>>13691867His AEW run was the codyverse and there's not much else to say than it felt like what Jericho does now, except with people that never seemed to go anywhere and interact with main talent. Cody was in this weird spot where he had to get essentially an entire "division" while never interacting with the biggest talent AEW had at the time. It was never going to work, people got fatigue.
When he signed with WWE, he'd been outside of wrestling for a short while, which certainly helped, but Cody's stock is clearly stronger within WWE because of his legacy, previous work and his name.
Name-wise, cody's known to a previous generation by being a Rhode. He's already had a lengthy couple of years in WWE, he's had speeches, IC title runs, previous feuds and friendships within WWE TV programming. He created AEW and regardless of opinions on it, it has created buzz when it first came together and clearly that helped his stock as well. He's gained some sort of business sense and going away and "earning" his spot probably gave him a little more respect in the corporate structure along with the boys in the back. He put his money where his mouth is and he's backed it up with AEW existing, no matter if you believe it's doing well or not now.
Cody's WWE title chase works because he has a reason to seek it out, namely to do with his father. His "prodigical" son return works because he's gone away and done something big and then came back to prove he's the shit definitively.
It's not really hard to see why he's a big babyface.
