The Golden Paint and the Cosmic Dead End

Pour yourself a cold one, pull up a stool, and let’s talk about the absolute madness of what happened exactly ten years ago today. While the rest of the internet is obsessing over AEW Double or Nothing tomorrow night, or arguing about the Champions League final in five days, I was looking back at a moment that changed everything.

On May 22, 2016, WWE officially granted Cody Rhodes his release from the company. At the time, he was stuck playing Stardust, a bizarre, gold-painted cosmic freak who hissed at the cameras and wrestled on secondary shows like WWE Main Event.

The office thought he was easily replaceable, just another midcard worker they could swap out for anyone else. They assumed he would head to the indies, realize the water was freezing cold, and come crawling back to work the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal in six months. Instead, Cody Rhodes went out and completely blew up the entire industry.

To understand how insane this jump was, you have to remember how miserable things were for Cody in early 2016. He was teamed up with Konnor and Viktor as the Cosmic Wasteland, a stable that existed primarily to lose to the Prime Time Players and Titus O'Neil in four-minute matches.

Vince McMahon refused to let him drop the paint, insisting that the Stardust gimmick was gold, despite the fans dead-silent reactions every single week. Imagine being the son of the legendary American Dream Dusty Rhodes, having all that wrestling intelligence in your DNA, and being told your ceiling is hiss-acting in a purple bodysuit.

It was the wrestling equivalent of keeping a young talent on the bench because the manager prefers a sluggish veteran who refuses to run. Compare it to Drew McIntyre getting fired in 2014 after spending years in the absolute comedy purgatory of 3MB with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal.

McIntyre had to go back to Scotland and England, wrestle for ICW and Evolve, and completely rebuild his body and his character. Cody saw that blueprint, but he took it to an entirely different level by doing it on his own terms.

He did not wait to get fired; he walked into the office, demanded his freedom, and walked out into the unknown. When Cody left, he did not go sit on his couch and complain about creative on shoot interviews.

The Famous Twitter Checklist and the Indie Tour

He posted a handwritten list on Twitter that became the most effective piece of wrestling marketing of the decade.

  • Kurt Angle
  • Chris Hero
  • Dalton Castle
  • Katsuyori Shibata
  • The Young Bucks

It was a declaration of war against the corporate style he had been fed for a decade. He showed up in Ring of Honor, debuted for New Japan Pro Wrestling, and took bumps in front of three hundred people in sweaty high school gyms for PWG.

He was wrestling Kazuchika Okada in Long Beach for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, going over twenty-seven minutes in a physical war before taking a Rainmaker. He proved he could go toe-to-toe with the finest workers in the world, completely shedding the Stardust skin.

He joined the Bullet Club, aligned with Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, and started selling t-shirts faster than Hot Topic could print them. Then came the ultimate bet when Dave Meltzer famously claimed that an independent wrestling show could not sell out a ten-thousand-seat arena in America.

Cody and the Bucks did not just prove him wrong; they absolutely shattered the ceiling. They put together All In at the Sears Centre in September 2018, selling out 10,536 tickets in less than thirty minutes without a single WWE-contracted wrestler on the card.

That single afternoon changed the business forever, proving to television executives that there was a massive, untapped market for wrestling outside the Stamford machine.

The AEW Gamble and the Self-Inflicted Booking Curse

All In led directly to the creation of AEW in 2019, with Cody serving as an Executive Vice President alongside the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. But let’s keep it real, because we do not do blind praise here.

Cody's run in AEW had some of the most frustrating, self-indulgent booking decisions you will ever see. The biggest blunder happened at Full Gear 2019 during his match against Chris Jericho for the AEW World Championship.

Cody booked himself into a corner by adding a stipulation that if he lost, he would never challenge for the world title again. He lost after MJF threw in the towel, and that decision crippled his booking for the rest of his tenure in the company.

He became trapped in his own side-universe, the "Cody-verse," wrestling matches against Anthony Ogogo and QT Marshall that fans did not care about. He refused to turn heel even when crowds in Chicago and Newark were actively booing him out of the building and throwing his weight belt back into the ring.

It was stubborn, weird, and ultimately made his departure from the company he helped build feel almost inevitable.

The Dallas Return and the Purple Chest of Steel

In early 2022, Cody did the absolute unthinkable and jumped back to WWE, appearing as the mystery opponent at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas. The crowd went absolutely ballistic when the opening chords of his theme song played and he rose from the stage as the American Nightmare.

He did not change a single thing; he kept the blonde hair, the patriotic gear, the theme music, and the massive neck tattoo. He immediately went into a trilogy of stellar matches with Seth Rollins, but the moment that defined his legendary status was Hell in a Cell 2022.

Cody entered the cell with a completely torn right pectoral muscle, his chest looking like a purple and black nightmare from a horror movie. He wrestled for over twenty-four minutes, taking brutal bumps on his injured side and using a sledgehammer to secure the win.

That match proved to any remaining skeptics that Cody was not just a politician; he was a warrior who would die for the business. He went on to win the 2023 Royal Rumble, leading to the highly controversial main event of WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles against Roman Reigns.

We all expected the crowning moment, but WWE shocked the world by having Solo Sikoa interfere, allowing Roman to hit the Spear and win in the 34th minute. It was a devastating booking decision that felt like a punch in the gut to the fans who had invested a year in his story.

Yet, Cody spent the next twelve months fighting Brock Lesnar, winning another Royal Rumble, and building a massive wave of fan support that forced WWE's hand. At WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, he finally finished his story in a chaotic Bloodline Rules match that featured run-ins from John Cena, Jey Uso, and the Undertaker.

The Legacy of the Gamble

Today, in May 2026, Cody Rhodes is the Undisputed WWE Champion and the absolute face of the company. He is drawing massive ratings, selling out arenas worldwide, and moving merchandise at a level we haven't seen since the peak of John Cena.

Reports suggest he recently signed a massive contract extension worth over $4 million annually, making him one of the highest-paid stars in the industry. None of this happens if Cody does not walk out of that arena in 2016.

If he stays, he is likely retired or working as a backstage producer today, occasionally appearing in 24/7 title comedy segments. By betting on himself, Cody forced a bidding war that raised salaries for every single wrestler in the business.

He gave fans an alternative, forced WWE to finally modernize its booking, and proved that a performer's value is decided by their own drive, not a writer's whim.

So pull up a stool, raise a glass, and toast to the man who refused to wear the gold paint. Cody Rhodes changed the game forever, and the entire wrestling world is better off because he had the guts to walk away.