Cody Rhodes lost to Chris Jericho at Full Gear 2019 and could never challenge for the AEW Men’s World Champion again. What if he won?
Role-Players Realm is where GrapPro explores the “What if?” in wrestling discussion and analysis. Fantasy booking can often be mixed up in editorial analysis and I would like to try to separate the two. What I think could have happened or what could happen isn’t always the same as what I think should have happened or what should happen.
Cody Rhodes run in All Elite Wrestling is very strange to look back on. Easily one of the top stars of the company in its inception, Cody seemed to be aware he couldn’t make Kenny Omega or the Young Bucks in pure wrestling ability. He decided to instead lean on his admiration for his fathers era and try to present himself as a traditional flavour of the AEW ice cream shop.
Cody kicked things off with his match against his brother Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing in one of the best matches of the early company. Brother versus Brother matches are sometimes a hard sell to the fan and Cody built it around his disgust for his “generation” being skipped in favour of the Attitude Era. Having his brother represent that era was a bit awkward but it allowed the match to have an edge it would have been hard to create otherwise.
After Chris Jericho defeated Hangman Page at All Out to become the first AEW Men’s World Champion, Cody Rhodes being the first contender was a good choice. These were two of the most recognizable faces in the new company.
It was a good program for both men but it is less remembered for the match and more remembered for the stipulation that Cody Rhodes invented out of nowhere.
For starters, this was entirely due to The Elite at the time generally booking the shows and being too worried about putting themselves over as the stars of the company over others. They didn’t want to be the typical wrestler bookers that put the titles on themselves and build the show in their image.
The problem is that AEW needed The Elite to be strong to new audiences and having the Young Bucks losing to Private Party, Hangman Page losing to Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega losing to PAC, and Cody Rhodes now unable to ever become AEW Men’s World Champion was screaming at people to not treat these guys like the big stars they were supposed to be.
Page at least was young and building a redemption story. It’s okay to have one of them. Kenny Omega having some early losses was also fine because he can essentially wrestle himself out of any predicament his character is dealt. Delaying Omega’s rise to the top due to feuds with PAC, Jon Moxley (we will get to him), and eventually a run in the tag division was good. But it’s good if Omega is put to the side so Cody Rhodes can have his time to shine first.
Rhodes taking himself out of the title picture so early in AEW essentially told fans that Cody was only going to be a certain level. At the time I supported it because I thought they were going to make a story out of it. Cody was going to lose his chance, but later on something would have him break it. I thought maybe a guy like Hangman Page is the World Champion and challenges Cody for the title. Cody said he had the stip he can’t wrestle for the title. Page says he doesn’t care, if he gets pinned Cody is champion. And then in the match Cody absolutely cheats and essentially has Page run over by a truck to beat him for the title and break his own stipulation.
Instead it worked out that Cody Rhodes basically said, “The AEW Men’s World Championship doesn’t matter to me as much as the NWA and WWE Championships” through the booking.
Now there’s another reason Cody took himself out of the World Championship picture and it’s because on that first pay per view, Cody went from the top babyface of the company to a level under with the debut of one man: Jon Moxley.
The Jon Moxley Dilemma
Once Jon Moxley was in All Elite Wrestling, Cody could no longer take any claim as being the top star or say that Jericho is a veteran in his final years while he’s the top guy in his prime. Moxley was by far the biggest star in the company upon debut and it made sense for him to be the face of the company. The first six months of television for AEW was all about building up to Moxley’s coronation in defeating Chris Jericho at Revolution.
It’s easy enough to just say, “Okay Cody Rhodes shouldn’t have done the stipulation” because it really put Cody in a box. Or rather what we called it: The Codyverse. Cody had his own little world separated from the rest of AEW because of his decision. He would never feud with Jericho again. He separated from the other members of The Elite and never got involved with them again. He never interacted much with Jon Moxley. Once MJF turned on him and beat him at Revolution they hardly interacted. Sting debuted and much of it was about interacting with Cody Rhodes, and then… nothing.
Not only was Cody separated from the top stars, he tried to just work with his friends. The feud with The Factory was obviously Cody trying to elevate QT Marshall and his Nightmare Factory students. When CM Punk debuted, Cody was feuding with Malakai Black but looked like he wanted to do anything but. The spot Eddie Kingston took at Full Gear 2021 really should have been Cody Rhodes. Punk should have been dealing with Cody at the gates.
So I don’t know if simply removing the stipulation is enough. Cody loses to Jericho, he still goes into the little booking hole he dug for himself. But what if Cody Rhodes actually had a run with the AEW Men’s World Championship, and what if it came from defeating Chris Jericho at Full Gear 2019?
What if Cody Rhodes won the AEW World Championship?
So what’s the first thing that changes if Cody wins the championship?
There’s no way Cody is running out to get beat up by anonymous Dark Order members if he’s holding the gold. Would the segment still happen? Possibly. But it doesn’t involve Cody, which was part of what made it so egregious for them to beat down most of The Elite.
Cody as World Champion going into Revolution might put the Maxwell Jacob Friedman story in a precarious position. MJF wasn’t ready for a World Championship match at that point but he absolutely did need to turn on Cody. You could have MJF turn on Cody in the middle of his program at Revolution to plant the seed for that in the future, or have the turn at Revolution.
The next question is, well, Jon Moxley.
You can’t keep Moxley away from the World Championship for too much longer, and from what we know with the pandemic, it’s better to have that moment of him holding the championship in front of crowds than not. Cody’s first title run in AEW with the TNT Championship was unfortunately not in front of crowds. It would be disappointing to take away that moment entirely from Moxley.
But remember how I mentioned that Cody was a throwback to his fathers era?
Do you know how long Dusty Rhodes first run with the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was?
Five days.
His second run? 88 days.
Third? 14 days.
Dusty’s combined NWA World Heavyweight Championship runs comes to 107 days. A little more than three months.
November (Full Gear 2019) to February (Revolution 2020) is 112 days.
Cody Rhodes would have been able to say he was AEW World Heavyweight champion longer than his father was NWA World Heavyweight Champion (his own NWA run was only 50 days) so it would have still been a success in the Rhodes family legacy.
The run doesn’t have to be long. It’s the first taste. And it allows for Cody Rhodes to still be established as a top guy in the company so he doesn’t have to slide into his own Codyverse.
AEW Revolution 2020
The change I make for Revolution 2020 is this:
Maxwell Jacob Friedman versus Chris Jericho
Jon Moxley versus Cody Rhodes
MJF would not turn on Cody at Full Gear 2019 of course since Cody Rhodes became champion. Instead, MJF would decide he was going to follow in Cody’s footsteps and challenge Jericho at Revolution. MJF would essentially play the asshole attacking the heel in Jericho. It would also be a way to say, “You’re not ready for this game yet kid” with the way Jericho would be amused by his actions only to mess up Max after.
(In truth it’s Jericho planting seeds for MJF to eventually join Inner Circle like he did in AEW storylines. If you haven’t noticed now when I can fantasy book I like to at least have connections to what ended up happening so I’m not entirely re-inventing the wheel. MJF feuds with Jericho earlier but will still eventually get onto the same track he did before.)
MJF’s challenge to Jericho would lead to Dustin and others in the Nightmare Family (and The Elite) to still be terrorized by Inner Circle, with the goal to be leading to a Blood and Guts match between the Nightmare Family and Inner Circle (the pandemic puts a stop to this of course.) Cody would be partially distracted by this, taking his eyes off the ball.
The ball? Jon Moxley is the number one contender.
The program between Cody and Moxley would focus on the fact that Cody feels Moxley tried to steal his thunder at Double or Nothing and is doing it again trying to win the AEW Men’s World Championship. I would make the jealous not subtext but text. Let Cody look a little fragile. Moxley already worked a program with Kenny Omega proving he can be an unnatural disaster that the fans accept. It will even feel like Jon Moxley is targeting The Elite.
(Which it is.)
Despite being babyface versus babyface, the idea is Cody Rhodes is actually not as focused and ready to be AEW Men’s World Champion. He’s getting the world without being ready for it. At Revolution, Chris Jericho would defeat Maxwell Jacob Friedman. And in the finish, MJF would be left crying, with Cody coming to the ring to pick him up and carry him to the back.
Only for MJF to kick Cody in the balls and knock him out with the Dynamite Diamond Ring.
Cody, now with a chipped tooth and high anxiety, now has to face Jon Moxley in the main event.
Moxley would defeat Cody Rhodes clean in a match all about putting Jon Moxley at the top of the mountain. Cody would realize he lost everything because of his lack of focus. He let the Inner Circle pick apart his family, he let MJF turn on him, and now he lost the AEW Men’s World Championship to the one man who he feels always steals his spotlight.
After History Changes
Cody’s run would be similar to Hangman Page’s in 2019, only instead of not being ready for that level, Cody got to the top and was not ready to hold onto it. He held the championship longer than his father held three NWA Heavyweight titles but it doesn’t change the fact he didn’t change the narrative of the Rhodes family.
This anger would fuel into his feud with MJF following Revolution. MJF would end up aligning with Chris Jericho in The Inner Circle, while Cody would pick up the pieces with The Elite. MJF vs Cody, Dustin vs Jake Hager, Jericho and Sammy versus Young Bucks, and Omega/Kenny versus Proud and Powerful. All of this would culminate into a six versus six Stadium Stampede match.
(This also allows me to not have Matt Hardy involved. Win win!)
Eventually, Cody Rhodes would face Maxwell Jacob Friedman at All Out 2020. Jon Moxley would now be open to face Chris Jericho at All Out instead of at Revolution. This allow takes Jericho out of the Orange Cassidy feud, which was great to establish OC but ended in that Mimosa Mayhem match which I’ll be honest I probably love only because it involves mimosas. It’s not really a popular match for AEW fans.
Cody Rhodes is also not involved in the TNT Championship anymore due to being enamored in the Inner Circle/MJF feud. PAC winning the TNT Championship and later losing it to Darby Allin or Orange Cassidy would have been great for that.
More importantly, once the feud with MJF is over, Cody Rhodes is still available to feud with Mr. Brodie Lee. He is also now only a few months away from seeing Jon Moxley lose the AEW Men’s World Championship to Kenny Omega. A heel Kenny Omega now as champion. A babyface Cody Rhodes.
Double or Nothing 2021 finally has a strong AEW Men’s World Championship main event.
Worth Changing The Past?
Honestly? Not so much.
It probably doesn’t change Cody’s departure from AEW, but it does make his booking a lot stronger. It flips the AEW Men’s World Championship a bit early on and ends up having Moxley face a babyface instead of a heel, but it still ensures a marquee title matchup.
Inserting Cody to the title adds to the legacy but not in a major way. It at least ensures his run doesn’t seem so strange to have him cap out at the TNT Championship. For me the biggest difference is that Cody as a former AEW Men’s World Champion makes it so he has no excuse not to work Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, and others. It keeps him high in the title picture instead of letting him scramble to the midcard against the likes of QT Marshall, Anthony Ogogo, and Andrade El Idolo in a program Cody couldn’t even put half his heart into.
If Cody Rhodes sticks around in AEW, that opens up doing the MJF feud again when MJF is World Champion. It opens up CM Punk. It eventually opens up a feud with the current heel Hangman Page which was something I always wanted.
Unfortunately, that likely never happens. What we have is essentially an imperfect career run in AEW. That imperfect run allowed WWE when signing him to say, “Well there’s no sense delaying this rise to the top. The other guys already did that” and ensure they put him up to the top almost immediately. Cody has already been WWE Champion well beyond his father’s three runs in NWA so that’s never even been a consideration for them.
The only thing worth it is to get rid of that dumb stipulation. I hate it when wrestlers do this. I hated it when Bryan Danielson recently did it in his build to All In 2024 against Swerve Strickland, throwing out his career like it’s nothing. The stipulation needs pressure and stakes. It would make sense for Cody Rhodes to put up the chance to ever have a title match again if he had already lost twice to a heel cheating and now put up the stipulation to ensure a clean match. Just throwing it out there like he did was one of the first big booking fumbles in AEW and it’s all on Cody’s head apparently.
He might not have been one of the first AEW World Champions but he might have been their first sinner.
