It didn't. He had a long and successful reign and then it ended.

He is an AEW Midcarder the Cody hype is over

He never had main eventers fight for his title.

>>152199 This. Cody is cursed when it comes to opponents. They're either part-timers who don't show up, or midcarders who obviously aren't going to win.

>>152188 cause he's a natural heel who desperately wants to be a white meat babyface

>>152188 the rock didn't show up much for wrestlemania season

>>152238 rocky is a 50 something roid monkey who one bad boxoffice away from jobbing to a heart attack

>>152204 The same could be said for Gooner

It's not a failed experiment. He helped WWE get white fucking hot the past few years as the top face. People are always more invested in a face when they're chasing the title, and less when they're defending it. His whole chase was about finishing the story - of course people would be a bit less interested in a story that's already finished. He's starting to come up on a similar phase he went through back in AEW where people had started to sour on (and eventually fully turned on) his superhero white-meat face character, and people think heel Homelander Cody would be fucking awesome. But Cody never wanted to do that when he was booking himself in AEW.

Wrestling fans are fickle. They're never satisfied even when they get exactly what they want. For Cody, he was chasing for a good long while and it got the crowds behind him big time. Last year he finished the story and to some, reached the end of his road. Its one of the problems of wrestling, keeping things going despite having big pay offs. A movie or show would just end with Cody's win at WM40 but wrestling has to keep going. Cody had to defend against a bunch of guys no one believed would lose. Then we have Cena. The man finally turned heel after decades of fans wanting it, so of course they would totally get behind him. Cody is the new Cena, down to being a white meat babyface cornball. Cody losing the title and chasing it again was the right move and he can move on to other things for a while and Cena can defend the title sparingly. The logical move is for Cody to win it back off of Cena before he retires but a good portion of the fans will reject that.

>>152264 WWE fans aren't turning on Cody. Its just the typical faggot smark wrestlemania crowd. He got some boos at WM39 against Roman too.

>>152188 >Loses the belt >Why did the experiment failed? Wrestling fans aren't smart

>>152188 no Vince.

>>152259 Isnt it sad he's now feuding with Pat

He had an infinitely better run that Kofi, big e, lashley put together. Thank you white man for righting the sinking ship

>>152306 Which is why sports based entertainment style revolving around results and tournaments works better in the long term than melodrama soap opera wrestling where you awkwardly keep restarting after the big dramatic storylines where everything is forced and the wrestling is just a backdrop

>>152188 The Rock killed every angle Cody ever had that could have gone somewhere, by interrupting it to start a new angle about him, then leaving, so it can't go anywhere.

>>152188 Because there's no reason to care for him after he finished his story. Muh Daddeh muh story, that's his whole character and gimmick. The correct move was to have a couple filler defenses after he won it then immediately switch to homelander Cody.

>>153262 No one really cares about the wrestling other than a relative minority. People pay to see angles and characters primarily. >>153274 He finished the story and became the quarterback, the captain. He also found the story book happy ending isn't an ending. That being champion wears you down, brings out the worst in even your friends.

>>152188 It didn't fail. WWE/creative/H/Rock kept trying to thwart it with shitty angles for views.

>>152188 Too white for the American public

>>152188 Used car salesman cosplaying as an all American babyface. He dresses like a wealthy black man from Atlanta. He’s not truly relatable.

>>153492 He doesn't just dress like a wealthy black man from Atlanta.

>>152199 >>152204 That's how I felt, but I could always tell myself >Well it doesn't really matter cause we know he's gonna do something big with the Rock and that'll be really good Cause he setup stuff with the Rock before and it was good, but we didn't really get the payoff for that imo. It's a shame cause now I'll just look back on his reign and wish he had some better feuds. That short time when people thought Randy was gonna go after, that would've been pretty cool to see now .

>>152188 are you sure about that?

>>153758 A long term feud with Randy could have been good. Who else would have been good for him to feud with? >Jacob Fatu If the Rock didn't derail Coconut Community Theatre and they pushed Jacob as the new Tribal Chief. >Gunther If he wasn't holding the other title. >Braun Strowman Just book him like the Big Show in a Ruthless Aggression era title feud. Would it be the feud of the century? Probably not, but it could be okay. >Judgement Day Anyone in Judgement Day. Come on. This is so obvious. Big bad white hot heel group vs white hot white meat lone wolf babyface. Booking 101 >MOOSE You've got a TNA partnership. Why not bring in Moose to chase the title for a little bit. Moose vs Cody would have a strong visual appeal. I wouldn't do Chad Gable, because I don't think there's anything Gable could do that wouldn't expose Cody as a hack, because he's better than Cody at all the stuff Cody tries to do. I wouldn't do CM Punk for many many many reasons, not the least of which is that there's no way you put Punk, Cody, and HHH in a room together and don't get the smarkiest dirtsheet promos you've ever heard. I wouldn't do Kaito Kiyomiya, as if WWE would. It would be a great match, but that Nip has so much natural effortless charisma he could get over anywhere instantly, and it would be another issue like Gable, where you'd risk really compromising Cody.

>>153774 Gunther felt like a no-brainer pretty early on, the other stuff you listed sounds solid too. Though I don't think they'd do a Moose run, but it would be neat to see. If it weren't for the Rock stuff I would've expected a rematch with Roman at some point too. And I'm not exactly asking for it, but I wouldn't have been surprised if they did something with Rollins. But since he only really had 4 feuds in this run I'd just say the 4 from these options that I'd pick would be >Randy >Gunther >Jacob >A Judgment Day member Of course the order for all of this is up in the air since it shifts around so much of what was going on already.

>>152188 His reign did suck. Mostly shit booking. His main opponents were Solo (wtf?), AJ, Kevin Owens, Kevin Owens, Gunther, Kevin Owens again, and a really old John Cena. Dude is still over and they will need someone to carry the company after they give Randy another run, but long-term, Cody can't survive shit booking like this.

HHH loves live crowds. Cena was right those idiots in the crowd just want to be part of the show. Cena's run is just him trying to tell you that. Imagine booing Cody the same guy you were cheering for just because you want to be edgy.

>>152264 >People are always more invested in a face when they're chasing the title, and less when they're defending it. No. Hogan was a great example of the opposite being true. You need a face to carry a company. It's isn't a coincidence that WWE's ratings decline stopped when you no longer had Roman shoved down people's throats. >His whole chase was about finishing the story Which is where decent booking would have come into play. Maybe something other than three Kevin Ownes matches for fucks sake. >He's starting to come up on a similar phase he went through back in AEW Cody's decline in AEW was all about his wife.

>>153774 You can throw a few other names in there as well. Drew. Damien. Sheamus. Lashley before he was cut. Maybe bring Roman back. Tons of things WWE could have done other than Kevin Owens, AJ, and Solo. Maybe actually use the Wyatts after you introduce them. Fuck, even Karrion Cross would have been more interesting than what we got.

>>153858 >Cena's run is just him trying to tell you that Cena's run is about Cena wanting one more run. He's been shoved down the crowd's throat for 25 years. This run is about shoving him down people's throats one last time (one can only hope). Fuck Cena. This is one of the dumbest, most pointless booking decisions in recent history. It's AEW levels of stupid.

>>153843 >Rollins I'm shocked they didn't want to run this back again and again. Seth in the yellow polka dots, Cody with the torn pec, it looks like a billion dollars. It's a star making moment for both of them and could have been the kick off for a legendary rivalry, or at least something they could work people into believing is a legendary rivalry. >>153861 They love putting Drew in feuds that go nowhere and make him look less than great. I think Damien would be best as part of the Judgement Day, but you don't need him to eat the pin from Cody with the JDs help. Let it be Dom who gets in the feud with Cody and the Judgement Day comes to back him up. Dom losing to the world champ, even with help, doesn't devalue him. Setting him up as enough of a thorn in Cody's side to justify the shot actually builds him up. Put some heel spots where it looks like Dom could really end up with the belt and it would be a good PPV. You could toss the JD at him at any time after that in the middle of a feud to spice things up or get out of a corner. Is Sheamus okay? Is he still around? Lashley vs Cody would have been a good match. Crazy to think they never had one. Though, I think they were intentionally not using Lashley there for a while before he left. Still could have been a short filler program to give Cody a good win that actually matters. AJ could have been good if they hadn't just turned him babyface before the feud when he still had the Bluet Club. At least Cody vs the Wyatt SICKOS would pop the little marks, and lead to some kino. Fighting ridiculous freakazoid heels is a right of passage for a colorful all American white meat babyface. Kross could have been good too, it's at least a little bit of a toss up, because it makes you wonder how much does H want to project himself on to Kross. And again, just visually, Cody and Kross would look good in a main event against eachother.

>>152188 can't make a midcarder the guy

>>153904 Well, who else deserved the rub of ending Roman's reign of terror?