Backstage News On Cody Rhodes' WWE Release, Dropped Angle, Split Not Being Amicable
As noted, Cody Rhodes requested and received his WWE release over the weekend.
In Rhodes' statement that he posted online yesterday, Rhodes mentioned that he had "pleaded with WWE Creative" to drop the Stardust character and become Cody Rhodes again. He wrote:
In the past 6-months I had pleaded with WWE Creative and both of my bosses to let me roll-the-dice and once again be Cody Rhodes. I had pitched to every writer on the staff like a door-to-door salesman on "how" & "why" & "when"?and believe me, there are many of those who sought to help me (Brian James, Nick, Faz, J Russo, Dave K, JBL & Cole for letting me go wild on their YouTube show and a few others I'm sure) but for all that, both "head writers" of RAW & Smackdown (one pretending to be Brian Gewirtz and the other too busy hitting on developmental divas) continued to not return my pitches or e-mails, and in face-to-face encounters tried to big league me by pretending to be on their clearly powered-off laptops?barely willing to listen to an idea I considered beneficial to more than one talent. What's that expression? Don't take no for an answer?what do you do when you don't get an answer at all?
You may recall back in March that Rhodes started teasing the end of the Stardust character on social media. Dave Meltzer noted on the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that the plan was in fact for Rhodes to drop the Stardust gimmick right around WrestleMania 32 – or the night after – and go back to simply being Cody Rhodes.
"Vince McMahon and Triple H – and it was more Vince McMahon on this one, from what I was told – they decided [that] we're not going to do it," Meltzer said.
Meltzer noted that despite being released by WWE, Rhodes is still being held to his WWE contract and the split is "not amicable." Meltzer said that WWE is "kind of putting the screws to him," and that since Rhodes quit, they are trying to make it hard for him contractually to do anything for another wrestling company.
In case you missed it over the weekend, below is Rhodes' full statement regarding his WWE departure:
My one&only statement on the matter. No podcasts or tell-all nonsense.
Thank you friends. pic.twitter.com/c5MNKw6spH
? Hyrule Husky (@PrinceCGR) May 22, 2016