Cody was the face of AEW early on as the top face, but after he lost to Chris Jericho at AEW Full Gear 2019 he’d never challenge for the world title again.
It was the stipulation that was added by him to build the tension and it showed he wasn’t his father, who often booked himself into being the NWA World Championship.
Despite Dusty Rhodes’ greatness, that’s one of the biggest criticisms of his career, and we were glad to see Cody going a different route.
He also said he’ll retire before turning heel in AEW.
To be honest, he would love to see him as a heel. All he’d have to do is ramp up his character’s pretentiousness, entitlement, and sneer and he’d be the biggest heel in the company just like that.
However, during an interview with Brian Jones of Pop Culture, Cody spoke about both of his decisions and why.
Standing by his words
Cody appears to be a good and fair person when not in the ring, and that’s great to see. But in the ring, he tends to come across as pretentious at times and fans are mixed on how to feel about him when he flirts with his dark side.
But according to him, we have nothing to fear. We want to give special thanks to @theheelera_ for the following transcript from his Pop Culture interview.
“This will disappoint so many and maybe it won’t, maybe this will excite, but two things I can guarantee you. And I’m not saying this to wave one hand while you’re not looking at the other. I’m telling this from the most honest standpoint, I am not going to turn heel on this company. And I would retire before I did that. Now I’m the head of the community outreach group. I have a little girl now. I’m not going to be doing heel stuff on TV. I am not turning heel and I’m not going back on my word to challenge for the title. That stuff was real. It hurts. It is a large regret that that ever happened, but it did happen and I can live with it. And I got to do that dance with Chris Jericho, and I will not go back on that stipulation, me personally. If Tony wanted to change things he could. And again, you can never say never in wrestling, but I do think there’s this idea that evil corporate need would turn the stipulation around and challenge for the world title, that I can say never will happen.”
This is an admirable declaration at never turning heel, and it’s a growing trend. Wrestling storylines are fictitious and we knew that as kids, but we understand how some take them personally.
If it’s a choice he feels is best for him and his family, more power to him. As for challenging for the title, we’re not sure how to feel about that.
AEW feels good where it’s at and injecting him into the world title picture doesn’t seem like a good idea at the moment, but things change all the time. Like Cody said, never say never.
What do you think about his decisions, and should he challenge for the world title?
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