Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
The departure of Cody Rhodes from WWE should sound somewhat familiar to long-time pro wrestling fans. Although their departures were handled completely differently, Rhodes' writing about his decision to walk away from a ten year tenure with WWE echoes a similar voice and concerns that CM Punk provided when he railed against WWE during his appearance on Colt Cabana's "Art of Wrestling" podcast.
Certainly CM Punk was a far bigger star at the time he walked away, but the complaints were the same:
I have the drive to be something bigger than how I am used. Use me.
Rhodes wrote yesterday in his Twitter statement that for ten years, he attempted to show WWE management that he could be their main guy. He wanted to be the WWE World Heavyweight champion and show that he could carry the ball for the company. It never happened. Maybe it shouldn't have happened
In another era, it certainly could have happened. His promos, dating back to OVW, were always very good and bordered at times on excellent. His in-ring work was always solid and he could be counted on having good to very good matches on live events. He was the son of Dusty Rhodes and the pedigree was there. Forget the Grandson of a Plumber, he was the son of a wrestler, one of the best.
Certainly, the potential was there and certainly, even if there wasn't going to be a real shot at being a Wrestlemania main event, megastar, there was a role for him as someone who was in the mix. Perhaps he never would have been Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage, but Paul Orndorff or Roddy Piper? Certainly, at times, the potential was there for Cody Rhodes, to be in the mix, in the running, part of the conversation.
But today, professional wrestling isn't about pro wrestling anymore. The current crop of talents aren't pro wrestlers. They are sports-entertainers. It's the difference between the NBA and The Harlem Globetrotters. They both feature excellent athletes and they are both entertaining, but the spark of competition, that tiny light that drives the event and drive the emotion of the audience, isn't there. The former is something you invest in with your heart. The latter is something you watch on a lark. One isn't better than the other, but the appearance, the emotion, the output is different.
What we see here is the after-effect of what happens when the net of entertainment is laid over those who want to compete and want to deliver with an output that used to change career trajectories but now, is just meaningless for many. In the past eras of pro wrestling, if someone wanted to break out, they could leave and go somewhere else, adjust their work and become a star. If someone wanted to break through, they could persevere through being the Ringmaster and one day break the glass as Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Today, once you are cast in your role, it's extremely hard to find a way to circumvent the stream and travel upward. Roman Reigns was preordained to be a top star, so he is. Cody Rhodes and others were pre-ordained to be part of the roster, sometimes in the mid-card, sometimes working with top guys but never, ever groomed or treated as stars who were on the way to breaking out. The closest Rhodes came was being part of the Legacy with Randy Orton, something that could have made him a player. How long ago and how many gimmicks and character tweaks was that?
Rhodes wrote of trying to pitch ideas to creative and he brings a good point - what happens when you just get no response? Imagine working at your job for a decade, one that takes you all over the world but also takes you out of the bubble of a real life. It pays you well and you get to meet the woman of your dreams but you also have this nagging feeling that you could be doing better and this could be more meaningful - but no matter how much you do, how matter how hard you work, no matter how much you push, you have been pre-ordained to be where you are. How does that not make you resent what was a dream job, no matter who you are or what the dream job is?
Human beings, by nature of who they are, want to push for something more and WWE's evolution forward as a major juggernaut has at times, for the worse, stifled the same creativity that saved the company during it's most crucial time period.
If Mankind debuted today with his slow piano music and the Mandible Claw in 2016, would he ever be given the chances or the creative freedom to evolve into a multi-time WWE champion named Mick Foley? Would Rocky Maivia ever have gotten the chance to turn heel and evolve into The Rock, or would he be where Roman Reigns is now, working hard and pushed hard to an audience that completely hates the presentation? Would Steve Austin have been Ted DiBiase's Ringmaster for the remainder of his career?
Mick Foley wrote in his first book that one of the factors that paved the way for WWE to win the Monday Night Wars was an admission by Vince McMahon, in front of his locker room, in late 1997 that perhaps he didn't know the answers and that he was going to allow the locker room to be more of themselves. That led to a Rockabilly and a Roadie becoming the New Age Outlaws. That led to The APA, The Godfather and a lot of other characters. Now, not all became World champions or cornerstones of the company, but they became memorable and over time, the APA birthed the legend of JBL as a singles star.
WWE had their backs against the wall and because of that sense of impending doom, the door was left open to try anything and through the crack in that door poured emotion and work ethic and upward mobility. What might have previously been dismissed as "not the way" suddenly was given a chance.
Go back and watch that era on the WWE Network. Some of it is utter, utter crap but enough of it crystallized coal into diamonds and off to the races WWE went, eventually going public and filling stadiums for Wrestlemania and buying out WCW. The celebration and victory is well remembered, and should be, but the small skirmishes and the near-doom of WWF at the time - that mindset and that desire to survive - that's what turned the tide and won the war.
The problem today is that WWE is such a monster that a lot of that mindset has been lost out at sea. It's a different time, a different structure and a good part of the staff has turned over. What hasn't changed, however, is the desire for those on the roster who want to be professional wrestlers and want to be the best at what they can do.
At the end of the day, whether you are striking out today or you are hitting grand slams, if you start to deliver for the New York Yankees, they are going to give you the chance tomorrow. Pro wrestling doesn't always allow the same potential, and when you work hard and get yourself over and do all the things that you are "supposed to do", it doesn't mean you are getting your happy ending and the chance to show what else you can do.
Ask Zack Ryder, the poster boy for getting yourself over. Last night he Tweeted that Miz was defending the IC title and he was sitting in a restaurant in Baltimore. He noted, "There's something wrong with that." There is, and not because it's Miz in the ring and not Ryder, but because there is a locker room full of guys who want to deliver and aren't given that chance to do anything beyond being a body on the roster.
I don't know that Zack Ryder or Jack Swagger or Tyler Breeze or Fandango or any of the mid-card talents can morph into a future top star, but if WWE never gives them the chance and just keeps them running on a treadmill with no upward mobility, no one will ever find out. One of them could be the next JBL if they are given the chance and treated with respect and kept legitimate in the eyes of the audience, but so many talents are just floating around with no long-term vision, no deep characterization or even attempts to shield them in case there is a chance for a push later.
What that means is they will do is run through the paces, get older and eventually be replaced by someone else who is now doing the same. As much as fans were up in arms about Damien Sandow getting released a few weeks ago, attention should be paid to the narrative that is being stated and written by talents that began a few years ago with CM Punk when he walked out the day after the Royal Rumble.
With Rhodes' departure, with Ryback's statement on equality in how undercard talents should be paid, with Punk's comments on being rewarded with a Wrestlemania main event position, even if he was pinned in 2 minutes, there's a narrative there and one that with each passing departure, becomes a little louder.
USE ME. LISTEN TO ME.
Not every idea is going to work and every pro wrestler wants to be the champ, the star. That's human nature. Perhaps Cody Rhodes had the worst ideas ever pitched to WWE Creative. I don't know. The problem is that, based on what he claimed, he doesn't know either, because no one bothered to tell him. Think about that. The son of Dusty Rhodes and someone who's worked for the company for ten years and according to him, he can't get an answer to his pitches. Even if there is smidgen of truth to that, it's something that's wrong.
Certainly wrestlers are an eclectic and needy lot, but at the end of the day, they want to perform and believe that their performances are appreciated and worthwhile. It's no different that the Hollywood stars who go and do Off-Broadway because they want to feel the audience and deliver something with emotion. Cody Rhodes says he's going to continue to wrestle. Certainly he's going to find the same things that film actors going back to theater will get....but why couldn't Rhodes get that with WWE? What will WWE have lost because Rhodes and others like him finally get disillusioned?
After all, how many people do you personally know that are willing to quit their dream jobs? What would it take for them to leave something they've wanted since they were a teenager?
CM Punk was obsessed with main eventing Wrestlemania and while it may have happened one day if he stayed on the WWE treadmill, there's no telling that it would have ever happened. In pro wrestling, just like the rest of life, the carrot we chase - whether it be a better job, the person of our dreams, more money, happiness - at the end of the day, none of it is promised to us and for some of us, we eventually have to come to the realization that despite everything else we've achieved, we will never get that "one thing" that we desire.
That may be the case here with Cody Rhodes and CM Punk and others. Perhaps they should have been happy with what they achieved. Perhaps Ryback should be happy just losing in Kickoff matches. Perhaps they are just players in a play, as Rhodes stated HHH told him, and should have been happy with their role.
But if doing that means they were giving up and just admit this is their lot in life, well who in life wants to give up? Not you, not me, not anyone.
The idea that a talent like Rhodes is willing to give up, so to speak, on WWE, where he should be a lifer - someone who started his career there, ended it there and then mentors the next generation- says a lot. It may be time for WWE to take a step back from the crazed schedule of their week and think about the bigger implications of what Rhodes' departure, Ryback's comments, Punk walking out a few years back, etc. all mean when it they are connected together and showcase the grander scheme of things.
Certainly there is a wealth of talents who will kill themselves to get to the same position those talents were in, but that doesn't mean the talents who already killed themselves to be there should have their concerns silenced, because every talent who walks away or becomes disillusioned kills that same little spark we talked about earlier - the difference between making a real emotional connection or just watching something on a lark.
Not every problem child should be treated with kid gloves and rewarded. People can dismiss things that CM Punk, Cameron, Ryback have said as sour grapes or having an inflated sense of ego or any other message board comment they want to use to pop a balloon or argument, but when someone who's never had a reputation for causing waves or problems lends credence to their claims and adds another legitimate voice to the conversation, it's time for WWE to consider that maybe, it's a conversation that they themselves should enter and have.
That doesn't mean Cody Rhodes should have been WWE champion. It just means that perhaps they should have considered why he deserved to be in the conversation and treated as if he could be, one day.
If not, then imagine back to the late 1990s and the debut of Hunter-Hearst Helmsley and imagine if no matter what he did, good or bad, he was never going to be more than some blue-blooded snob from Greenwich, CT? No matter how you feel about him, imagine if he was told that was your role in the play and no matter what you do, that's all you will ever be. Now, Imagine how the story of pro wrestling, of WWE and the future of the sport would have changed.
That's the difference between then and now, when the door is open, even a crack, and when no matter how hard you bang on it, no one bothers to answer you.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com and followed @MikePWInsider.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
