Everything about Cody Rhodes here felt like someone dressing up and pretending to be a pro wrestler. Beyond the fluke great feud that was the Rhodes Brothers vs. The Shield, he has never proven to be anything more than a nepotism hire who keeps throwing shit at the wall hoping one of his characters would stick.
He is great at marketing himself in the modern wrestling climate of course. He’s got Meltzer and the TMZ dork on his side. He has married off his onscreen career to The Young Bucks and the Bullet Club. He presents himself on Twitter in a way that a large percentage of fans (apparently) want. He usually manages to strike the perfect balance between using his name to his advantage without ever coming across like it’s his crutch. He also just in general treats himself and gets treated like a star.
At the end of the day though, he’s just not good or interesting in the ring. He takes shortcut after shortcut (as he did here). He’s incapable of working with any subtlety. There is little to no substance to his work. There has just never been much there.
And he was never going to be the type of opponent to properly shine a line on the greatness that is Kota Ibushi. This was so nothing. At least Kota won cleanly. (**)
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