Cody Rhodes is the perfect foil for Kenny Omega
With “The American Nightmare” Cody Rhodes financing his “All In” event this fall (along with The Young Bucks), he couldn’t have found a better person to feud with.
When I wrote about the key ingredients to a successful Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz feud last week, I briefly discussed the elements that made them perfect adversaries for one another. There are two other wrestlers who have proven to be ideal opponents: Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes.
Since joining Bullet Club in late 2016, these two were destined to clash. Tensions finally boiled over after Omega lost the IWGP United States Championship to “Switchblade” Jay White at The New Beginning in Sapporo. Cody dropped Omega with the Cross Rhodes heard ’round the world, and since then has generated nuclear heat in almost every building he performs in.
Cody enjoyed a very lucrative 2017, in which he reigned as ROH World Champion for nearly six months, but he has kicked his already impressive character work up a notch since his feud with Omega officially started. “The American Nightmare” has participated in some interesting feuds since he left WWE, but this rivalry with Omega might be the one that defines his career.
Two sides of the same coin.
Ostensibly, Cody and Omega want the same thing: to raise the standing of wrestling outside of the WWE bubble. In a way, both men have already done so through very different means. As the “Best Bout Machine”, Omega has amassed a collection of classic encounters in a year that few wrestlers accumulate throughout their entire careers. He’s had outstanding matches with everyone from the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada to Juice Robinson. In particular, his matches with Okada redefined how bouts are rated (even though that rating system is subjective by nature).
While many fans malign Cody for having a three-and-a-half-star ceiling, he has made waves with his desire to test the limits of independent wrestling’s popularity. While he doesn’t have the same catalog of memorable matches that Omega does, Cody’s combination of strong character work and name value (being a former WWE Superstar helps there) has helped ROH reach new heights as a promotion. Cody hopes to transfer ROH and, in general, indy wrestling’s recent jump in popularity to co-promote a 10,000 seat wrestling show in Chicago this fall.
Both men want to create moments. They both want to alter people’s perception of what professional wrestling should be. As my colleague Joe Soriano pointed out earlier this week, Cody wants to create moments that transcend workrate. He wants moments like Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania III. Or Hogan vs. Rock at WrestleMania X8.
Omega wants to push wrestling away from the cantankerous, oldhead, philosophies of the past. He wants to push the boundaries of storytelling and athleticism inside the squared circle. He wants more athletic versions of Steamboat vs. Flair. For Omega, it’s about progressing wrestling as an art form.
Both men have a vision for what wrestling should be, even though their methods are very different.
Compelling Character Work
Similar to Bryan and Miz, Cody and Omega’s philosophical divide has bled into their in-ring personas. Omega has prodded at Cody’s ho-hum (compared to Omega) archive of matches since Cody left WWE. Of course, Cody has used that as fuel to further intensify his heat; claiming that he could have the same matches if he worked Omega’s “lax” schedule.
This feud has given Cody free reign to do easily the best character work of his career, even is he sometimes comes across as a comic book villain. He portrays the condescending, arrogant jerk who flaunts his material wealth to a tee.
The promo he cut at Strong Style Evolved encapsulated this perfectly, putting the Guerrillas of Destiny over as great wrestlers who made Bullet Club cool before saying that “superstars like [him]” made the group popular today. He’s playing perfectly to the segment of wrestling fandom that might resent his status as a former WWE guy glomming onto an already popular faction.
His manipulation and browbeating of the Young Bucks feed into the megalomaniacal, supervillain aspects of Cody’s personality (he even hit the Jacksons with the “you had one job” cliche at SSE), and it bolsters his master plan of usurping leadership of the Bullet Club (like a comic book villain).
And that’s without getting into the mind games Cody has played with Omega’s tag team partner Kota Ibushi (“Kenny will never love you the way I do”). If Cody were doing this with any other wrestler, it would still be great. But the fact that all of this heel work has come at the expense of Omega, a beloved wrestler who seemingly represents everything that Cody isn’t, makes this the best feud in wrestling.
How great could this be?
If Omega is the cool indy band that people pretend to like, as Cody said, then Cody must be the unpopular mainstream group that doesn’t make great music but has a bunch of chart-topping hits. That clash of styles has created one of the most compelling stories of the past couple years. Cody and Omega have created magic. Can this last to the “All In” show?
Both men have the future of non-WWE wrestling in the palm of their hands. In their distinct ways, each wrestler has worked their tail off to show that popularity and marketability outside of Stamford, CT is achievable. Cody vs. Omega could be the feud that fills 10,000 seats this fall and shows that big indy shows in the U.S. are viable.
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This feud may determine more than just the future of Bullet Club. It may determine the future of indy wrestling in the U.S. as well. It will certainly impact the legacy of both men, especially Cody. For a man that wants to create defining moments, Cody has found the perfect dance partner to do just that in “The Cleaner”.