Cody Rhodes made the decision to leave WWE (and his Stardust gimmick) behind in May 2016 and over the past sixteen months or so, he's appeared in pretty much every Indie promotion possible. He even found time to make a guest appearance on Arrow and has since become a fixture of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor as a member of the fan-favourite faction, The Bullet Club.
As "The American Nightmare," Rhodes has made a killing in terms of merchandise sales and he's even looking at promoting a 10,000 seat arena show next year alongside friends The Young Bucks.
So, just how well has the former WWE Superstar done since leaving WWE? While you might think it would be significantly less, it turns out he's earned more in a single year than in a decade with them.
"Not to sound tacky, but this has been the first seven-figure year I’ve ever had and it blows me away that it happened, so on that end, for my family and well-being, that part has been the best. But also, the part I enjoy the most, the fans and the creative element of what we do, I keep saying it, but to play music how you want to play it, it [has] never been like this before for me.
"I look at a time, my WWE Intercontinental Championship run as my favorite thing I ever did, because I got to change the belt [design], and I got to be involved in a couple of WrestleManias with that in the picture, but this time, now, has completely passed it by, blown it away. Being a world champion is all that it was cracked up to be from every world champion that there ever was that told me about it. It [has] certainly been everything that I dreamed and hoped for."
Things are clearly going well for Rhodes on the Indies then and the chances of him returning to WWE in the near future have to be somewhere between slim and none. After all, he seems a whole lot happier working for Ring of Honor (a company he's contracted to stay with for the next few years) and is earning considerably more money so as long as that doesn't change, he's unlikely to leave!