It’s purely coincidence, but absolutely poetic, that in the same week Dr. Dre performed at halftime of the Super Bowl Cody Rhodes announced that he and Brandi were leaving All Elite Wrestling.  Like Dre bolting Ruthless Records to start Death Row Cody left the WWE, wandered the wilderness for a bit then joined up with Tony Khan, Kenny Omega, and the Young Bucks to start up AEW.  And like Dre, Cody shocked the world by not coming to an agreement on a new contract and then leaving the company he helped start to take on the establishment.  (I guess that makes Tony Khan Suge Knight….the players for the Jaguars would probably agree with that assessment.)  The revolutionary found himself on the outs in the house he helped build, and did the thing we thought he’d never do – leave.

Now to be honest when Cody first left WWE I figured he’d be back.  He didn’t sound bitter and he left on good terms.  But once AEW came together I thought he wouldn’t.  It looked to me at least like he’d gotten all he wanted – the prominent spot on the card, the outside ventures he’d missed out on in WWE, the creative control over his character that he didn’t have in WWE, and a position for Brandi that allowed her to do more than ring announce – and that he was satisfied enough to stay where he was.  But I was wrong about Dean Ambrose and I was wrong here.  In this case me being wrong reveals something about this whole company war that a lot of you guys have been fighting.

If the man who engaged in the most performative acts of Us vs Them – the Throne Breaking, the Golden Shovel, the promo he gave just weeks ago railing against name changes and the like – can pack up and leave ‘Us’ to walk across the street to ‘Them’, albeit under some duress, then that should tell you all you need to know.  The Company War, the Pro Wrestling vs Sports Entertainment War, the Freedom vs Control War, whatever you want to call it, was like everything else in the wrestling business: a work.  And if you bought into it, whether you work for either company or are a fan, then you got worked.  Sorry, there’s no other way to slice it.  At the end of the day, it’s a job.  You get the most you can out of it for yourself while you are there, and if it’s time to move on you do it.  Your loyalty is to your family and not the company.

Now what does it all mean?  More in perception than reality in my opinion.  They have the wrestlers to fill Cody’s place without missing a beat.  But psychologically it’s gotta sting a bit. If one of the EVPs, without whom the company would have never gotten off the ground or reached the heights it did, can be forced out and leave then anyone can.  Do they need Cody Rhodes in 2022?  Not really.  His 10 to 15 minutes of TV time can easily go to Keith Lee or some pending arrival or some of the people who are already there and could use some more time.  His slot on pay per views can go to Keith or someone else as well.  Cody himself will likely go back to WWE and if nothing else he will make some good money to close out his career.  He’ll get a few big matches on the front end at least, and may very well head to a backstage role in a few years.

The simple answer here is that Cody leaving the company he helped establish is a game changer in terms of how people in AEW may view their place there.  There are more than a few true believers there and their worldview has been rocked by this for sure.  There are also some men and women there who have already smartened up to the business a bit, who were already setting things up to explore their options in the future, who may not be as afraid to leave for the one literally greener pasture out there.  All the talk about WWE being a prison doesn’t hit the same when one of the main people spouting that line looks like he will be signing up for another bid sometime soon.  And since he was forced out then some may start wondering when their day is coming.

You see Cody represented something way bigger than anything he did in the ring.  Cody was the man who walked away from WWE before it was cool, before there was another nationally televised wrestling company to go to.  He left WWE to wander the earth like Cain from Kung Fu, through the indies and Ring of Honor and New Japan without having a stable home for another three years.  He was the IWC’s hero for that, and he deserved that praise because he took a genuine risk in leaving like he did, at that time.  And when he helped build a home in AEW he sang it’s praises like no one else.  He led the charge against the Evil Empire for three years, but the eventually was forced to drop his spear and pick up the flag of the opposition.  And it’s gonna be a bit disheartening for some when he cuts the eventual ‘I went looking for greener pastures but the grass isn’t always greener on the other side’ promo on a Monday night down in a few weeks or months.

But that’s where it looks like things are headed, which puts Tony Khan at a crossroads (see what I did there?). This past week has not been a good one, PR wise.  There’s the Cody business, the big audience number drop this past Wednesday (as much as I say that number doesn’t matter if you run it up the flagpole every week like Tony does when it’s good then you have to eat it when it’s bad), Big Swole’s podcast interview where she aired him out entirely, and his feeble attempt at deflecting it by telling us that yet another big announcement is coming next week.  Whether he realizes it or not, the cracks are starting to show.  I’m not calling gloom and doom here but the biggest thing that he has needed to avoid was looking like just another wrestling promoter and now he’s looking exactly like one.

As for Cody, a new chapter begins and we’ll see where it goes.  A new uncertain day is here for sure and change is coming for sure on both sides of the street.