Witty titles aside this is one of the rare times I will focus a column on the booking of a single superstar. The reason being it is much harder to argue about a single superstar than an event of a division due to the expansive nature of topics available to discuss. But none the less, I’ll give it a go and have a look at the recent booking of RAW’s Cody Rhodes, specifically across the past two weeks.
When Dusty Rhodes was announced to be the guest host for last week’s RAW it was clear to everyone that there would be some kind of interaction between the American Dream and Legacy. In the end it worked very differently to what I was expecting, with Dusty Rhodes turning on John Cena and D-Generation X and aligning himself with Legacy. While the turn was surprising, what happened next wasn’t as much of a shocker considering Randy Orton has a history of attacking legends.
What did come as a shock are the actions of Cody Rhodes following the attack. Originally I held the same opinion that many others seem to, that this was the perfect time to push Cody Rhodes as a main event face. It would have provided a guaranteed feud with Randy Orton following Breaking Point and would go to some degree to silencing the critics who continue to say RAW isn’t doing enough to build new main event stars.
However, the more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion that it would have been a terrible booking decision to turn Cody Rhodes face. Rhodes debuted in the WWE as a face, and didn’t get beyond the midcard. It was only when he aligned himself with Randy Orton did Cody Rhodes become a viable upper midcarder. Furthermore, Rhodes has become a much more interesting character as a heel.
Take his promo from this past week on RAW. It certainly wasn’t the best promo we’ve ever heard, far from it, but it was probably the best promo that Cody Rhodes has performed, and this is all because Rhodes works better as a heel than he does as a face, and to turn him face would have just stopped all the momentum that he has going for him. More noticeably is Rhodes dismissal of the attack, deciding to continue his alliance with Randy Orton just means that Rhodes can be made into a more hated heel, who is out for himself regardless of who gets hurt.
If you need more of an argument that Rhodes remaining a heel is a good thing then just look at the roster. RAW’s main event heel roster is pretty slim with only Randy Orton, and to a lesser extent Big Show, fitting the bill. The face side of things however is completely full with John Cena and D-Generation X. If any new talent is to gain main event status on RAW then it will certainly help to be a heel and right now, Legacy are the closest to taking that leap.
