The NJPW Origins Of Cody Rhodes' Hilarious Listening Meme, Explained
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If you've spent some time following former AEW EVP and current WWE superstar Cody Rhodes on social media, you've probably seen one particular gif. The meme features Cody cupping his ear as the camera zooms in on him. It's usually used by wrestling fans to show they're interested in something, or that they suspect Cody is paying close attention to a particular topic.
RELATED: The Origins Of Randy Orton's RKO Finisher, ExplainedThe story behind this meme goes back a lot farther than a lot of fans might think. It goes back to Cody's days in New Japan Pro Wrestling when he was a member of the infamous Bullet Club faction alongside the Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Kenny Omega. Specifically, the meme was created during the Elite's most infamous (and perhaps most popular) storyline to date.
Back In NJPW, The Elite Gave Themselves Superpowers
NJPW gives their wrestlers a lot of creative freedom. Their promos are completely unscripted, giving wrestlers the leeway to drive their storylines in essentially any direction they want, provided they hit the bullet points laid out by the booker. NJPW is a very sports-based promotion, though, so while NJPW wrestlers have creative freedom, they don't get much promo time or talk-based segments on NJPW shows. The Elite thrived in this sort of environment. They wrote their own long-term stories for themselves and used their Youtube show, Being the Elite, to flesh them out further.
RELATED: Here's What Tony Khan Should Do With The CM Punk & The Elite's Beef In AEWIn 2018, the Elite crafted their Bullet Club Civil War storyline. For whatever reason, they incorporated superpowers into it. Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks had a heightened sense of smell, Kenny could teleport, and Nick Jackson could see into the future. Oftentimes their powers contributed to the story in pretty unexpected ways; Nick, for example knew that Cody and Kenny would face off against each other in the ring before the two of them did. Matt's power was admittedly much less useful, but he was able to use it to smell the chloroform used by Flip Gordon to attack Kenny (yes, this is a convoluted storyline). Cody was the villain of this story, and consequently used his power of super-hearing to manipulate the Elite.
Cody Rhodes' Power Was Super-Hearing
The original gif of Cody cupping his ear toward the camera comes from an episode of Being the Elite. He would listen in on conversations between the Young Bucks in order to anticipate their next move and manipulate them. The basis of Bullet Club's Civil War was that Cody was jealous of Kenny's position as the faction's leader and wanted to take that power for himself. In Cody's mind, he had to convince the Young Bucks to turn on Kenny to secure his spot as the Bullet Club's top dog. His constant eavesdropping gave him insight into the Bucks' relationship with Kenny and gave him ways to drive a wedge between them.
RELATED: Cody Rhodes & Randy Orton’s WWE Friendship, Explained
When the Bullet Club Civil War storyline ended, the Elite's superpowers were all pretty much forgotten about. Cody had since changed his heelish ways and has moved on from the Elite entirely, but his meme lives on nonetheless.
Once The Meme Took Off, Cody Took It With Him To AEW, And Then To WWE
The joke was referenced or repeated several times over the course of Cody's AEW career, especially on BTE. Additionally, fans would often use the gif as a reply to WWE releases, insinuating that the former WWE superstar would be on their way to AEW soon. Now that Cody's in WWE, though, the meme's understandably not really used in that context anymore.
RELATED: MJF References WWE's Triple H And Cody Rhodes In AEW Dynamite Return PromoCody himself continues to use the meme on his Twitter page; for example, he used it to allude to a new action figure reveal at WWE and Mattel's Comic-Con panel.
WWE is also in on the joke; when Cody appeared as a guest on Steve Austin's Broken Skull Sessions podcast, Cody and Austin filmed a video of themselves recreating the meme to promote the episode.
The listening meme is definitely a niche, inside joke among wrestling fans on social media. However, it's very likely that a lot of the fans who use the gif on Twitter don't know the full backstory behind it, especially now that we're several years removed from Cody's NJPW run. Still, it's an interesting (if not bizarre) story for fans to know.
