Cody just sucks

>>19660690
Grim

>>19660690
I mean, it wasn’t so much a “reign” as a 6-month feud designed to elevate another single character. Which they’ve now done.

A title “reign” isn’t so much feud-based as it is dominance-based (meaning, you have a long string of title defenses, facing multiple guys once, no rematches, simply to demonstrate you can beat all-comers).

For instance, they’re currently (trying) to do a title “reign” with Jade on the women’s side. They’ll probably start doing a title “reign” with the Uso’s on the tag side until big Jim takes paternity leave (assuming WWE grants him some time for that).

Point being, this 2nd Cody run was apparently conceived all-along as a vehicle to elevate Drew McIntyre for awhile.

Which, I mean, whatever. That’s fine. Gotta scratch all the itches on the roster and mix things up eventually I guess.

>>19660690
Having the entire Cena feud just be so Cody could jerk himself off about being "the guy" for like the 6th time in two years was fucking abysmal. And then he fucked off to film a movie right after

>>19660800
>"elevate" Drew McIntyre
Then HHH did a horrible job. Drew jobbed twice clean, and then finally got "put over" after cheating + interference in a gimmicked match

>>19660690
They had a lot of faces for Cena as a heel or Cody as a heel but fucking hell SDL is dry as fuck in terms of faces. The fact they put him straight in to another Drew feud was a sign that his title reign was a mistake

>>19660800
>designed to elevate another single character. Which they’ve now done.
Who did they elevate? It wasn't Drew "6'5" Monster who had to chickenshit heel his way to a fluke title win" McIntyre

>>19660800
If this feud was supposed to elevate Drew then fucking hell what a botch that was. Drew was at his hottest in a while after the Punk feud and they made him job to Priest then act as a whiney heater for 9 months.

>>19660830
That’s Drew’s whole schtick though. He always has a real gripe but he’s insufferable about it. Jobbing to Priest was irredeemable, I’ll agree.

>>19660820
I suppose they’d argue that’s the way a “character like Drew” is supposed to win it, though.

It’s pretty common for heels to win in shady, unsatisfying ways. Dom, Drew, Logan’s brass knucks. Hell, they even laid the groundwork for Trick last night by having him win by “unfairly” pulling Rey Fenix’s rights during the pin.

The other typical way heels win is sheer dominance (Jade, Brock, early Bron Breakker).

When heels win titles, you either want them to be feared (dominance) or ridiculed (unsatisfying cheaty interference).

You don’t really want it to be a “good hard earned well fought match.” That leads to them being respected. Which you have to be careful with, because the next stop from there is turning face.

Elevate a 20 years veteran that has won literally everything

>>19660690
I don't watch the weekly product. Fuck are they going to do for the Mania main event this year? Can't seriously be a Drew match

>a 6'5" Monster heel had to crawl out of the cage like a coward while Cody Rhodes was being beat up by a giant Samoan
Truly a great elevation that puts Drew McIntyre on a level much higher than "Charity COVID Champion"

>>19660690
baby face champion cody sucks

>>19660858
>a “character like Drew”
Drew McIntyre has wins over Lesnar and Goldberg, he shouldn't be a chickenshit heel
he is also the tallest top guy they have

WE fucking sucks

Think it's more clear to me now that the Cena title run was a spur of the moment plan that fucked up their longterm booking with Cody.

That heel turn/Travis Scott truly fucked everything up

>>19660986
>shouldn’t be

Well, that’s where “fumbled” booking decisions come in, lol.

Shouldn’t or not, they’ve clearly decided to go that route with him.

I agree that, given his size and track record, a “dominant” heel persona would’ve seemed more natural than a shady whiny one, but here we are lol.

Maybe they feel like they’ve already done Dominant Drew, but now that’s he’s been jobbing in recent years, they can’t suddenly make him seem dominant anymore, so this version of late-stage Drew has to resort to slimy whining and shady tactics to get the belt.

I dunno man. Whaddya want me to say. I miss Vince?

>>19661012
I’m interested to see what they do with Cody now.

Options include:

1) HERO’S JOURNEY ANGLE

He disappears for awhile to give him (and the fans) a break. Despite the eye rolling snark of crusty old fans like us, regular fans still respond to him and like him. BUT…there IS a noticeable Cody Fatigue in the stands these days. He’s been everywhere as the face of the company for the better part of 2 years. Going away for a couple months could be the reset everyone needs to remember why they like him. They could do a “gotta re-evaluate my life after this big loss to Drew” angle and he needs time away to search for himself because he realized he lost because he let Drew get to him or some shit. Maybe bring him back at Elimination Chamber in 7 weeks.


2) DOWNWARD SPIRAL ANGLE

This loss further advances the downward mental spiral he’s been on (that stupid schtick about him going to Drew’s house, and the constant attempts to paint Cody as a loose cannon who can barely contain himself when Drew rips up pics of his dad and shit, etc). Rather than disappear, they put him right back on TV to whine about Drew cheating and how it’s not fair and how omgg Drew fucking suckkks and he screams for a rematch and has to be restrained while Drew stands there laughing. They keep diving deeper into turning Cody into an out-of-control, unhinged child with an overinflated sense of his importance. This is the obvious heel turn angle in which he truly becomes the American Nightmare.


3) BACK TO WORK ANGLE

Cody accepts defeat, stays on TV every week, takes the high road and simply commits to working hard to earn another title shot. This is the noble, but boring, angle lol.


4) TAG TEAM SLUMMING

They keep him on TV (because his entrance draws dimes), but give him a break from the A-Tier by burying him in tag matches for awhile, like they’ve done with Rhea, Charles, and AJ Styles.


Which way should HHH go?

>>19660744
no shit, he is unironically Reddit: The Wrestler

they should just drop McIntyre's "heel who never stops complaining" gimmick and turn him tweener or face

>>19660690
Cody collects Robert Mapplethorpe

>>19660800
>elevate a former Wrestlemania headlining world champion
lmao imagine how stupid this sounds with anyone else. Drew sucks. Cody Sucks. HHH sucks. WWE fuckin sucks.

>>19661224
Spiteful tranny is seething
>why don't they talk about our show after it's over, why are there actually discussions about what happens on the show and not just the ratings and attendance
Tell your cult leader Tony to do better and maybe people will talk about his show

>>19661231
rent free holy shit hahaha

>>19660858
Dominant heels have historically been more over due to the babyface chasing getting the victory over a rival as opposed to a cheater

>>19661244
Yep...still seething and not even trying to hide it

>>19661224
WM36 doesn’t count. Nothing about the Covid era is cannon, lol. Not Drew’s fault, but that’s all been memoryholed.

And when he beat Seff at XL, he immediately jobbed that belt to Damian Priest with the MITB shit.

Plus, there’s been a mountain of new fans who just started watching WWE for the first time in the last few years (ESPN, Netflix, Cena retirement tour brought new people out of the woodwork, etc).

Point is, Drew McIntyre isn’t a household name. He’s not exactly a clean slate, but he doesn’t have a long running pedigree that needs to be honored by the bookers, lol.

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not sure why they didn't just let drew win the first match if they didn't have anything planned for cody. it's obvious cody only won the belt back because they needed it off cena.

>>19661312
According to dirtsheets Cody and Drew pushed for Drew to win their first match. Likely because they knew months of Cody beating Drew isn't as captivating as Cody chasing.

sort of related, but do you guys think drew is going to slowly face turn or be a face leaning tweener now that he has the belt? character wise he was really only heel because he kept getting screwed,

>>19661410
That all depends who they put him up against and whether that opponent is received as more of heel than Drew.

That’s kinda the definition of a tweener, I guess. Drew’s heel/face status isn’t objectively settled, but rather shifting sand depending on who he’s facing.

Against Orton, Ilja, or Sami, he’s the heel.

Against Priest, or Sikoa, he’s probably the face.

Trick would be interesting dynamics. Not sure. Too soon to tell.

>>19660800
>For instance, they’re currently (trying) to do a title “reign” with Jade on the women’s side.
They are currently trying to figure who they can put against Jade and not get them injured in the process. They called up Jordynne specifically for that because she's build like a tiny brick shit house and with hundreds of matches experience she can train the big bitch to work safer

>>19661410
No he'll stay a heel, at least until WM. I think it might be Cody/Roman/Drew and Drew wins with shenanigans. That will be the running theme of his reign, he'll keep winning dirty and love it, going full hypocrite.

>>19660690
Damn that's almost as bad as Hangman's

>>19660690
Drew should've won at wrestlepalooza

>>19660690
Don't forget the Oba match where he spent most of it getting his ass beat and losing to jasethy right before he got injured
Absolutely grim, if they wanted a short reign where the main theme was the Drew rivalry they should've padded out a ton of title defenses against variuous faces and heels, short angles in the arching narrative of Cody getting tired and Drew taking advantage of that at the right time

>>19660690
>Five defenses in five months
>Four against one person
People used to shit on Triple H's and Cena's title reigns but at least they used defend it almost weekly. Does Cody wrestle house shows?

>>19661136
Hero’s journey would work best imo

>>19661136
>Which way should HHH go?
Bring back the Stardust gimmick and the 24/7 championship and have him feud with Tozawa.

>>19661564
Sorry he left your cult

>>19661410
He's in the perfect spot as a tweener imo but they really need him to be the Scottish Psychopath in the ring. A big motherfucker like Drew should be dominant, not winning via interference, low blows and other shenanigans

>>19661442
>Against Priest
It's funny because Priest is booked as a face but gets either no reaction or mild boos.

>>19660690
What else did you expect from stardust

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>roman wins the saudi rumble because they're big dog marks
>drew finally gets his win against roman at mania
>drew vs sami at summerslam after some build

>>19661728
Who watches this trash

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159 DAYS IS CRAZY

US OPEN CHALLENGE TIER SHIT

FACE OF THE COMPANY AS FUCKING IF

BRING BACK ROMAN

>>19661758
normalize title reigns being less than 90 days again. fuck the long reign meme.

>>19661740
the late show? idk I think it's just old people who leave their tv on

>>19661826
I agree with this.

Long title reigns should be reserved for characters who audiences buy as dominant enough to actually always win every match they’re in.

There’s been a lot of those over the years. But you don’t always have a guy like that in every era.

Cody sure as shit isn’t that type of guy.

Everybody at the top of the cards right now seems fairly evenly matched. Like, any given night, I could buy Punk beating Bron beating Fatu beating Seth beating Cody beating Drew beating Orton beating Reed and so on.


There’s no Undertaker or Goldberg type ultra-dominant character on the men’s side right now, so in an age of perceived parity, it’s probably best to have 3-4 title changes each year.
(I don’t count Roman and Brock because they’re never fucking there.)

>>19662162
i want more surprise title changes and hotshots. i want to actually be surprised when someone wins.

>>19662186
>I want to be surprised when someone wins
>By hotshotting titles constantly and therefore making it not a surprise when a title changes hands

Smarks literally don't know what the fuck they want

>>19662199
damn youre right. clearly we just need more 350 day snoozefest reigns.

>>19662230
You're right, middle ground doesn't exist. We can only have year long title reigns or we hotshot titles every month

>>19660690
the drew vortex

>>19661330
they shouldve just had Drew win at Wrestlepalooza instead they bitched him out for months and it wouldge given them more time to set up stuff for Cody and build feuds for Drew

>>19662370
That was their first (and hastily thrown together) PLE with ESPN, though, remember.

No way you’re taking the belt off your babyface champion in that setting.

Particularly when, on that same show, you decided to aggravate the crowd by booking John Cena to get eviscerated by Brock Lesnar in about 2 minutes lol.

>>19660800
>Point being, this 2nd Cody run was apparently conceived all-along as a vehicle to elevate Drew McIntyre for awhile.
Delusional

>>19660690

>>19662186
You just got a bunch in short period of time dude