Cody Rhodes made his return to WWE at the WrestleMania 38 event on its first night. He competed against Seth Rollins in a match for the ages and the American Nightmare came out victorious after delivering Cross Rhodes.
Cody’s return to WWE had been speculated for months and he finally ended the fans’ wait by appearing at The Grandest Stage of Them All. Cody left the company back in 2016 owing to creative differences with the writers and his frustration with them not agreeing to the various storylines he had pitched over the past few months prior to his release.
Cody has been open about his dislike for the Stardust gimmick over the years and he reaffirmed the same during an interview with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport. He was asked if there were any guarantees given to him for his return back to the company as a lot of people are curious to see how he will be treated this time. Cody said:
“There wasn’t any true guarantees. There was a request, I said I never wanna see Stardust ever again. I never wanna talk and hear about it and see it again.”
Cody debuted the Stardust gimmick on an episode of RAW. The dress-up was a cross between Starman from Pro Wrestling for the Nintendo Entertainment system and his elder brother Dustin Rhodes’ gimmick- Goldust.
Stardust and Goldust were one-time WWE Tag Team Champions. They won the title against The Usos. After a brief reign, they slowly started building up a feud between themselves as the brother-son rivalry culminated at Fast Lane in 2015 where Goldust won against the heel Stardust.
Stardust went on to have a storyline feud with actor Stephen Amell. Amell and Neville defeated the team of King Barrett and Stardust at SummerSlam 2015. Stardust went on a losing streak towards the end of the run. Finally, the man behind the gimmick left the company to ply his trade on other promotions.
When AEW happened, Cody quickly rose to the top owing to various mesmerizing performances and feuds. Now that he had returned to WWE as one of the biggest names in the modern-day pro wrestling world, fans hope to see him shine brighter than a star.
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