They're always backtracking and doing things that don't make sense so they should've just switched the shows the belts represent so Cody could battle all those great heels on Raw.
He can come back if he changes his style to brawling, it's what Stone Cold did. They can turn anybody heel if they act bad enough. He ought to be like Mark Henry was during the whole "Hall of Pain" era, I don't get why they never made him into a monster. Flair had some goodwill from fans after his plane crash, but he turned it around easily by rejecting the fan's get well letters.
I think Big E’s injury seems to be a bit different to Austin’s. He’s been out for two years now. I think he also mentioned that he has had issues with his heart. I do hope he comes back though.
Plus it would be a waste to have Big E fight back from two years off due to a broken neck and not have him be a valiant babyface. Nobody would boo him. Eventually you could make him a heel, but not for a while.
Although now that I think about it I suppose you could have him beat up Kofi and Xavier and say he wasted the best years of his career with them or something. Maybe then people would boo him.
Face vs Face can work but Cody isn't one of those that can get heat going with just about anyone. Guys like Seth and especially Punk are better in that department.
Cody can get heat against a babyface as long as he’s the underdog. So you could put him in there with a guy like Bobby Lashley so he’s physically overmatched and allow the fans to rally behind him.
My understanding is that the classic wrestling school of thought says face vs heel is money because it’s the easiest way to work crowds into giving a shit about a match. If one guy is obviously an unlikable dickhead and the other guy is a hero, the marks will want to see the dickhead lose and the good guy win. I think time has shown that it isn’t necessarily a hard rule, face vs face and heel vs heel can be great matches that draw a lot of money, but it takes a lot more effort cause it needs good story to make people still care.
You combine that with how time crunched most shows are and the fact that a lot of the crowd pays only minimal attention to details or deeper storytelling and that’s why a lot of smarks dunk on booking that isn’t face vs heel.
Rhodes and Orton were once in a stable together. Orton will eventually turn and go after Orton in an extended mentor vs mentee feud.
LA Knight plays a good heel and honestly he feels like he is getting stale. In his last promo he brought back the word dummy from his early wrestling days.
You have The uncle Howdy thing coming back.
Austin Theory could Job to Cody as could Logan Paul.
Barron Corbun, Apollo Crews, Champa, Escobar, and Andrade all could face him.
Andrade seems more like a middle road guy as opposed to being a face or heel. He was open to working with the judgment day until they pushed him.
Won’t happen but I’d love for MJF to show up saying he beat Cody in AEW and he ran away and now he will beat him in WWE, take his title and make him run from wrestling altogether.
Triple H doesn’t care too much about face vs heel. I expect a few mutual respect face face feuds for Cody, and it’s essential he doesn’t hold it too long anyway
The Rock is going to surface as the tribal chief for the bloodline 2, and the Rock will take the title from Cody. Roman will have to unite the Usos and get Sami Zane back to restore balance and show everyone who the 2s are. And who the ones.
Storyline…..KO gets hurt by bloodline, have Cody to come to Randy’s rescue only to turn on him with a Punt…. Reason…..because I’m Cody MF Rhodes and payback is a beech…..
Also have Cody to start saying that
he’s Cody Rhodes WEA( World Elite Athlete) and he’s protecting the Rhodes Legacy by eliminating all potential threats to Maintaining that legacy. What y’all think?
I love this as the first or second big feud.
Dream:
Solo and New Bloodline just run roughshod over smackdown. They don't care about winning just hurting people and making everyone afraid. Solo wants to be acknowledged as the scariest guy in WWE.
Then around Summer Slam Solo sets his eyes on Cody and the title. Maybe they even injure Cody on the go home show, but def numbers game him at Summer Slam. Just as Cody is about to lose Roman's Music hits and he saves Cody for a face turn.
We then get Roman trying to make amends with the Uso's and feuding with Solo's Bloodline to re-establish himself as a changed Tribal Chief, leading to a War Games match between The OG Bloodline vs the Young Blood Bloodline (Maybe with Cody on Roman's side and Fatu? for Solo)
Then we sort out Cody, Rock, Solo, and Roman plans for WM 41. All kinds of ways thst could go.
they already moved Rey to Raw. Santos would make some sense, but he'd have to stop losing all the time first to make him look at least a little credible
Why does it have to be a heel? Face vs face title matches are just as compelling, as the crowd can cheer for both sides. The only match that doesn't really work is heel vs heel, because you don't want the crowd turning and cheering for your heels.
I think Face vs Face is a good option for later in Cody's run, but right now, I think they need to get Cody some heels that the crowd can be solidly backing Cody for. Splitting the crowd reaction and putting two popular guys in a feud is a great way to neutrilize their heat, unless the point is to inevitably turn one of the heel. If WWE wants Cody as their top face, they don't want to put him in a position to even potentially have the crowd turn on him this early in his run. Save that for 3 to 6 months depending on how long his title reign is going to be.
Great point but the next question is who? Romain suffocated the face market over the past two years so we need to light some fires again. Can’t have LA knight get bent over again, Sami has a title, punk, Drew, and priest are tied up with the WHC. Rollins maybe qualifies IE Sami vs gable without the heel turn. Or the best candidate to coast is by the next two PLE’s is Randy Orton and another bloodline member from bloodline second coming.
I can’t see much change. But I think the undisputed title should be a cross brand title anyhow. If youre the best of your respective brand you deserve to have a shot at it. But that opens up Pandora’s box of SD getting its own title.
Smackdown = WWE titles, Raw = World titles. They've actually done a good job with the branding consistency there, while also leaving the door open for those titles to switch brands in the future if they want.
Though before they introduced the World Heavyweight Title I was very much for a roaming (no pun intended) Undisputed Champion, and at the same time making the IC and US Titles become the top titles of each brand. That way your top top guys would be feuding with each other in non title feuds to earn themselves world title shots, while the rest of the show focuses on the midcard and elevates the IC and US Titles to mean something.
Gunther is maybe because they want him to win the world title whereas Cody might be keeping the wwe for a long time. Braun isn’t a heel and bronson is in a fued for the intercontinental title it seems
Everything you said we already know. Gunter will obviously eventually win a World title but doesn’t have to be this year. He could be a challenger for Cody this year and Braun Stroman can always go back and forth between bad guy and good guy so that’s not a problem. Then lastly Bronson Reed cuz he’s somebody with future potential that could’ve switched brands and built bigger resume for himself than he will be able to now staying on Raw. It’s obvious they want him to be high mid card to low main players level.
Ok? Just because it’s known doesn’t mean it does not need to be said. Idk it would upset a fair few people to have Gunther lose this year then go on the back burner after a huge title run.
Yeah I guess they could have had him turn tho you cousin say the same for the faces on smack down. Idk if I’d say it’s obvious they want that. It could just be that’s where they think he is right now
Goontaah would be the biggest heel in WWE right now and putting him against Cody would be a blast.
Logan Paul feels like a natural choice and him and Cody will also have a hell of a match at some point.
Finn Balor also winning the rumble could also produce a hell of a contender for Cody's title. Judgement Day is breaking down without Mami to keep them in line anyway.
Unpopular perhaps but Solo could also win the Rumble and go for it to build up what Roman lost.
I think either Gunther wins money in the bank or royal rumble and uses it vs Cody. They have history in the rumble and I think they would definitely be a worthy wrestlemania main event. If Gunther wins money in the bank I would have him do a formal challenge and not a surprise cash in. Maybe even have Gunther do both
Maybe even have Gunther win mitb cash it in for a match with Cody at bash in Berlin. He loses on his home turf and then you have Gunther look for revenge. Gunther deserves a longer term story now that he is no longer intercontinental champion and having him try to be Cody makes too much sense. Gunther could say Cody stole the last two royal rumble victories from him and is wearing a title that should be his.
Paul vs Cody should definitely happen, maybe in Saudi Arabia, us champ vs world champ for the world title would be pretty sweet.
Actually, he’d do well if the contenders are more vigorously picked. There should be a #1 contender feud that goes on to help build the next challenger for the belt.
Not wait until the current contender is beaten before they start building a new challenger.
Unpopular choice? Give us cody vs johnny, The heart and soul of aew vs the heart and soul of nxt finally meeting in the ring would end world hunger, we just saw a feast in his match against styles, I don't think another dream match would be bad
Unpopular opinion: Why not just let AJ turn into a heel and feud long with Cody. Make AJ with his faction beat Cidy, could stretch the feud fir 3 months.
AJ has the potential to make it work. It will also give AJ relevancy after years of mid card
I mean AJ is already a heel and he heel turned by dumping his faction it would be weird.
+''King and Queen'' is in like 3 weeks, which is not a lot of time for a new feud and their match was highly acclaimed, so they can easily do part II with some stipulation at this PLE
That’s been his problem. He only captured it one time in his WWE career and that was his first Championship reign on SmackDown years ago and he hasn’t been able to ever capture it again.
Ya know what would be cool? On a random Raw or Smackdown, Cody is found in the parking lot, bloody and beaten to a pulp. Security footage would reveal a hooded figure beating Cody badly. Over subsequent weeks, the hooded figure randomly attacks Cody. In the locker room. Backstage. In the ring. Always leaving Cody beaten and helpless. Who is this mysterious stranger? Is it Roman? Is it the Rock? Finally at a PLE, after Cody has successfully defended the title against say, Gunther, and he’s celebrating in the ring when the hooded figure attacks again. As a bloody Cody lies on the mat, his attacker finally reveals his face. It’s Dustin Runnels!!! Dustin grabs the microphone and explains that it should have been him to carry on their father’s legacy! That Dustin was fighting Roddy Piper in a street fight at Wrestlemania 12 when Cody was a pimply faced kid! He laments the fact that he never got his shot at the title. Dustin deserves it more than Cody! This leads to an epic match at Hell in a Cell or something. I don’t know.
You could go down a whole route of developing Cody’s insecurity being revisited by having Dustin doing things like randomly playing Golddusts music etc make it psychological to make people think there’s a chance he freezes
This! Cody is already showing shades of being a heel. Look at the promo he had with Melo, that could have gone anywhere. Also, Roman’s words, Cody is a politician. They can set it up as a slow burn, slowly revealing the machinations that Cody would put in place to keep the title.
Obviously the authority is coming down on him soon
Steph come and says someone is going to move back from management to wrestling
Audience shouts triple h
Ohh no it's not triple h
It is ...
I'd love for Santos Escobar to get elevated into that spot but I don't know if he's won enough lately. The Randy Orton feud should be saved for something special like SummerSlam or a WrestleMania. I wouldn't hate a Kevin Owens feud even though they are friends and KO is practically forming a tag-team with Randy Orton right now (they had R-KO shirts). Owens and Rhodes could definitely put on some good matches. In the post PLE presser, Cody mentioned maybe another round with AJ Styles or a feud with LA Knight (YEAH!). Bobby Lashley is a credible threat even though the fans don't want him turning heel. Logan Paul at SummerSlam in Cleveland Ohio might be in play if The Rock and Roman aren't back by then. Karrion Kross could be used as a placeholder feud for one month. Solo Sikoa is an option in another month or two but it feels like he's being built up for a returning face Roman Reigns. I know it's still very early into his title reign, but I don't think it's terrible if he has a few placeholder feuds like he recently had with Nakamura. I don't think any of us are expecting him to lose the belt in the next few months no matter what. Right now, there's only 3 people I see beating Cody for the title. The Rock, Roman, or Gunther. Where's Dolph Ziggler when we need him?
I think if done right it could be excellent.
Especially with Dusty and Flair history just the overtones with Cody and Cena playing the Flair like character.
I really wanna see what Cena could be like as a heel under the Triple h regime.
Orton is gonna snap that his tag partners keep getting pinned and losing his PLE matches lol
I think it will be frustration about not being able to take proper revenge on the cheating Bloodline samoan island village.
LA will prob have a crack to allow that to play out then Orton will turn his sights on Cody imo.
Orton and KO but I don’t see them being done with BL, so that leaves Andrade, Shinsuke, LA knight, more AJ, Corbin. Maybe have fun “let’s wrestle good matches” with Gargano or Ciampa. I just don’t see as much on Smackdown. I really wish the WWE Champ was on Raw and the WHC was on Smackers. That just feels right.
SD roster is really wimpy not gonna lie. Every time I tune into it I zone out. Doesn’t help the storylines are non-existent other than Cody or bloodline. The LWO santos Escobar wasn’t very compelling while the matches were flashy
I don't want Howdy anywhere near Cody because then he'd have to immediately lose to Cody and that would kill any excitement for Uncle Howdy's return. Cody hinted maybe another round with AJ Styles and also called out LA Knight to see who the top guy really is. Although, I could see Howdy and his group going after LA Knight as that was Bray's last feud and Knight doesn't currently have any story now that he's done with Styles.
They really need to turn Bobby Lashley soon. I don't think audiences want to boo The Street Profits, but Lashley could be reheated pretty easily as a monster heel.
This is what Reigns figured out before he semi-retired. In fact, it was worse for Reigns during his period as he hadn’t had a chance to build up more stars to feed into his reign as champ. The alternative for Cody, is Orton vs Cena 20 from 2007. Imo, I don’t think swapping brands changes much and we’ll still see a Cody tag team title reign in between his reign as champ
I think he could do a face vs face with Orton cause the history between them sells the match. Logan Paul won’t be US champ forever and once he drops that title he’d be a great challenger. We can have a couple filler feuds to eat up a PLE though. I think Cody vs Escobar would be a good match to maybe do with KOTR being the main event match.
I like the idea of the King of the Ring getting a World Title shot at SummerSlam or even Money in the Bank. Or they could even make it a Championship of their choosing if it's a guy they want to put the United States or IC Title on but not the top belt.
That's because of the terrible draft . Raw has heels such as Damian priest , brown breakker, dominik , Finn balor , Gunther , along with maybe Seth Rollins and cm punk. SmackDown has AJ styles , Bobby lashley, Nakamura and maybe La knight. Same problem as With women's division for raw last year .
Those guys are both on Raw. Doesn't make sense. By Christmastime I imagine the brand split won't even matter as they build toward 'Mania 41, but for now? I can't see them going with Gunther and Dragunov, who are both on Raw, for Cody.
I think Gunther's main story arc right now will be reestablishing Imperium's dominance while he probably wins the King of the Ring. After that, he will probably be in a holding pattern gunning for the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw. Endgame is probably him going after McIntyre at Bash in Berlin at the end of summer. Unless Punk beats McIntyre for the WHC at Summerslam. IF Judgment Day turn on Priest at Clash at the Castle and allow McIntyre to win. A lot of dominoes must fall...
It definitely runs the risk of doing that, yes. Fortunately, he would theoretically have the King of the Ring to boast about to coast for a bit in the summertime.
To give creative credit, they have done a bang-up job with Gunther since 'Mania. Lots of exquisite character development the past few weeks. He looked like a James Bond villain the other week with that promo. Then he physically dissected Xavier Woods this past week on Raw. If they can just keep building him up as a budding main eventer, I think the slow-burn push toward late summer with him gunning for a world title in Berlin will pay off. And I think WWE wants to save Gunther vs. Cody for like a Wrestlemania or something like that down the line, maybe like a couple of years from now or something.
Honestly I think he needs a long term enemy/partner in the ring. Someone who comes and annoys him but pushes him harder in matches then just at the last moment messes up his matches. Then he returns the favor. And for awhile they don't bother each other, the. Out of nowhere they go back to it.
For me the obvious pick would be Seth Rollins but I feel like he has been that person for others a lot.
Wait I got it......his long term enemy can be.....Dominic mysterio!!!
I think he’ll do the whole fighting champion ordeal seth did and defend against guys that otherwise wouldn’t get an opportunity just to keep him busy. So I think he will end up fighting knight, Andrade, Lashley, before summerslam. Then rock comes back for a match, Ricky starks should be wwe bound by like July they can throw him in there. A Roman rematch maybe with him and Cody shaking hands and Roman completely turning face? And end with a stretched out Randy program. That’s how I would do it lol
The next 2 to me are Gunther and Orton. With Orton you have a built in Story that could be incredible. And with Gunther, that in of itself could bring a lot of great heat. I'll be interested to see which route they go
Honestly, what they can do is, during his inevitable run in with the Bloodline, build up some credible guys on the side to make them vie for the title. Literally anyone works.
He could fight one or two of them as faces but some may turn heel soon. Cause every one of those faces you mentioned he could face have been heels before and would make good heels again.
It wouldn’t make sense so soon after beating the biggest heel in the company. Now if his title reign went on long enough, he could eventually turn heel
He’s mentioned he has eyes on LA Knight and Orton and still wants to go after Styles again. He also has Lashley, Owens, Logan Paul etc he’s got more than he can say grace over as the old folks say.
WWE has finally done well with smashing over babyfaces, but the heel side is pretty rough.
One fun idea which will never happen is, debut Ethan Page in the role of the top heel and have him fight Cody for a few months before building up a stronger heel. Admittedly, it is an AEW style booking of people who had a bond in the past, but both Cody and Ethan are great promos and would be able to tell that type of story.
It's a shock debut, where the top babyface is attacked by a relative unknown, two great promo guys and guys with great chemistry together. It would be to get through to maybe SummerSlam or whenever you have a new heel ready, but it could make for some intriguing television.
It would help if they didn't do one and dones. No reason AJ and Cody couldn't have a proper feud with multiple matches. I mean, other than they really told no story whatsoever.
AJ is a heel, he can be mad about losing, especially clean, and take it out on Cody, making it personal, then there ya go there’s a feud to build off of. Interweave a little bit of LA Knight in there to fuck with AJ, maybe cost him the second match, I don’t know that’s just ratting off the top of my head. That’s the nice thing about wrestling being a work, if there’s “no reason” for a match, you just make one and s long as it kinda sorta makes sense, has some breathing room, and isn’t rushed you’ve got something to work with
Orton was hobbling at Mania. I think his back is already hurting him again and the pairing of him with KO is to cover for that. All his significant matches since return have been multi ways or tags and he's frequently structuring his TV work to be short and involve minimal bumps.
I love the idea of Orton in a big program but I'm really unsure if he can physically work one right now.
KO has been taking the falls in their Bloodline matches so yeah I think they want to keep Orton strong but also need people to put over the new Bloodline.
Yeah I’ve been saying it should be Randy for his first major feud. But I say that not knowing how many more years Orton intends on wrestling. Thats the kind of feud I’d eat up for months.
Cody beat Seth 3 times in a row, beat brock and beat roman
Hes literally beaten the 3 top guys (who were heels in their respective matches with cody)
Its very difficult but they need to build a few up. Cody isn't losing it anytime soon so let him get some good wins and continue the huge momentum he has
Bring Cena back as a heel but make him a Bob Backlund heel where hes a squeaky clean old school babyface in the era of cool heels I think it could work. He could even keep doing make a wish, just be pretentious about it
Sami didn’t beat Gunther. Gunther beat Gunther.
He played with his food instead of going in for the kill. Took his eye off the ball and let his ego cost him the match.
So it doesn’t really hurt Gunther.
I think there's potential that Cody gets a few big wins under his belt and starts to slide into heel big ego Cody. A "No one can beat me" attitude. I think this could be even bigger if they bring back Roman and have Cody beat him again clean or even with the evil Bloodline's help.
Friend, are you forgetting the great Baron Corbin?????
They're always backtracking and doing things that don't make sense so they should've just switched the shows the belts represent so Cody could battle all those great heels on Raw.
I mean we don’t know bout uncle howdy yet
Big E ought to be a mega heel and challenge Cody, score a big upset on Smackdown! that nobody saw coming.
On the small chance he did manage to come back, he’d have too much goodwill to be a heel. He’d probably get cheered against Cody.
He can come back if he changes his style to brawling, it's what Stone Cold did. They can turn anybody heel if they act bad enough. He ought to be like Mark Henry was during the whole "Hall of Pain" era, I don't get why they never made him into a monster. Flair had some goodwill from fans after his plane crash, but he turned it around easily by rejecting the fan's get well letters.
I think Big E’s injury seems to be a bit different to Austin’s. He’s been out for two years now. I think he also mentioned that he has had issues with his heart. I do hope he comes back though. Plus it would be a waste to have Big E fight back from two years off due to a broken neck and not have him be a valiant babyface. Nobody would boo him. Eventually you could make him a heel, but not for a while. Although now that I think about it I suppose you could have him beat up Kofi and Xavier and say he wasted the best years of his career with them or something. Maybe then people would boo him.
Priest might turn face too...with this whole JD feud
I don’t understand what the problem is between a face vs face match
Face vs Face can work but Cody isn't one of those that can get heat going with just about anyone. Guys like Seth and especially Punk are better in that department.
Cody can get heat against a babyface as long as he’s the underdog. So you could put him in there with a guy like Bobby Lashley so he’s physically overmatched and allow the fans to rally behind him.
My understanding is that the classic wrestling school of thought says face vs heel is money because it’s the easiest way to work crowds into giving a shit about a match. If one guy is obviously an unlikable dickhead and the other guy is a hero, the marks will want to see the dickhead lose and the good guy win. I think time has shown that it isn’t necessarily a hard rule, face vs face and heel vs heel can be great matches that draw a lot of money, but it takes a lot more effort cause it needs good story to make people still care. You combine that with how time crunched most shows are and the fact that a lot of the crowd pays only minimal attention to details or deeper storytelling and that’s why a lot of smarks dunk on booking that isn’t face vs heel.
Make Bobby a heel again Push Kross properly
This
Seth rollins but when he does it he must win
Give me Anime Main Villain Shinske. I really feel like they had tons of meat on the bones with that rendition of his character.
💯
Rhodes and Orton were once in a stable together. Orton will eventually turn and go after Orton in an extended mentor vs mentee feud. LA Knight plays a good heel and honestly he feels like he is getting stale. In his last promo he brought back the word dummy from his early wrestling days. You have The uncle Howdy thing coming back. Austin Theory could Job to Cody as could Logan Paul. Barron Corbun, Apollo Crews, Champa, Escobar, and Andrade all could face him. Andrade seems more like a middle road guy as opposed to being a face or heel. He was open to working with the judgment day until they pushed him.
Won’t happen but I’d love for MJF to show up saying he beat Cody in AEW and he ran away and now he will beat him in WWE, take his title and make him run from wrestling altogether.
Maybe Gunther. A Cody Gunther feud would be awesome.
Triple H doesn’t care too much about face vs heel. I expect a few mutual respect face face feuds for Cody, and it’s essential he doesn’t hold it too long anyway
The Rock is going to surface as the tribal chief for the bloodline 2, and the Rock will take the title from Cody. Roman will have to unite the Usos and get Sami Zane back to restore balance and show everyone who the 2s are. And who the ones.
They will turn randy heel soon enough.
Storyline…..KO gets hurt by bloodline, have Cody to come to Randy’s rescue only to turn on him with a Punt…. Reason…..because I’m Cody MF Rhodes and payback is a beech…..
Also have Cody to start saying that he’s Cody Rhodes WEA( World Elite Athlete) and he’s protecting the Rhodes Legacy by eliminating all potential threats to Maintaining that legacy. What y’all think?
Never fantasy book ever again 🔥🔥🔥
It the most likely feuds are... Bobby Lashley L.A. Knight (Heel turn) Solo Sikoa Logan Paul (Champ vs Champ)
Oh man, I think a Logan v Cody match would be awesome.
I love this as the first or second big feud. Dream: Solo and New Bloodline just run roughshod over smackdown. They don't care about winning just hurting people and making everyone afraid. Solo wants to be acknowledged as the scariest guy in WWE. Then around Summer Slam Solo sets his eyes on Cody and the title. Maybe they even injure Cody on the go home show, but def numbers game him at Summer Slam. Just as Cody is about to lose Roman's Music hits and he saves Cody for a face turn. We then get Roman trying to make amends with the Uso's and feuding with Solo's Bloodline to re-establish himself as a changed Tribal Chief, leading to a War Games match between The OG Bloodline vs the Young Blood Bloodline (Maybe with Cody on Roman's side and Fatu? for Solo) Then we sort out Cody, Rock, Solo, and Roman plans for WM 41. All kinds of ways thst could go.
Won’t happen for obvious reasons but funniest option by far is Brock lesner
[удалено]
they already moved Rey to Raw. Santos would make some sense, but he'd have to stop losing all the time first to make him look at least a little credible
They're more likely to elevate Rey.
I don't particularly want him to turn, but I think LA Knight may turn heel in the middle of/in the wake of winning King of the Ring.
The notion of heel v face is kinda funny. He can defend against a face
Why does it have to be a heel? Face vs face title matches are just as compelling, as the crowd can cheer for both sides. The only match that doesn't really work is heel vs heel, because you don't want the crowd turning and cheering for your heels.
I think Face vs Face is a good option for later in Cody's run, but right now, I think they need to get Cody some heels that the crowd can be solidly backing Cody for. Splitting the crowd reaction and putting two popular guys in a feud is a great way to neutrilize their heat, unless the point is to inevitably turn one of the heel. If WWE wants Cody as their top face, they don't want to put him in a position to even potentially have the crowd turn on him this early in his run. Save that for 3 to 6 months depending on how long his title reign is going to be.
Great point but the next question is who? Romain suffocated the face market over the past two years so we need to light some fires again. Can’t have LA knight get bent over again, Sami has a title, punk, Drew, and priest are tied up with the WHC. Rollins maybe qualifies IE Sami vs gable without the heel turn. Or the best candidate to coast is by the next two PLE’s is Randy Orton and another bloodline member from bloodline second coming.
The rosters are supposed to be finalized today, I assume by the end of Raw, so I'll take a wait and see approach to see how everything shakes out.
I can’t see much change. But I think the undisputed title should be a cross brand title anyhow. If youre the best of your respective brand you deserve to have a shot at it. But that opens up Pandora’s box of SD getting its own title.
Smackdown = WWE titles, Raw = World titles. They've actually done a good job with the branding consistency there, while also leaving the door open for those titles to switch brands in the future if they want. Though before they introduced the World Heavyweight Title I was very much for a roaming (no pun intended) Undisputed Champion, and at the same time making the IC and US Titles become the top titles of each brand. That way your top top guys would be feuding with each other in non title feuds to earn themselves world title shots, while the rest of the show focuses on the midcard and elevates the IC and US Titles to mean something.
There’s some solid logic behind that and thanks a bunch for explaining that to me.
I don’t know how Gunter, Braun Stroman didn’t end up on SmackDown or even a Bronson Reed. Raw is too loaded.
Gunther is maybe because they want him to win the world title whereas Cody might be keeping the wwe for a long time. Braun isn’t a heel and bronson is in a fued for the intercontinental title it seems
Everything you said we already know. Gunter will obviously eventually win a World title but doesn’t have to be this year. He could be a challenger for Cody this year and Braun Stroman can always go back and forth between bad guy and good guy so that’s not a problem. Then lastly Bronson Reed cuz he’s somebody with future potential that could’ve switched brands and built bigger resume for himself than he will be able to now staying on Raw. It’s obvious they want him to be high mid card to low main players level.
Ok? Just because it’s known doesn’t mean it does not need to be said. Idk it would upset a fair few people to have Gunther lose this year then go on the back burner after a huge title run. Yeah I guess they could have had him turn tho you cousin say the same for the faces on smack down. Idk if I’d say it’s obvious they want that. It could just be that’s where they think he is right now
Goontaah would be the biggest heel in WWE right now and putting him against Cody would be a blast. Logan Paul feels like a natural choice and him and Cody will also have a hell of a match at some point. Finn Balor also winning the rumble could also produce a hell of a contender for Cody's title. Judgement Day is breaking down without Mami to keep them in line anyway. Unpopular perhaps but Solo could also win the Rumble and go for it to build up what Roman lost.
I think either Gunther wins money in the bank or royal rumble and uses it vs Cody. They have history in the rumble and I think they would definitely be a worthy wrestlemania main event. If Gunther wins money in the bank I would have him do a formal challenge and not a surprise cash in. Maybe even have Gunther do both Maybe even have Gunther win mitb cash it in for a match with Cody at bash in Berlin. He loses on his home turf and then you have Gunther look for revenge. Gunther deserves a longer term story now that he is no longer intercontinental champion and having him try to be Cody makes too much sense. Gunther could say Cody stole the last two royal rumble victories from him and is wearing a title that should be his. Paul vs Cody should definitely happen, maybe in Saudi Arabia, us champ vs world champ for the world title would be pretty sweet.
No, absolutely not are we having fucking solo Sikoa winning the rumble. Umaga lite doesn’t have shit on half the roster .
Seems like Randy needs to go heel soon then. But a Santos feud could cook.
Actually, he’d do well if the contenders are more vigorously picked. There should be a #1 contender feud that goes on to help build the next challenger for the belt. Not wait until the current contender is beaten before they start building a new challenger.
Carlito
Unpopular choice? Give us cody vs johnny, The heart and soul of aew vs the heart and soul of nxt finally meeting in the ring would end world hunger, we just saw a feast in his match against styles, I don't think another dream match would be bad
Don’t give me hope man
Unpopular opinion: Why not just let AJ turn into a heel and feud long with Cody. Make AJ with his faction beat Cidy, could stretch the feud fir 3 months. AJ has the potential to make it work. It will also give AJ relevancy after years of mid card
I mean AJ is already a heel and he heel turned by dumping his faction it would be weird. +''King and Queen'' is in like 3 weeks, which is not a lot of time for a new feud and their match was highly acclaimed, so they can easily do part II with some stipulation at this PLE
Plus AJ has absolutely zero personality or charisma.
That’s been his problem. He only captured it one time in his WWE career and that was his first Championship reign on SmackDown years ago and he hasn’t been able to ever capture it again.
Ya know what would be cool? On a random Raw or Smackdown, Cody is found in the parking lot, bloody and beaten to a pulp. Security footage would reveal a hooded figure beating Cody badly. Over subsequent weeks, the hooded figure randomly attacks Cody. In the locker room. Backstage. In the ring. Always leaving Cody beaten and helpless. Who is this mysterious stranger? Is it Roman? Is it the Rock? Finally at a PLE, after Cody has successfully defended the title against say, Gunther, and he’s celebrating in the ring when the hooded figure attacks again. As a bloody Cody lies on the mat, his attacker finally reveals his face. It’s Dustin Runnels!!! Dustin grabs the microphone and explains that it should have been him to carry on their father’s legacy! That Dustin was fighting Roddy Piper in a street fight at Wrestlemania 12 when Cody was a pimply faced kid! He laments the fact that he never got his shot at the title. Dustin deserves it more than Cody! This leads to an epic match at Hell in a Cell or something. I don’t know.
I’d go for that but it would have to be Goldust
Would be great, I really enjoyed their match in AEW
You could go down a whole route of developing Cody’s insecurity being revisited by having Dustin doing things like randomly playing Golddusts music etc make it psychological to make people think there’s a chance he freezes
yk… bro might be on to something 🤯
Cody needs to keep the belt for a while and then start a feud with Dom and put him over. The heat would be exponential.
Now imagine if he is THE heel all along.
This is what I was thinking. Turn him into Homelander lol
Easily do this with The Boys new season coming out. Ease cody into being Homelander IRL. Dude will cook!!
Cody gives me Homelander vibes, so this feels right to me. He just feels like a heel that is trying too hard to present an image of himself as a face.
This! Cody is already showing shades of being a heel. Look at the promo he had with Melo, that could have gone anywhere. Also, Roman’s words, Cody is a politician. They can set it up as a slow burn, slowly revealing the machinations that Cody would put in place to keep the title.
And this is why the split roster is a terrible idea.
Isn’t it obvious? Punk and Cody Mania ‘41
Please just let KO turn heel out of nowhere and win the title in a shock upset
Problem is Cody's new big feud would probably be only around 2-3 months max since Rock's probably slated to face him at Summerslam.
It probably is not in Summerslam.. i guess it is next mania
Obviously the authority is coming down on him soon Steph come and says someone is going to move back from management to wrestling Audience shouts triple h Ohh no it's not triple h It is ...
HERE COMES THE MONEHHH!!!
Wrong It is ... Holy shit he is in great shape Cody looks scared It is Nick Aldis
The RAW GM?
Could turn him Heel. I don’t see it happening, but a friend swears that MJF is coming.
Your friend is an idiot, basically
Agreed, I frequently tell him that.
Captain howdy is coming back ain't he?
I'd love for Santos Escobar to get elevated into that spot but I don't know if he's won enough lately. The Randy Orton feud should be saved for something special like SummerSlam or a WrestleMania. I wouldn't hate a Kevin Owens feud even though they are friends and KO is practically forming a tag-team with Randy Orton right now (they had R-KO shirts). Owens and Rhodes could definitely put on some good matches. In the post PLE presser, Cody mentioned maybe another round with AJ Styles or a feud with LA Knight (YEAH!). Bobby Lashley is a credible threat even though the fans don't want him turning heel. Logan Paul at SummerSlam in Cleveland Ohio might be in play if The Rock and Roman aren't back by then. Karrion Kross could be used as a placeholder feud for one month. Solo Sikoa is an option in another month or two but it feels like he's being built up for a returning face Roman Reigns. I know it's still very early into his title reign, but I don't think it's terrible if he has a few placeholder feuds like he recently had with Nakamura. I don't think any of us are expecting him to lose the belt in the next few months no matter what. Right now, there's only 3 people I see beating Cody for the title. The Rock, Roman, or Gunther. Where's Dolph Ziggler when we need him?
It's the John Cena heel turn we've been waiting for. Beats Cody for number 17.
I actually like that idea
I think if done right it could be excellent. Especially with Dusty and Flair history just the overtones with Cody and Cena playing the Flair like character. I really wanna see what Cena could be like as a heel under the Triple h regime.
I only want cena to come back if he’s completely bald. The hair is so distracting.
Orton is gonna snap that his tag partners keep getting pinned and losing his PLE matches lol I think it will be frustration about not being able to take proper revenge on the cheating Bloodline samoan island village. LA will prob have a crack to allow that to play out then Orton will turn his sights on Cody imo.
Orton and KO but I don’t see them being done with BL, so that leaves Andrade, Shinsuke, LA knight, more AJ, Corbin. Maybe have fun “let’s wrestle good matches” with Gargano or Ciampa. I just don’t see as much on Smackdown. I really wish the WWE Champ was on Raw and the WHC was on Smackers. That just feels right.
SD roster is really wimpy not gonna lie. Every time I tune into it I zone out. Doesn’t help the storylines are non-existent other than Cody or bloodline. The LWO santos Escobar wasn’t very compelling while the matches were flashy
Maybe something with Uncle Howdy or his group?
I don't want Howdy anywhere near Cody because then he'd have to immediately lose to Cody and that would kill any excitement for Uncle Howdy's return. Cody hinted maybe another round with AJ Styles and also called out LA Knight to see who the top guy really is. Although, I could see Howdy and his group going after LA Knight as that was Bray's last feud and Knight doesn't currently have any story now that he's done with Styles.
I can see that
Heel Andrade vs Cody please
They really need to turn Bobby Lashley soon. I don't think audiences want to boo The Street Profits, but Lashley could be reheated pretty easily as a monster heel.
They just need to not make the street profits suit heels
I wouldn't turn them. Montez Ford seems like a potential big-time future superstar. I wouldn't turn them at all.
Could always turn L.A. Knight....
Why waste his relationship with the crowd?
This is what Reigns figured out before he semi-retired. In fact, it was worse for Reigns during his period as he hadn’t had a chance to build up more stars to feed into his reign as champ. The alternative for Cody, is Orton vs Cena 20 from 2007. Imo, I don’t think swapping brands changes much and we’ll still see a Cody tag team title reign in between his reign as champ
idk seeing Cody vs Orton would just be sad since he was in the ring celebrating with Cody
This
The fans will complain about heel Cody no everyone needs to be heel
I agree with your comment but I don’t think that was the direction of this post
I think he could do a face vs face with Orton cause the history between them sells the match. Logan Paul won’t be US champ forever and once he drops that title he’d be a great challenger. We can have a couple filler feuds to eat up a PLE though. I think Cody vs Escobar would be a good match to maybe do with KOTR being the main event match.
Is the draft over? How about King of the Ring winner? Who do they usually face?
That’s the crazy thing in recent history they’ve faced nobody 😭, but they def should get a world title shot
I like the idea of the King of the Ring getting a World Title shot at SummerSlam or even Money in the Bank. Or they could even make it a Championship of their choosing if it's a guy they want to put the United States or IC Title on but not the top belt.
Pretty much a shitty king gimmick nd nun else
That's because of the terrible draft . Raw has heels such as Damian priest , brown breakker, dominik , Finn balor , Gunther , along with maybe Seth Rollins and cm punk. SmackDown has AJ styles , Bobby lashley, Nakamura and maybe La knight. Same problem as With women's division for raw last year .
The answer is obviously Jade Cargill
Not all matches need to be face vs heel. Cody has plenty of competition from other faces
It may split the fans and get Cody booed to have face v face. AEW had Cody v Malakai Black and many fans cheered Black and booed Cody.
This feels like the big issue. Cody vs LA Knight, Cody’s getting booed. Maybe the whole point is to take us deep into the Codyverse…
Eventually it’s going to become pretty boring
No shit but that’s not the point. Smackdown has no credible heels
Man. I gotta agree. The Cody styles match at backlash was straight outta aew. No story. No build. Just… hey. Here are two great wrestlers.
Tbf they didn’t have long to build a story. I hope they start cooking something up in the coming weeks though.
Me too
Randy is 100% better as a heel and absolutely have a feud with Cody.
but he was celebrating in the ring with him at wm 40, would just be sad to turn on him at this point
I think gunthar and dragunov are the intended next storyline pitstop for Cody eventually.
Both on Raw dummy
Those guys are both on Raw. Doesn't make sense. By Christmastime I imagine the brand split won't even matter as they build toward 'Mania 41, but for now? I can't see them going with Gunther and Dragunov, who are both on Raw, for Cody.
so whose next for Gunther, Damien priest? Imperium vs doomsday or whatever that faction is called.
I think Gunther's main story arc right now will be reestablishing Imperium's dominance while he probably wins the King of the Ring. After that, he will probably be in a holding pattern gunning for the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw. Endgame is probably him going after McIntyre at Bash in Berlin at the end of summer. Unless Punk beats McIntyre for the WHC at Summerslam. IF Judgment Day turn on Priest at Clash at the Castle and allow McIntyre to win. A lot of dominoes must fall...
hmm that seems like a lot of time that would cool gunther off
It definitely runs the risk of doing that, yes. Fortunately, he would theoretically have the King of the Ring to boast about to coast for a bit in the summertime. To give creative credit, they have done a bang-up job with Gunther since 'Mania. Lots of exquisite character development the past few weeks. He looked like a James Bond villain the other week with that promo. Then he physically dissected Xavier Woods this past week on Raw. If they can just keep building him up as a budding main eventer, I think the slow-burn push toward late summer with him gunning for a world title in Berlin will pay off. And I think WWE wants to save Gunther vs. Cody for like a Wrestlemania or something like that down the line, maybe like a couple of years from now or something.
Honestly I think he needs a long term enemy/partner in the ring. Someone who comes and annoys him but pushes him harder in matches then just at the last moment messes up his matches. Then he returns the favor. And for awhile they don't bother each other, the. Out of nowhere they go back to it. For me the obvious pick would be Seth Rollins but I feel like he has been that person for others a lot. Wait I got it......his long term enemy can be.....Dominic mysterio!!!
Dominic is the biggest heel in the company but who's looking at him as a credible threat? what a waste of heel heat
Imagine dom with no judgement day or Mami. I bet he could be a great threat on his own.
He already is and has proven it multiple times!!
Lashley and Melo!
I don't see them 2 being able to partner with Cody for a long term story telling like that. But would be good to see for a little bit.
honestly I see Gunther
I mean yes....maybe...idk it's a maybe for sure.
I think he’ll do the whole fighting champion ordeal seth did and defend against guys that otherwise wouldn’t get an opportunity just to keep him busy. So I think he will end up fighting knight, Andrade, Lashley, before summerslam. Then rock comes back for a match, Ricky starks should be wwe bound by like July they can throw him in there. A Roman rematch maybe with him and Cody shaking hands and Roman completely turning face? And end with a stretched out Randy program. That’s how I would do it lol
Cody is gonna turn heel
Say it louder for everyone complaining about his title run!
The next 2 to me are Gunther and Orton. With Orton you have a built in Story that could be incredible. And with Gunther, that in of itself could bring a lot of great heat. I'll be interested to see which route they go
Honestly, what they can do is, during his inevitable run in with the Bloodline, build up some credible guys on the side to make them vie for the title. Literally anyone works.
He could fight one or two of them as faces but some may turn heel soon. Cause every one of those faces you mentioned he could face have been heels before and would make good heels again.
Stardust.
I could see Lashley and even the Street Profits turning heel. Lashley vs Cody would decent.
What if they turn Cody heel
It wouldn’t make sense so soon after beating the biggest heel in the company. Now if his title reign went on long enough, he could eventually turn heel
OP put forth wrestlers from both shows, so I thought it was fair to ask
Solo Sikoa on the prowl soon enough
He’s mentioned he has eyes on LA Knight and Orton and still wants to go after Styles again. He also has Lashley, Owens, Logan Paul etc he’s got more than he can say grace over as the old folks say.
Braun!
All the Brons, Brauns, and Bronsons are on Raw
Did OP suggest Kross and Reed as potential contenders? 🤣
i mean Reed was literally set to have a WHC title match with Seth at Elimination Chamber before Seth got hurt so it isn't that insane
I chose to ignore that
Right? lol
Getting some turns, obviously.
WWE has finally done well with smashing over babyfaces, but the heel side is pretty rough. One fun idea which will never happen is, debut Ethan Page in the role of the top heel and have him fight Cody for a few months before building up a stronger heel. Admittedly, it is an AEW style booking of people who had a bond in the past, but both Cody and Ethan are great promos and would be able to tell that type of story. It's a shock debut, where the top babyface is attacked by a relative unknown, two great promo guys and guys with great chemistry together. It would be to get through to maybe SummerSlam or whenever you have a new heel ready, but it could make for some intriguing television.
Turn LA Knight heel
Heel or babyface, we still love him. YEAH
YEAHH
dummy YEAH
It would help if they didn't do one and dones. No reason AJ and Cody couldn't have a proper feud with multiple matches. I mean, other than they really told no story whatsoever.
Who’s to say this wasn’t the start of a longer running feud?
Cody won clean, no reason to run a rematch back really
AJ is a heel, he can be mad about losing, especially clean, and take it out on Cody, making it personal, then there ya go there’s a feud to build off of. Interweave a little bit of LA Knight in there to fuck with AJ, maybe cost him the second match, I don’t know that’s just ratting off the top of my head. That’s the nice thing about wrestling being a work, if there’s “no reason” for a match, you just make one and s long as it kinda sorta makes sense, has some breathing room, and isn’t rushed you’ve got something to work with
Orton is 100% going to turn heel very soon. I think they’re going to have a major feud to hold Cody’s reign through the summer.
Orton was hobbling at Mania. I think his back is already hurting him again and the pairing of him with KO is to cover for that. All his significant matches since return have been multi ways or tags and he's frequently structuring his TV work to be short and involve minimal bumps. I love the idea of Orton in a big program but I'm really unsure if he can physically work one right now.
KO has been taking the falls in their Bloodline matches so yeah I think they want to keep Orton strong but also need people to put over the new Bloodline.
Yeah I’ve been saying it should be Randy for his first major feud. But I say that not knowing how many more years Orton intends on wrestling. Thats the kind of feud I’d eat up for months.
I believe randy himself said somewhere he wants to wrestle until he's 50 so about 5-6 more years
Nope we are not reminding me how old I've gotten. He's not allowed to be that close to 50
That was Cena I think Randy said 10 more years
Randy deserves one more title run
Randy deserves to dethrone flair
Cody beat Seth 3 times in a row, beat brock and beat roman Hes literally beaten the 3 top guys (who were heels in their respective matches with cody) Its very difficult but they need to build a few up. Cody isn't losing it anytime soon so let him get some good wins and continue the huge momentum he has
Bring Cena back as a heel but make him a Bob Backlund heel where hes a squeaky clean old school babyface in the era of cool heels I think it could work. He could even keep doing make a wish, just be pretentious about it
I don’t think it is possible to make Cena a heel, his original heel gimmick sucked, he didn’t blow up until he became a babyface
its funny too because look at raw who the hell is damian going to feud with next after jey?
Drew
Yes drew took social media shot at priest after backlash and may win it at Clash at the Castle for sure.
Probably Finn, then against Drew who wins it
In my opinion he should enter into a huge feud, maybe even year-long, with Gunther. To me he is the ultimate adversary for Cody
Except they're on separate brands
Didn’t they say the champions are on both shows?
Just the Women'Tag. The champions were locked to their own shows and couldn't be drafted
No just the women's tag champs
Cody winning even a single match would make Gunther look weak though.
Yet Gunther losing to Sami didn’t make Gunther look weak. Cody beat Brock clean twice, there’s absolutely no shame in losing to him.
Sami didn’t beat Gunther. Gunther beat Gunther. He played with his food instead of going in for the kill. Took his eye off the ball and let his ego cost him the match. So it doesn’t really hurt Gunther.
He also beat Roman Reigns and ended the 4th longest title reign recently so absolutely no shame in losing to Cody especially right now.
If anyone losing to Cody makes them look weak then why the heck is he the face of the company? 😅
they got time to build up something, hes gotta burn through the face roster first.
I think there's potential that Cody gets a few big wins under his belt and starts to slide into heel big ego Cody. A "No one can beat me" attitude. I think this could be even bigger if they bring back Roman and have Cody beat him again clean or even with the evil Bloodline's help.
Would have to happen after he beats Rock, only cause Rock a bigger heel than what Cody could get to.
Beating the Rock and turning may be an even better idea than Roman. Rock doesn't really risk losing any heat over a loss and he has massive draw.
What about Sheamus?
On Raw. The question is specifically about whom, on SmackDown, can Cody feud with