Corrigan’s Corner: WWE Left Cody Rhodes In The Dust

It’s only been four days, but I view last Monday’s Raw with the same disappointment as the Invasion, the Summer of Punk, and King losing to Michael Cole in his first (and likely only) WrestleMania match.

Sure, the NXT girls crashing Team Bellas’ party was awesome, and the triple threat with Cesaro, Owens, and Rusev stole the show. But the 7/13/15 edition of RAW will go down in history as the night WWE dropped the ball with Cody Rhodes.

It was his first appearance since his father died…the LEGENDARY Dusty Rhodes, the man they’ve been airing tribute after tribute to, the superstar eulogized by every major media outlet in the country, the icon who was remembered by Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Michael Hayes, and J.J. Dillon just a WEEK prior on the WWE Network.

This isn’t some random Al Wilson cameo—the relationship between Cody and his father has been documented ever since the youngest Rhodes boy debuted in 2007. He was in Legacy, a stable formed because of their family ties to the business. He and his brother Goldust reignited the tag team division in a feud against the Authority two years ago, where the highlight of the year was Big Dust hitting the Bionic Elbow like the good ol’ days.

Hell, his current character Stardust stems from his need to escape out from under his father’s enormous shadow.

So the pieces of the puzzle were there for Cody to ditch the whacky costume, wash off the face paint, and return to the squared circle as the proud son of a passed pioneer, pursuing that ever elusive American Dream.

Instead, WWE officials dumped the pieces into the trash because apparently, Vince McMahon hates puzzles.

And common sense.

Without any buildup on TV aside from a typical cryptic promo around 10:30 p.m., Cody Rhodes returned to action, once again as Stardust, but this time, with his sights set on Neville. Why? Because even though gravity forgot him, Stardust didn’t.

That’s right, folks. During the hospital stay, the funeral planning, the eulogy writing, the mourning, the heart ache, the one thing that never left Stardust’s mind was…Neville.

And this comes after weeks of praising Dusty’s ingenuity for blending reality into money-making storylines.

Obviously, I’m not the only fan outraged by this lack of logic as evidenced by the tsunami of similar-minded tweets directed toward Cody Rhodes/WWE. However, Rhodes disagreed with the sentiment via Twitter:

Troubled seeing some people think I’d allow or be comfortable w/ the worst thing that’s ever happened to me be exploited on TV for a ‘return.

That certainly changes things, right? Forgoing the tasteless exploitation route that WWE performed with Eddie Guerrero’s death, Rhodes either was offered the chance to return sans Looney Tunes character and rejected it, or would have if given the chance.

Furthermore, Rhodes explained the importance of the “Stardust” name, mentioning that his father had him referee his first match for Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, and gave him a referee’s shirt with the name “Stardust” embroidered on it.

Ok, so the name clearly holds significance for Cody and now it’s easy to understand why he has embraced this gimmick.

But this doesn’t mean WWE is off the hook. We fans should have known the backstory of the name months ago. While all this jibber jabber over constellations and the Cosmic Key made no sense, we could have followed along as Cody shared what life was like growing up as the son of the “American Dream.” The fact that Stardust uses the name despite resenting his father’s shadow is a complex, intriguing element to the character.

For the first time since Stardust popped up on my screen, I want to know more. I care, I’m invested. Aren’t you?

WWE can still incorporate Dusty’s passing into Stardust’s plans moving forward without tasteless exploitation. Heck, Dusty would be pissed if they don’t.

But if you read the rumors, this fantasy warfare between Neville and Stardust is supposed to lead to a match with Arrow’s Stephen Amell at SummerSlam.

I don’t know who that is, and I certainly don’t care. I doubt most of the WWE Universe cares, either.

What we do care about is the struggle of a son getting on with his life after losing his father. We can identify, we can relate. Most importantly, we can root for him.

In an era when wrestling heroes are lazily defined as the guys who fight the guys who hold their tights on a school boy, Cody Rhodes has emerged with a natural sympathetic background and a concrete goal.

And that goal should not include Neville, the man gravity forgot.

It’s a shame Vince forgot how to capitalize on real life events for making pro wrestling magic.

Wrestledelphia.com editor John Corrigan can be reached at . Follow him on Twitter at .