Right now one of the biggest names in the wrestling business outside of the WWE is a Rhodes. History does repeat itself doesn’t it? Cody Rhodes is becoming a main event big time star in ROH. When we last saw him in the WWE he was rocking a star version of his brothers jumpsuit and cutting promos about other galaxies while hissing at the opposition. However what if Cody Rhodes had stayed in the WWE and didn’t leave before the brand split and draft? Luckily for you I have this book that I am writing and I will let you know exactly what would have happened. Cody Rhodes was a multiple time tag team champion and Intercontinental champion however never had the opportunity to go for the world title. I actually believe he should have been the winner of Money in the Bank the year Sandow won. Anyway I digress lets pick-up where he left off.
The WWE draft was right around the corner when Stardust/Cody Rhodes left the WWE. At the time it was reported that the Stardust character was being dropped and that he would be going back to Cody Rhodes. I fully agree with that and won’t be deviating. Let’s start at the WWE Draft and Stardust is gone and we haven’t seen Cody Rhodes on TV since. Smackdown Live would go on to draft Cody Rhodes late in the draft and have it be more of an afterthought. On the Smackdown Live that featured the six pack challenge it would have been John Cena vs. AJ Styles vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Baron Corbin vs. Cody Rhodes vs Dolph Ziggler. I think Rhodes would have gotten the Ziggler spot as we have already seen Ziggler there in the past and Smackdown was definitely branding itself as the land of opportunity. Cody Rhodes would have pinned Bray Wyatto earn himself his first world title match and it would be at Summerslam against Dean Ambrose.
The feud would likely have been built very similarly with Ambrose portraying a confident champion on top of the mountain and Rhodes being the scrappy underdog trying to finally get over the hump. This match would have been far better than the match that actually took place and the fan would have been pushed to the limit on thinking they would finally see Cody Rhodes win the title. Ambrose would overcome Rhodes just as he did Ziggler and retain his WWE World Championship.
Two nights later on Smackdown Cody Rhodes would come out to challenge Ambrose again for his championship however he would be interrupted by Bray Wyatt. Bray would go on to talk about how Rhodes has disparaged his family’s legacy and how he will never live up to his last name. He would offer Rhodes an opportunity to change his destiny and to follow the buzzards. Of course Rhodes would decline and this would turn into a feud that would push the envelope a bit with Wyatt talking about Rhodes history. This would lead to the first match at Backlash.
Bray Wyatt and Cody Rhodes would battle to a no contest as both men would have been counted out. The action would have spilled out of the ring with both men going through an announce table only to not be able to answer the ten count. Throughout the build up to No Mercy Wyatt would continue to push the envelope of Cody Rhodes joining the Wyatt Family. Cody of course would continue to decline. At No Mercy they would have main evented (much like Orton did) and Rhodes would have lost clean in the ring with the special event going off with Bray Wyatt kneeling over Cody Rhodes.
The next Smackdown Live event Cody Rhodes would have joined the Wyatt family finally. With Bray Wyatt deeming him the American Nightmare. This would have led to a darker Cody Rhodes talking about how his brother and his father have always tried to outshine him but now Bray has shown him he is the real star of the family and they are going to take over the WWE.
Rhodes and Wyatt would have gone to win the Tag Team titles before Survivor Series. They would hold the titles as they fought for Team Smackdown in the tag team portion of the Survivor Series match. They would be the sole survivors of this match. They would being to turn their attention to defending the tag titles. Up next at the TLC special event they would defend the titles against the Hype Bros. They would go on to successfully defend the titles and now be looking forward to the Royal Rumble match.
Here is where things start to go wrong. At the Royal Rumble special event Bray Wyatt would ask Cody Rhodes to sacrifice and eliminate himself from the match. Cody Rhodes would refuse to do so and he would eliminate Bray Wyatt only to then be eliminated by Randy Orton. A.J. Styles would still have defended his title against Cena at Royal Rumble and lost the match. We would then go to the elimination chamber special event where it would be The Miz, Cody Rhodes, AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin and Luke Harper. Randy Orton would have faced Dean Ambrose at this event.
At Elimination Chamber John Cena would be eliminated by Cody Rhodes. This would have left Bray Wyatt, Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles left in the match. Styles and Rhodes would double team Wyatt and eventually eliminate the eater of worlds. Only for the lights to go out and Rowan and Harper stand over Cody Rhodes and then proceed to destroy him. AJ Styles would have collected the pinfall and won the WWE Championship and now have a match against Randy Orton at Wrestlemania. This would of course lead to Cody Rhodes needing to beat the entire Wyatt family to be able to face Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania. The Wrestlemania matches for the Smackdown brand would have looked something like this The Miz/Maryse vs. Cena/Nikki, Dolph Ziggler vs. Shane McMahon, Ambrose vs. Corbin, Wyatt vs. Rhodes and Styles vs. Orton.
Cody Rhodes would go on to do so and he would have his match with Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania and would defeat Bray Wyatt giving himself a big win on a big stage. The American Nightmare character would be very over at this point and believe he would have been a great first opponent for Kevin Owens when he came over with the US championship. I can’t go much further than that as I would be in present day. No I don’t think he would be WWE Champion as of yet. No I don’t think he would have won Money in the Bank however as I said I think he would be the perfect guy to unseat Kevin Owens and take the US title from him allowing Owens to end up moving up to the main event scene. For instance right now you could have Owens and Styles feuding without the title and have Ziggler and Rhodes feuding over the US championship.
See Also: Re-Writing The Book Chapter 1: Bret Hart Jumping Ship
This will conclude chapter five of Re-Writing the Book. Cody Rhodes if he never returns to WWE will go down as the single most underutilized talent in the history of the business. He has a great look he has great charisma and he can certainly cut a promo. With that said I believe he will be gone for a couple of years and will return to the WWE once guys like Cena and Orton are firmly part-time and Lesner is gone. The WWE will be looking for star power and name power and no matter what Cody Rhodes will always have name power and is increasing his star power almost daily outside of the WWE. Come Wrestlemania 35 we could be talking about Cody Rhodes main eventing Wrestlemania against Seth Rollins how cool would that be? Until next time be awesome.