On Saturday, news broke that Cody Rhodes had asked to be released from his WWE contract, and on Sunday the company made it official.
When Rhodes tweeted that he was asking to be let out of his contract, he promised that he would speak more about the situation soon and after the news broke that he was officially gone, he let loose with a statement on Twitter explaining his decision to leave.
As many suspected, Rhodes’ reasoning for leaving was frustration with the creative direction of his character. According to Rhodes, he attempted in recent weeks to convince both HHH and Vince McMahon to let him go back to being Cody Rhodes instead of Stardust, but his ideas fell on deaf ears. He also said that he was ignored by the head writers of both Raw and SmackDown when he had creative ideas.
There is a lot to unpack there, as Rhodes did not hold back at all. While he praised HHH and McMahon for giving him the opportunity, he made no bones about the fact that he felt like he was not being used the right way, and he took direct issue with Hunter telling him to “act his role” in the play that is WWE.
Towards the end of his statement, Rhodes expressed that he may venture out into other facets of the entertainment world, but that for now his focus was to be on wrestling, and one would imagine that everyone from TNA to New Japan to Lucha Underground would be lining up to try to sign him.