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Will Cody Rhodes Ever Be a Top Guy in WWE?

By Evan Gomes

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Can Cody Rhodes live up to the Rhodes legacy by being a top star?

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Cody Rhodes as Stardust is likely to face his real-life brother Goldust at Wrestlemania 31. It is the climax of a feud many thought we would see play out last year at Wrestlemania 30 but never came around. This match should serve as a fitting send off for “The Bizarre One” as he has been rumored to be retiring soon, and should be a big Wrestlemania moment for Stardust. The real question coming out of their match is: what will the future hold for Cody Rhodes?

Since debuting in 2007, Cody Rhodes has been repackaged more times than Diddy/P. Diddy/Puff Daddy/Puff Pastry Sean Combs. He has been in a tag team with Hardcore Holly to prove himself. He’s been a part of Legacy with Ted Dibiase Jr. and Randy Orton, which lead to a great triple threat match at Wrestlemania XXVI. He’s been known as the Dashing One being protective of his face and ridding the world of ugliness through paper bags. He was in Team Rhodes Scholars with Damien Sandow, turned face and had a great storyline with the Authority in losing his job, coming back and winning the tag titles with his brother.

Stardust is his newest repackaging and one has to admire his commitment to the character. He has immersed himself in this gimmick as much as any other. He has changed mannerisms, his moveset, everything in order to be Stardust entirely. His ability to get deep into a gimmick is great, but one has to wonder if Cody will ever be a main event player in WWE.

He has a lot of the qualities the WWE looks for in their top stars. He’s agile, strong, has a good build, has the family pedigree, maximizes his gimmick and has charisma. He did some of his strongest promo work when he made his face turn against Damien Sandow and during the Authority storyline and his “firing”. He is a proven worker in both tag team and singles competition, and at only age 29 has a lot of years left for him to continue to change and grow as a wrestler.

Even with all of these things working for him, there are some things that could still prevent him from reaching that top-level.

The Stardust persona simply does not have the legs to be the gimmick that can carry Cody Rhodes to the main event. Stardust may be left without a clear direction once he has dispatched of his bizarre brother. In today’s reality era Stardust will soon feel out-of-place and outdated. That will require Cody to undergo another gimmick change and that may just be one too many for the second generation superstar to come back from. His constant character changes may make it hard for a sustained push for Rhodes to ever come through. The best gimmicks are exaggerations of the wrestlers themselves, but we have yet to see what exactly that means for Cody. The closest may be after his storyline firing and he came back, but now they would have to give him a character change again. How much is too much?

WWE also failed to capitalize on the peak of his singles popularity when he turned face against Damien Sandow with a singles push, instead going the route of the tag team with his brother. The Rhodes-Sandow feud was a great start that gave Cody fresh momentum as a babyface. He could have been inserted into the Authority storyline as a singles competitor, but instead was made into a tag team with Goldust. The Brotherhood tag team was extremely successful, but has led down a path that Cody Rhodes may never recover from.

Cody still has time, but the clock is ticking to see if he will ever reach that top level in WWE. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll main event in TNA. Do you think Cody Rhodes will be a WWE main event talent? Sound off in the comments.

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