>>13713676The gimmick started out as a way for him to try and bond with half-brother Dustin via taking on a persona similar to Goldust.
Then he wanted to go back to normal. And Vince said "fuck you". So he went heel and full on cray-cray.
Then Dusty died and Cody was asked to go back to being normal Cody so they could whore out his dad's death via giving him a pity push in the midcard. Cody, distraught with his dad's death (IIRC he was in the room when he died) declined and embraced the lunacy of the character and even got the guy who played Green Arrow to come to the WWE to work an ange with him.
Then he got hurt and wanted to come back as his normal self and even after giving them the Arrow crossover angle that got them some decent positive press coverage, Vince refused to allow him to go back to normal. Adding injury to insult, Vince brought him back with zero fanfare and demoted him to working C-List shows and only using him as Stardust as jobber on the main shows while lavishing all sorts of attention and a major push for John Cena, who was hurt/coming back around the same time as Cody. Which was the final straw for Cody saying "fuck this" and leaving the WWE.
