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Cody Rhodes has been a member of the WWE Universe – in this run – since 2022, when he made his return at WrestleMania 38 in a surprise match against Seth Rollins.
Since that fateful day in August of 2022, Rhodes has wrestled in one of the most compelling Hell in a Cell matches of all time – working as the ultimate babyface with a visibly torn pec – worked one of the most compelling feuds in the Roads to WrestleMania of all time in his feud with Roman Reigns – twice actually – and suffered an absolutely legendary loss at WrestleMania 39, even if he ultimately made good on it the following year in Philadelphia.
What do those big moments have in common? Rhodes working from under as the everyman underdog, a self-made man who wants to make good on his family legacy and finally prove he can be “the guy” after being overlooked for years.
Now granted, Rhodes isn't really an everyman; he grew up in the business, signed with WWE before he could drink, and had a full-ride scholarship to Penn State to wrestle if he didn't want to follow in he father's footsteps right away, but he had such a unique ability to relate to fans that they believed it, and invested heavily in his story.
But what happens when the working man underdog, constantly fighting against the man for his piece of the pie, becomes “The Man?” How do you remain relatable and compelling when feuds turn into giving friends title shots and choosing foes because they were either in Bullet Club or are fans of the University of Georgia – or, in AJ Styles's case, are both a former Bullet Club leader and a member of the Dawg Pound?
Well, you get Bash in Berlin, where Rhodes worked a babyface versus babyface match against Kevin Owens, where even a crowd desperate to see WWE stars were left quiet for much of the contest.
Cody Rhodes needs a compelling WWE feud in the worst way
When it comes to professional wrestling matches, the story is key; it can be as simple as who is the best wrestler to as complex as the deep-rooted familial drama running through The Bloodline, but if a match doesn't have a story, it doesn't have a reason to happen, at least in the eyes of many fans online.
To Rhodes and Owens' credit, their match did have a story: Owens didn't like that he was handed a championship and teased that he would turn heel on the “American Nightmare” as a result of that disrespect. Factor in a knee injury that Rhodes may have suffered on WWE's European tour, a fact Owens pointed out multiple times but his foe kept disputing, and you theoretically have the tools needed to tell an interesting storyline, even if it all came together rather haphazardly in the hours before Bash in Berlin.
The problem? That storyline didn't really translate in the ring, and even a crowd desperate to see their first WWE PLE this century didn't quite invest in the bout to even the same degree as the match that followed it, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair versus the Unholy Union.
But why? Was it because Rhodes and Owens spent the first ten minutes or so of the match attempting lockups and traditional wrestling locks that felt out of place for a bare-knuckle brawler like the “Prize Fighter?” Or maybe because Owens worked the entire match with an air of apprehension, refusing to target Rhodes' maybe injured knee despite pointing it out in the lead-up to the show until it was too late? Could it be the finish, a singles Cross Rhodes after Rhodes “blocked” a Swanton attempt with his injured knee?
Frankly, while all of those issues didn't help, the largest one had little to do with the just-okay match in the ring: Rhodes versus Owens isn't a compelling feud.
Other than his match with Solo Sikoa, which had a rather strange build, all things considered, Rhodes has been working matches against wrestlers that no one believes can beat him in order to effectively run out the clock until Roman Reigns and/or The Rock is ready to take a legitimate shot at the WWE Championship. Rhode isn't being fed foes like Drew McIntyre, CM Punk, Gunther, or especially Randy Orton, who all have the sort of pedigree that could make for a legitimate feud worthy of months of action. No, Rhodes is working matches against B-Tier talent as a whole, delivering babyface promos with a level of condescension that oozes through the television screen, and his cocky demeanor a big reason why some fans believe he's secretly an ideal heel hiding in an old-school babyface's clothing, even though old school babyfaces never came to the ring in thousand dollar suits.
How can WWE fix this issue? Surely, they don't need Rhodes to start working matches on par with Ilya Dragunov and Gunther, as while he isn't the best pure wrestler in the world, he is good enough to be a top guy in even 2024 WWE. No, what Rhodes needs is an opponent who can actually beat him, and thus far, WWE has been unwilling to book that for one reason or another. Until that happens, Rhodes' title matches will ring hollow, and as a result, his championship reign will feel lacking in the heart that made him the ultimate challenger.
