The breaking news that Cody and Brandi Rhodes are leaving AEW is both shocking and not a surprise. there were rumours going back a year that Cody wasn’t getting along with his fellow EVPs, Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks in the same way as when the group came together to run AEW’s precursor All In.
Cody hadn’t been featured on Being the Elite in a long time, and it was clear Cody and Brandi had bigger ambitions to be a TV star rather than a youtube star.
it was also reported that Tony Khan had fully assumed all control of AEW and that the EVPs were now just considered wrestlers on the roster. With AEW now fully established the early connections and cred from the Elite was no longer required for Tony to continue AEW without them. If Cody saw that he should continue to have a position of power in AEW it’s fair to say that the relevance of All In has long since passed.
So what’s next for Cody and Brandi? And will Cody jump back to the WWE
When Cody chose to leave the WWE he was stuck in a rut as his Stardust. He left and decided to take a bet on himself and has since won championships in multiple companies including Ring of Honor, NWA, NJPW and others. He was also a huge part of leading the way into All In which was the direct precursor to the formation of AEW.
AEW has obviously been the biggest part of his post WWE career where he was a three time TNT Champion, and an EVP. AEW also saw him get opportunities to have a reality TV show and be on other Tv shows.
So now he’s a much bigger star have the WWE perhaps laid out some huge money to make Cody the first big AEW to WWE defection? With audiences having turned on Cody in AEW and there being new focus on the likes of CM Punk, Brian Danielson, and others maybe Cody sees that he will be bigger in the WWE and maybe get some extra attention then he currently enjoys in AEW.
