What did Ethan Page confirm about MJF and Cody Rhodes?

Ethan Page confirmed that AEW had active plans for a major Collision-era feud between MJF and Cody Rhodes before Cody left the company. The program was planned to be a massive clash of two of the promotion's top talkers, but it was cancelled when Cody returned to WWE.

Why did the Cody Rhodes and MJF feud in AEW fail to happen?

The highly anticipated feud between Cody Rhodes and MJF did not happen because Cody Rhodes left AEW to return to WWE. This move occurred while the creative plans for their Collision-era program were still in development behind the scenes.

What storylines did Cody Rhodes and MJF do instead of their planned feud?

Instead of their planned feud, Cody Rhodes went to WWE where he navigated a lukewarm angle with Shinsuke Nakamura and went on to win championships at WrestleMania. Meanwhile, MJF remained in AEW and got bogged down in the Cole-Kingdom storyline while navigating the mid-card.

How did the author describe the potential impact of the MJF vs Cody feud?

The author estimated that a feud between MJF and Cody Rhodes would have drawn at least 700,000 viewers even on a slow night in early 2024. The program was envisioned as the ultimate test of who owned the soul of AEW, drawing on their history with the Elite.

What criticism does the article make regarding AEW's creative team?

The article criticizes AEW management for failing to pull the trigger on high-heat storylines and sitting on the Cody vs. MJF matchup. It notes that a lack of cohesive long-term direction remains the company's biggest creative problem.

Ethan Page just pulled the curtain back on the wildest 'what-if' in wrestling

The ghost of AEW booking past

Every wrestling fan has that one story they tell at 2 AM in a Waffle House parking lot. You know, the timeline where everything went differently. Ethan Page finally gave us the validation we needed this week, confirming the rumors about a potential MJF and Cody Rhodes program that existed in some version of the creative ether before the American Nightmare took his talents back to the Stamford circus.

For those living under a rock, Ethan Page stopped by to spill some tea about what was brewing while he was rubbing elbows in the AEW locker room. He essentially confirmed that the plans for a massive Collision-era feud between the salt-of-the-earth heel and our favorite bespoke suit-wearer were in the works. It is the wrestling equivalent of finding out the Beatles almost reunited in 1980.

Why this matters for your sanity

Look, I get it. Cody is currently playing corporate kingpin while MJF is doing his best to navigate the AEW mid-card madness after losing his standing as the guy. But stop and think about the sheer volume of verbal warfare we missed out on here. You have two guys who view themselves as the smartest person in any room they walk into, both armed with microphones and enough ego to fill an entire stadium.

It is genuinely infuriating to realize how close we were to a program that would have done 700,000 viewers during a slow night in early 2024. Instead of seeing the two best talkers of their generation trade barbs, we watched Cody navigate a lukewarm angle with Shinsuke Nakamura and saw MJF get bogged down in the Cole-Kingdom mess. That is a booking fumble of epic proportions.

The missed opportunity of a lifetime

The biggest problem with modern wrestling creative is the refusal to pull the trigger when the heat is actually there. We saw it when they fumbled the Wardlow turn. We see it now with the disjointed booking on Collision. The fact that management sat on a Cody vs. MJF match—a feud that basically writes itself based on the history of the Elite and the early formation of AEW—is a staggering indictment of the front office's lack of foresight.

Cody is the guy who gave us that insane cage match against Wardlow and the blood-soaked masterpiece at Double or Nothing. MJF is the guy who carried three hours of Dynamite on his back for two years. Putting them in the ring together would have been the ultimate litmus test for who actually owns the company's soul. As recent reports on the internal state of AEW have hinted, the lack of cohesive long-term direction remains the biggest monkey on their back.

The damage is done

Does it actually change our current reality? Not really. Cody is off collecting belts at WrestleMania venues, and MJF is trying to stay relevant while the rest of the roster gets shuffled like a deck of cards. But knowing that this story was on the table makes it impossible to look at the current product without feeling like we got the bargain-bin version of a high-end steak dinner.

Maybe this is the reality check the creative team needs. They had the gold right there in their hands and dropped it face-down in the mud. Don't be surprised when the ratings continue to fluctuate between 650,000 and 800,000 week-to-week because the audience knows the difference between a real main event and a placeholder segment.

A final note on the state of the game

Ethan Page is doing what everyone in that company needs to do right now: being honest. When the history books are written about this era, the chapter on missed opportunities will be longer than the actual trophy case. If you keep ignoring the matches fans actually want to see, you aren't just losing viewers, you're losing the plot.

We can look back at the AEW career of Bryan Danielson and see a guy who knows how to make magic out of thin air, but he cannot fix a broken booking sheet by himself. The creative team has talent, but they act like a person afraid to click 'buy' on a 150 dollar checkout cart. It is time to stop playing safe and start matching the energy the fans are giving back.