i find it interesting when people think codys bullet club or BTE heel era was his "real" self and he's being forced by wwe to be a cookie cutter babyface now. I can totally understand finding his bullet club era the most interesting era or not enjoying the current persona but the american nightmare is the character he's been crafting his whole career, esp given when he had full creative control of his character at the start of aew he chose to be the white meat babyface american nightmare. when he left wwe he needed to court an audience outside of it, that followed indie wrestling. and the easiest way to get over with smarks is to be the cool heel, the one who says truth to power and does bad things. cm punk practically wrote the book on it. and I deeply enjoyed him trying to take over bullet club and creating interpersonal drama between the golden lovers kenny omega and ibushi by way of forced infidelity and having a beautiful heel valet in his wife and the smashing of triple h's throne and all, and it worked! for a moment in time, he was the hottest indie pro wrestler in the world. but if you follow his career, if you read the letter he wrote when he announced he was leaving wwe, to his aew dynamite promo, to his first promo returning on raw they all share the same vein. he's been redoing and reworking parts of that promo for a decade — he wanted to be wwe world champion that his dad never could. he had to leave wwe when they didn't see him as the guy he always saw himself as. he wanted to be john cena. the dynamics of a heel run in the indies vs wwe is also different, in the independent scene you're doing a bunch of different shows for different promotions and they have their own signed talent they want to put over so you can show up and be a heel who steals the show, accrue a following. new japan often booked the gaijins to lose to the home talent (coincidentally where cody came up with the american nightmare, as they were familiar with the american dream, his father). in wwe a show that has a fixed cast and regular programming, the role of a heel is to put the babyface in a position where you cheer for the good guy. they don't always succeed in that, and that's on wwe's writing fault but that is their purpose and cody has said himself, a heel shouldn't be giving you what you want. they should be taking something away from you, which makes you mad. and there's the other thing, that he's a dad now. the things he thought cool doing in his late 20s and early 30s, he doesn't anymore because people change. he wants to be a good role model for his kids -- he's talked about how he doesn't even like swearing on the show anymore cause there's kids in the audience, and he's someone who grew up worshipping his father; ofc he'd want his daughters to see him as that same superhero figure. if you watch his 2022 stuff returning to wwe he's genuinely elated he got to play the character he'd been building towards his whole career and the audience was responding to it like crazy (aew audiences had turned on him at that point and were demanding a heel turn). I will say codys not as cookie cutter as the surface level might seem. he alabama slammed kevin owens over a ladder so brutally it ended the match, the I quit match with aj styles where he hit him with the steel steps after he quit, the mania match with randy orton where he wiped randy's blood over his dream tattoo on his heart! even this whole saga with sami zayn where he told him to his face he'll never be world champion, he's not good enough all not very perfect good guy things to do. I think his character tries really hard to be good but he also spent his first wwe run and his indie run being a heel, so he's definitely capable of it. ultimately, cody is exactly where he wants to be. if/when his wwe heel turn happens, it won't be a cool heel you cheer or else he will have failed by his own standards. much like the bullet club is dead, so is bullet club cody, and just like dashing/undashing/rhodes scholar/stardust that version of cody is a fractured part of his current self.
