History YMMV / CodyRhodes

* NauseaFuel: His torn pec injury during ''Hell in the Cell 2022'' in his match against Wrestling/SethRollins, revealing a large purple bruise. The audience drops to StunnedSilence and many streamers and reactions look in ''horror'' and disgust at how bad it is.

** [[https://twitter.com/_Wilson2002/status/1294790030049906688 Because you're my favorite midcarder.]][[labelnote:Explanation]]A Twitter conversation between the user [=@_Wilson2002=] and Cody quickly made rounds around the IWC due to its unexpectedly BrutalHonesty, with Cody's response of confusion becoming quite memetic in its own right.[[/labelnote]]

* CommonKnowledge: That Cody Rhodes, as a founder of AEW, used and abused his power to put himself over at the expense of the product. While there are certainly ''extremely'' poorly-handled matches and angles revolving around him that someone should've stopped, in particular his infamously tone-deaf feud with Anthony Ogogo, if anything Cody had the opposite problem, with accusations of being a new Jeff Jarett living rent-free in his head and driving him to permanently lose any opportunity to ever challenge for the AEW World Heavyweight Title ever again, or to put over talents like Darby Allen and Brodie Lee.

* SignatureScene: If one moment could encapsulate Cody's career, it would be competing at ''Wrestling/HellInACell 2022'' and beating Seth Rollins [[Wrestling/KurtAngle with a broken freakin' pec]], netting WWE (not including NXT) its first five-star match since 2011.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Cody's theme since leaving WWE is the rock ballad of sorts "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szK50XxnU4s Kingdom]]", which is widely regarded as one of the best in AEW, in no small account because how well the lyrics mirror [[RealitySubtext Cody's life and career]].

* CatharsisFactor: Night 2 of '''[[Wrestling/WrestleMania WrestleMania XL]]'''. It took two years since his return, but Cody Rhodes finished the story by [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeating]] Wrestling/RomanReigns for the '''Undisputed WWE Universal Championship''' which he held for over 3.5 years. In addition to his family - his wife Brandi included - celebrating with him, several of his fellow stars did as well: Wrestling/KevinOwens; Wrestling/SamiZayn; Wrestling/LAKnight; Wrestling/CMPunk; Wrestling/BrucePrichard; Wrestling/TripleH; [[Wrestling/TheUsos Jey Uso]] Wrestling/SethRollins; and last but not least, Wrestling/JohnCena. The latter three plus Wrestling/TheUndertaker and assisted him during the match as well.

* CatharsisFactor: Night 2 of '''[[Wrestling/WrestleMania WrestleMania XL]]'''. It took two years since his return, but Cody Rhodes finished the story by [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeating]] Wrestling/RomanReigns for the '''Undisputed WWE Universal Championship''' which he held for over 3.5 years. In addition to his family - his wife Brandi included - celebrating with him, several of his fellow stars did as well: Wrestling/KevinOwens; Wrestling/SamiZayn; Wrestling/LAKnight; Wrestling/CMPunk; Wrestling/BrucePrichard; Wrestling/TripleH; Wrestling/SethRollins; and last but not least, Wrestling/JohnCena. The latter two plus Wrestling/TheUndertaker and [[Wrestling/TheUsos Jey Uso]] assisted him during the match as well.

* CatharsisFactor: Night 2 of '''[[Wrestling/WrestleMania WrestleMania XL]]'''. It took two years since his return, but Cody Rhodes finished the story by [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeating]] Wrestling/RomanReigns for the '''Undisputed WWE Universal Championship''' which he held for over 3.5 years. In addition to his family - his wife Brandi included - celebrating with him, several of his fellow stars did as well: Wrestling/KevinOwens; Wrestling/SamiZayn; Wrestling/LAKnight; Wrestling/CMPunk; Wrestling/BrucePrichard; Wrestling/TripleH; Wrestling/SethRollins; and last but not least, Wrestling/JohnCena. The latter two plus Wrestling/TheUndertaker and [[Wrestling/TheUsos Jey Uso]] assisted him during the match too.

** Cody Rhodes: Civil Rights Icon[[labelnote:Explanation]]In the midst of his already ill-conceived and poorly-executed United States versus United Kingdom feud with Anthony Ogogo, Cody made the well-intentioned but spectacularly tone-deaf decision to bring up his own interracial family in the context of Georgia's history of segregation, making him look ridiculously self-absorbed, to say nothing of doing it as a blond-haired, blue-eyed man with a giant American-flag themed and America-shaped neck tattoo. Cody has gone on record that he regrets the way it came across.[[/labelnote]]

** In general, Cody became a somewhat divisive figure as a result of being the most famous departure from AEW (a company he helped found) to WWE. Opinions range from praising him for betting on himself and finding a second wind in WWE (becoming the company's top Babyface in short time and revitalizing fan interest in the entire product) to finding him a hypocrite who betrayed his ideals (particularly after spending his entire indie-and-AEW career taking a multitude of potshots at WWE). Cody participating in WWE documentaries with [[UnreliableNarrator creative]] opinions on AEW's history didn't help[[labelnote:Note]]The WWE documentaries state Cody Rhodes was the biggest indie star in the world and single-handedly founded AEW, with next to no of the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega (both parties much bigger than Cody in the indie scene and also much more involved in the birth of AEW by all accounts) and actual company founder Tony Khan[[/labelnote]].

* CommonKnowledge: That Cody Rhodes, as a founder of AEW, used and abused his power to put himself over at the expense of the product. While there are certainly ''extremely'' poorly-handled matches and angles revolving around him that someone should've stopped, in particular his infamously tone-deaf feud with Anthony Ogogo, if anything Cody had the opposite problem, with accusations of being a new Jeff Jarett living rent-free in his head and driving him to permanently lose any opportunity to ever challenge for the AEW World Heavyweight Title ever again, or to put over talents like Darby Allen.

** Should he have dethroned Wrestling/RomanReigns at ''Wrestlemania'' in 2023, or was the decision to keep the title on Roman ultimately the right one? This is one of those sine-wave questions that the broad consensus among the base fluctuates on over time, but as 2023 turned into 2024 and the backlash to Roman's eternal dominance, the Bloodline's story [[ArcFatigue getting a little long in the tooth]], both combined with Roman barely appearing on the show and [[StrictlyFormula winning the same way every time when he does]], it's starting to move in the direction of just putting the title on Cody instead of trying to have Roman beat ridiculously long title reigns like Hulk Hogan's being the right choice all along.

** Should he have dethroned Wrestling/RomanReigns at ''Wrestlemania'' in 2023, or was the decision to keep the title on Roman ultimately the right one? This is one of those sine-wave questions that the broad consensus among the base fluctuates on over time, but as 2023 turned into 2024 and the backlash to Roman's [[BoringInvincibleVillain eternal dominance]], the Bloodline's story [[ArcFatigue getting a little long in the tooth]], both combined with barely appearing on the show and [[StrictlyFormula winning the same way every time when he does]], it's starting to move in the direction of just putting the title on Cody instead of trying to have Roman beat ridiculously long title reigns like Hulk Hogan's being the right choice all along.

* SignatureScene: If one moment could encapsulate Cody's career, it would be competing at ''Wrestling/HellInACell 2022'' and beating Seth Rollins [[Wrestling/KurtAngle with a broken freakin' pec]], netting WWE its first five-star match since 2011.

** Losing to Wrestling/ChrisJericho in what he'd declared would be his one ''and only'' shot at the AEW Championship, the top title of the company that he himself had helped found. He gave everything he had to try and overcome the cocky Jericho, including a horrible bump face-first onto a steel ramp that ripped his head open, only to come up short, trapped in the Lion Tamer and with his [[PoisonousFriend "friend"]] Wrestling/{{MJF}} forced to throw in the towel. Perhaps the worst part is that MJF ''didn't'' blatantly screw Cody- as the critics pointed out afterwards, there was no way Cody was going to get out of the Lion Tamer. Jericho had ''beaten'' him. And then, after tearfully apologising to a bloodstained and downcast Cody for letting him down and being forgiven, [[FaceHeelTurn MJF]] [[KickTheDog kicked him]] [[GroinAttack in the crotch]].

** "WHOOOOA-OH..."[[labelnote:Explanation]]The beginning of his most well-known theme song in WWE, "Smoke and Mirrors".
It even (maybe intentionally, maybe not) persisted in a way as part of the lyrics to his post-departure entrance theme, "Kingdom".[[/labelnote]]

* WinBackTheCrowd: During his final days in Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling, Cody began to be increasingly seen by fans as an obnoxious, out-of-touch GaryStu unsuccessfully trying to emulate a bygone era of wrestling, compounded by an unfortunate tendency to cut entirely too many overly-sentimental promos and the fact that his high position in the company meant that he was almost certainly booking himself to look good at the expense of much more popular heel wrestlers. These very traits - his unashamed ego, his assertiveness, and his high-emotion promo style - ended up being exactly the reasons why his return to Wrestling/{{WWE}} was met with instant, universal acclaim, as his larger than life persona and gimmick made for a breathtaking contrast in the midst of what many fans consider to be the most unbearably stale, generic period in WWE's history.

* WinBackTheCrowd: During his final days in Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling, Cody began to be increasingly seen by fans as an obnoxious, out-of-touch GaryStu trying entirely too hard to emulate a bygone era of wrestling, compounded by an unfortunate tendency to cut entirely too many overly-sentimental promos and the fact that his high position in the company meant that he was almost certainly booking himself to look good at the expense of much more popular heel wrestlers. These very traits - his unashamed ego, his assertiveness, and his high-emotion promo style - ended up being exactly the reasons why his return to Wrestling/{{WWE}} was met with instant, universal acclaim, as his larger than life persona and gimmick made for a breathtaking contrast in the midst of what many fans consider to be the most unbearably stale, generic period in WWE's history.

** Said in a blog that his one goal in wrestling was to put the WWE title belt on his dad's shoulder (Dusty only ever held it in a Dusty Finish). That will never happen now. He even referenced it during his return promo to WWE the ''Raw'' after ''[=WrestleMania=] 38'' in 2022.

** His feud against Anthony Ogogo featured Cody temporarily becoming the American Dream in a way that just made him look like everything wrong with {{Eagleland}} stereotypes. The storyline had some weird beats including Cody implying racism in America is fixed because he has an interracial marriage and daughter, even though Ogogo himself is mixed race, and Ogogo complaining about actual real life problems of America on his twitter and coming off as a face for it to basically everyone except very patriotic Americans.