Since leaving WWE, Cody Rhodes has turned his career around by joining Ring of Honor and tearing up the independent wrestling scene across the planet. His upcoming independent show All In sold out 10,000 seats in less than an hour and that's a heck of a lot quicker than when RAW and SmackDown Live tickets go on sale (and the vast majority of WWE PPVs outside of WrestleMania as well).
During a recent chat with Edge and Christian, Rhodes looked back on his final year or so in WWE when he played the Stardust character and made it clear that it wasn't something he could cope with.
"I wanted to go back to being Cody Rhodes. Vince was being receptive to it. Hunter was being receptive to it. The problem was they were taking too long. And my dad had just [passed]. It may have been a minute, but he passed away. And there was some inner turmoil and when you have that inner turmoil, the last thing you want is turmoil at work, I think. And I just couldn’t handle it. It was sad. It was sad to put on that suit. It was like being a sad clown, literally. It was sad. And I knew they were receptive and thought maybe this was a good idea, but I needed it now. It just came to, ‘I’m going to leave, you don’t get to fire me, but you also don’t get to fix me. I’m going to go out and I’m going to fix myself. And who knows what I’m going to do after that?'"
It's hard to say whether or not WWE regrets its decision to not push Rhodes as a main event talent as he's proved that he has the skill in the ring and on the mic to full that role perfectly. Chances are we'll see him make his return somewhere down the line but considering how happy he is doing his own thing, that could be a long time away. Either way, he's better off now than when he was Stardust.