WI: WWE allowed Cody Rhodes to abandon the Stardust gimmick?

[Ventriloquist]

Wrestling fans may be aware that WWE's NXT brand was recently overhauled, as Triple H was replaced as producer with Vince McMahon and Brother Love, and the NXT logo with its Triple H connotations and insignia was replaced with a new, asymmetrical, colourful piece of text that looks like it came from Nickelodeon in the 90s. This is, of course, a means of punishing Triple H for losing the Wednesday Night Wars, in which NXT went live on Wednesday nights, head to head against All Elite Wrestling (AEW)'s weekly show Dynamite, and was crushed over and over again for about two years. The worst part of it all, however, is that the Wednesday Night Wars never would have happened if Cody Rhodes, son of Dusty Rhodes, had been allowed to drop the godawful Stardust wrestling gimmick in the six months prior to his release.

In 2016, Cody Rhodes was released from WWE. Without getting too into the specifics, this set off a massive chain of events which made Cody into one of the biggest stars in the independent wrestling scene, to the point where Cody and his friends Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, and Kenny Omega sold out the Sears Centre Arena in what was called the biggest independent wrestling show of all time: All In. The success of All In prompted Tony Khan, a billionaire wrestling fan, to approach The Elite, as they called themselves, to ride the momentum of All In into a new promotion that could compete with WWE at every level. This blossomed into AEW, now easily the second biggest promotion in the US, which is now coming for WWE's place at the top.

But what if that never happened? What if, out of sheer persistence, the WWE's top brass allowed Cody to drop the Stardust gimmick and wrestle as Cody Rhodes again? Would he still be in the WWE to this day, or would he have been released before his time and become an actor or whatever? What would the wrestling landscape look like today if Cody Rhodes had just been allowed to drop the bloody facepaint?

 

[HesitatedEye]

In my opinion, very little changes Cody wasn't going to be a main event talent, but that isn't to say he couldn't be, just no one saw him that way. If everything goes the same way as it did, I could see him being in a Ciampa or Gargano position in NXT, or maybe Finn's position (i.e First Universal Champion). The bigger question would be is if Cody stayed and they went along with their idea to have NXT brands around the world that might give him and by extension others more freedom to move territory to territory and in the longer term improve the WWE with more rounded stars. In regards to AEW that will probably still happen the only difference is Cody has a wrestling mind Omega and the Bucks I'm not as sure about it might be more similar to WCW pre-Bischoff or TNA Spike TV era good tv and building momentum but not going to worry Vince.

 

[Ventriloquist]

In regards to AEW that will probably still happen the only difference is Cody has a wrestling mind Omega and the Bucks I'm not as sure about it might be more similar to WCW pre-Bischoff or TNA Spike TV era good tv and building momentum but not going to worry Vince.

I can't agree on this part. If All In hadn't happened, Omega probably would have stayed in NJPW, seeing as he was about to be the face of their US expansion, and the G1 Supercard event between NJPW and ROH would have likely been main evented by Okada and Omega. True, NJPW probably wouldn't be anywhere close to the WWE's level at this point, but at least they can say that they sold out Madison Square Garden as IOTL. Granted, the Bucks may or may not have gone to the WWE, but either way, without All In, I doubt they'd start up a whole new company to compete with NJPW at least.

But yeah, fair points on Cody staying. IMO Finn was always going to be the first Universal Champion, because they at least attempted to care about NXT callups in those days, and they wanted the title at first to be a clean break from the Fed's usual roster.

 

[HesitatedEye]

I can't agree on this part. If All In hadn't happened, Omega probably would have stayed in NJPW, seeing as he was about to be the face of their US expansion, and the G1 Supercard event between NJPW and ROH would have likely been main evented by Okada and Omega. True, NJPW probably wouldn't be anywhere close to the WWE's level at this point, but at least they can say that they sold out Madison Square Garden as IOTL. Granted, the Bucks may or may not have gone to the WWE, but either way, without All In, I doubt they'd start up a whole new company to compete with NJPW at least.

But yeah, fair points on Cody staying. IMO Finn was always going to be the first Universal Champion, because they at least attempted to care about NXT callups in those days, and they wanted the title at first to be a clean break from the Fed's usual roster.

I agree on Omega and NJPW he probably would have stayed the Bucks in WWE is unlikely unless it's a Punk like situation in that they think they are the next Hardys and find out they aren't WWE and Vince have never been big on tag teams with few exceptions. That being said if they did you'd have them, Finn, AJ, Adam Cole (Bay Bay), and possibly Anderson and Gallows at this point if the story is true Tama Tonga is there too that's a Club filled with Bullets.

 

[Kyle Robinson]

Cody has said in interviews that the reason he didn't want to leave WWE was because he was afraid of not winning the world title in front of his dad. When Dusty died, he lost that fear and decided to leave. So the only way Cody stays is if they put the title on him or Dusty doesn't die.