WWE: Why Cody Rhodes Should Not Have Changed His Gimmick

Since November 14 of last year, Cody Rhodes is no longer haunted by his demons.

He is no longer the insecure narcissist who hides his self-imposed anxieties behind a plastic mask.

Not to mention, his days of paper-bagging an opponent's head are also gone.

As a result, Cody Rhodes is estranged from the gimmick that brought him so much momentum.

While he may still be "dashing," Rhodes is lost at sea, without an anchor, drifting out to the horizon with the WWE's other homogeneous creations.

It didn't have to be this way, but Rhodes is now just another wrestler the casual viewer will have trouble distinguishing from the rest of the talent pool.

The sad part is, it didn't have to be this way.

However, following the definitive blows sustained in his intense feud with Randy Orton, Rhodes has taken several steps back.

Common sense at the time would've dictated that the current Intercontinental Champion would be groomed for bigger and better opportunities.

In their series of matches, Orton and Rhodes affected a palpable animosity between each other, culminating in bloodletting that at one point had to be edited out of an episode of SmackDown.

It was reminiscent of a bygone era when wrestlers weren't afraid to show a little "attitude" in the squared circle.

Instead of having him ride the crest of upward velocity, though, the WWE creative team ostensibly decided to repackage Cody Rhodes in an effort to start fresh.

The problem is that they shed him of his attributes that were not only original, but differentiated him from his peers.

It wasn't just about the aesthetics, either; the mask and the paper bags played integral parts in making Rhodes an effective, heat-garnering heel.

"Dashing" Cody Rhodes, the masked manic-depressive, would not have looked out of place among fleshed out heel characters like Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Rick "The Model" Martel and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase.

And Rhodes' gimmick, while an homage to the WWE's classic era, had enough modern elements in it to continue being a viable commodity.

Now, Rhodes is divested of his identity, denuded and pared down to an ordinary man with little appeal.

It's not just a matter of qualitative observation, but quantifiable evidence, as well.

Is it really a coincidence that Cody Rhodes went from feuding with Orton to quarreling with SmackDown commentator Booker T and, most recently, his brother Dustin whose prime was in the last century?