Paul Heyman Doesn't Have To Choose Between Oba Femi & Cody Rhodes
There are a lot of names for managers in wrestling. In addition to simply being called managers, they’ve been seconds, agents, advocates, advisors and more, often with quite the result. You can find some absolutely great success with wrestlers getting together with the right representation and it can be incredible to see the combinations hooking up.
That’s what we’ve been seeing teased in recent months and it gives me an idea.
Cody Rhodes Needs A Change
While there are a lot of talented wrestlers on the WWE roster, the most prominent very well might be Cody Rhodes. He’s been the focal point of the company for a good while now and while he might have taken a step down in the last few months, he’s still one of the featured players and having him back on top would hardly be a stretch. That’s all well and good, but something is missing.
Rhodes just hasn’t been himself in recent months and a lot of that might be due to him needing a change. After years of trying to Finish The Story, there isn’t much else for him to do at the moment. The best version of Rhodes is one that is angry and ticked off, so it might be time for him to embrace that side of things. Granted that might not be something he wants to do, but it might just have to happen anyway.
In the last few months, Rhodes has needed to show a more aggressive side to himself but has been unable to pull the trigger. That is quite the problem for him, but there are certain people who could help do something about it. One of them has even teased being willing to help Rhodes, which is where things get interesting.
Could Paul Heyman Be The Change Cody Rhodes Needs?
Earlier this year, Rhodes spoke to Heyman in a brief backstage meeting, with Heyman saying something to the effect of “sooner or later, everyone needs the Wise Man”. A few months later, Rhodes has begun suggesting that he needs to get more evil to start dealing with the people who are coming after him, including Randy Orton.
Now this makes for an interesting situation where two people both need something. Hold your finger there as we’ll come back to it in a minute.
Paul Heyman's Interest In Oba Femi
SmackDown might have Rhodes but over on the other show, you have Monday Night Raw’s Oba Femi. You don’t see people like him come along very often and it’s clear that WWE seems to know they have something in him. He’s big, he’s strong, he has the strut down and the fans like him. At the same time he got to beat Brock Lesnar in what seemed to be his retirement match (twice) and that’s about all you need to know about where he is in the company’s eyes. That’s a good place to be in, but it seems that there might be something afoot.
Femi spent months feuding with Lesnar and that seems to have gotten the attention of Lesnar’s advocate Heyman. Both before and following Lesnar’s loss to Femi at Summerslam, Heyman has been transfixed by Femi and seems interested in doing something professionally with him in the future. This includes watching Femi’s defeat of Lesnar on a loop and seemingly being in awe of Femi. That should be enough to get some interest, though there is little to suggest that Femi seems to care that much.
Now, where does that leave us? Well in theory, it would suggest that Heyman is at least going to try to get his hands on either Femi or Rhodes. There are far worse options for him as both have their own strengths and would make lucrative clients. The seeds have been planted, or at least suggested, for both of them, but that brings up the question of which way to go. That’s what has me thinking, and it’s not something you see too often in WWE these days.
Maybe Paul Heyman Should Manage Both Cody Rhodes & Oba Femi
In the words of a certain famous moment in Heyman’s ECW: “I’ll take em both, I’m hardcore.”
Why not have Heyman manage both of them? I’d rather have that over Heyman picking one of them over the other. You don’t need to have them team up or be a new Two Man Power Trip or anything close to it. Just have Heyman jump back and forth between them like he was doing with the Vision and Lesnar. It doesn’t have to be a full time thing for both of them and you could have the stars work together when necessary. It’s worked before and it could work again.
I’ll spare you anything resembling fantasy booking because it really doesn’t need to happen here. This hardly feels like some big, major story that would change everything in WWE. Heyman has worked with multiple clients at the same time in the past and he could do it again here. It’s certainly something that could have benefits for everyone involved, which is always nice to see.
If nothing else, Rhodes being a heel could give him a very new direction, as it feels like something he has been needing for a long time now. Rhodes is only so interesting doing the same stuff over and over again and it is giving him diminishing results. Fix that up by giving him a fresh way to go, particularly in a new direction, which could do him quite a bit of good.
As for Femi….well that’s a bit more complicated. It would seemingly be insane to have him turn heel at this point as he’s rather popular and already beat Lesnar in the Cell without anyone’s help. Why would he turn now? In short, he really doesn’t need to do so and the only way would be to have him stay a good guy with Heyman being the same way. If nothing else, who else could pull the whole thing off besides Heyman? He’s pulled off complicated things before and I’d buy him doing it again here.
Could Paul Heyman Actually Make This Work?
Now, do I think they’ll actually do this? Of course not. There are all kinds of problems that could arise from the two of them both siding with Heyman, even if one or neither of them changed sides. Heyman could do all kinds of things to make this work, but it might be better if he just sticks with one of them, and he probably will. You know, assuming he picks of them of them at all and it isn’t some big ruse.
All I think of this whole thing is that it seems like Heyman is teasing wanting to work with both of them and it would be fun to see him just get both of them. Part of wrestling is just having a bunch of fun thinking about what could happen, even if it’s something that is totally insane. That’s where this would be, and maybe it winds up happening and working. I mean, at some point someone thought Mean Mark Callous should be…. geez, call him an MMA Zombie Cowboy Of Death?
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