edited February 16, 2022 by Gordlow
apppeal

[BobbyWhioux]

1 hour ago, Cobra Commander said:

we haven't had Edge face Cody Rhodes in almost 11 years

last meeting: Edge/Cena/Orton/Rey vs Alberto/CM Punk/Cody/Miz in a dark match at the Rosemont Horizon

Istanbul got a Alberto/Cody/Drew McIntyre vs Rey Mysterio/Edge/Bret Hart match in November 2010 and if Bret's book was any indicator, he might have bedded a gorgeous Turkish woman that night.

We've never had Edge vs Cody Rhodes in a one on one, but there was a match in Roanoke with Edge, Alberto Del Rio, and Cody Rhodes in a triple threat

 

"Ben var olanın en iyisiyim, var olanın en iyisiyim ve olabileceklerin de en iyisiyim!"

[A_K]

24 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

.

The EVP positions are all just sham PR. I'm not sure if that is irrelevant or super relevant. Punk and Danielson and Mox are great. But the spark for AEW, at least from my perspective, was this anti cooperate self made rebel feeling. And that's just not what AEW is now. Maybe it never really was. But that was the thing I bit on the hardest.

The spark for AEW was a PE dude with a strong interest in PW cleverly realising that the monopolistic force in the industry is at its lowest ebb in 40 years and seizing the opportunity to create a stronger alternative product. The rest is just fluff. The promotion lives and dies by the strength of its product comparative with the competition around it. That’s it. Period. If the spark for AEW was the original roster set then that spark was stagnating pretty hard before they revitalised it with more talented new blood. At the end of the days the wider public just want a good show to watch - and WWE haven’t given that arguably in decades now, so that is the niche AEW should set out to fill, however and whoever they get there with.

[Technico Support]

It’s a work!  Cody, a huge Trekkie, is just ripping off that Star Trek angle where Picard joined the Borg.

OR

Damn, I’ll never doubt the corrupting powers of Malakai’s mist again.  It made Cody join the Saudis.

[Cobra Commander]

The Excellence of Execution flows better than "yürütmenin mükemmelliği"

Speaking of execution... I'd guess that there's not a great chance of Cody going to Jeddah in a few days because it seems difficult to get him across the ocean and not have someone say "Cody's appearing in the WWE tonight". They'd sorta want some people to know it's coming, but not too many.

Also, they might need to cover up the neck tat if Cody went to Jeddah... but fortunately he has a gimmick for that!

[Just Dave]

34 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

Some takes in here are straight up dookie lol.

AEW exists because of Cody. Had he not had the chip on shoulder / Dusty's kid complex / motivation to push for more, All In never happens. All In was the catalyst for TK to start getting meetings with Warner and putting the pieces together. The Bucks alone, Kenny Omega alone, Ibushi, Hangman, ect none of them would be the ballsy guy making bets with Meltzer about drawing 10k. Cody's tweet bet doesn't happen, AEW doesn't happen. Simple as that.

Everyone's free to not like his segments and character and all that. But it's a weird situation where Cody is kind of the heart / balls of AEW. Being that it doesn't even exist without him making that bet. And I have a bad feeling this will set a precedent that AEW is less the fan friendly revolution that it's been positioned as and more just TK's personal WWE. I may not be making the point clearly that I'm reaching for. But if Cody can leave so can Omega or The Bucks. The idea was pushed as this group of unique ballsy self made draws were creating this living breathing haven for wrestling. But in reality they are all just the public face of another cooperate wrestling company.

The EVP positions are all just sham PR. I'm not sure if that is irrelevant or super relevant. Punk and Danielson and Mox are great. But the spark for AEW, at least from my perspective, was this anti cooperate self made rebel feeling. And that's just not what AEW is now. Maybe it never really was. But that was the thing I bit on the hardest.

One can only hope...

[Wyld Samurai]

Am I the only one wondering where this leaves Arn? We never got an Anderson double crossing a Rhodes in the 21st century! 

[BobbyWhioux]

Just now, Wyld Samurai said:

Am I the only one wondering where this leaves Arn? We never got an Anderson double crossing a Rhodes in the 21st century! 

Cody leaving is a Rhodes finally double crossing an Anderson.  This is the completion of the circle.

[BobbyWhioux]

Brock Anderson gonna cut the "repaid him in scorn. To hell with ya" promo on Dynamite

Rampage

Dark

[A_K]

As an aside, this is a weak look for WWE. They lose Danielson & Punk & Cole .. and their statement is to take a mid-carder from AEW (because that’s what Cody has been for going on a year). If they elevate Cody to main event title status they simply elevate AEW by association. It would actually be the biggest mark of AEW superiority to date.

Edited February 16, 2022 by A_K

[Jiji]

I will miss Cody. Unique talent and connection. Didn't always enjoy him and some of his shit stunk (just buried the Penta arm breaker), but he turned into one of the more exciting parts of the show. 

I already miss the Lambert and Brandi segments. First thought was "no more lambeezy and Brandi!" 

That MLK/Malcolm X Photoshop is GOATed. 

Edited February 16, 2022 by Jiji

[Cobra Commander]

are we sure about going down that "Cody is an AEW midcarder and the WWE pushing him to the top would elevate AEW" road when there's ex-NXT guys in the upper half of the AEW cards?

[kafkonia]

It would be hard to argue that Cody was a major reason why AEW got off the ground. He had name recognition that guys like Omega and the Bucks lacked outside of the wrestling world.

But they've done a great job of building people up and signing free agents, and as far as recognition goes now he'd at best be in the top five recognizable ex-WWE guys on the roster. Punk has more recognition. Danielson has more recognition. Moxley was on WWE tv more recently, higher up on the card, and is getting name-dropped by non-wrestling outlets because of the time he took to help himself. And as much as some people hate him, Chris Jericho is, was, and always will be a much bigger star than Cody Rhodes. So that covers the twin prongs of "the network" and the mythical casual fan.

The AEW hardcore fans, meanwhile, were souring more on him as time went by. Homegrown talent was getting built up, and more and fresher underutilized talent was being snapped up from WWE - and to his credit, I really believe he did his best to try to "make" them, whether it always clicked or not.

So I honestly don't think any of the parties involved suffer from this. AEW didn't need Cody like it used to. Cody obviously feels he can do better elsewhere. And if the WWE signs him, they'll be in a better place too.

 

[A_K]

5 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:

are we sure about going down that "Cody is an AEW midcarder and the WWE pushing him to the top would elevate AEW" road when there's ex-NXT guys in the upper half of the AEW cards?

AEW stared from scratch. Zero. The best, most lucrative talent was locked up with the opposition. From that point they’ve stolen various main event talent the opposition clearly didn’t want to lose (Cole; Danielson; Punk), grown superstar talent of their own (Darby; MJF) and cleverly utilised talent that the dysfunctional competition (and WWE is by all measures a deeply dysfunctional commercial company now) looked over. Having leveraged those 3 categories, Rhodes on his best night with all talent available for a single show is absolutely no where near the top of that card. His act was completely sunk - he was finished in that company. One can imagine just how deeply his nose was out of joint watching the likes of Punk MJF and Danielson tear the house down week after week while his childish pretentious creative was an albatross around the shows neck  by return.

Edited February 16, 2022 by A_K

[John from Cincinnati]

They can dick Cody around at their own peril. Other talent they might want more are watching, and they'll notice if one of the faces of AEW gets used as a doormat. 

[odessasteps]

20 minutes ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Am I the only one wondering where this leaves Arn? We never got an Anderson double crossing a Rhodes in the 21st century! 

It'd be better for him to turn on Dustin. 

Arm turning on Cody would get a babyface pop.

[Cobra Commander]

Not directly saying that Cody is gonna turn out like any of these guys but... Austin was pretty much floundering for a year solid on his way out of WCW. Dustin Rhodes was pushed at a slightly higher level for 1996 WWF compared to 1994 WCW. Chris Jericho was effectively irrelevant for the last 8 months of his WCW run and debuted in the WWF interrupting the Rock in 1999. Big Show debuted in the main event of a WWF PPV after being lost in the mix in 1998 WCW.

Like there's no shortage of situations where someone actually ended up in a better card position in the WWF than their previous promotion. Then if they fit in, they stuck around the top. If they had to step back and cool down a guy, they would cool him down. Sometimes they cooled the guy down no matter what.

Aside from people who think wrestling is real or people wanting some sort of bragging rights because they need to vindicate the show they watch, who's gonna give a fuck that Cody Rhodes was in the midcard or holding the TNT title if he won the WWE's second most important title from Lashley in the next month and holds it for a month or so.