Hyrule Husky ‎@PrinceCGR
(1/2) The past ten years have been quite the trek, but as of earlier today I have asked for my release from @WWE
1:33 PM - 21 May 2016
906 906 Retweets 686 686 likes
Follow
Hyrule Husky ‎@PrinceCGR
(2/2) I'll speak further on the matter shortly. Thank you to all the pro-wrestling/sports entertainment fans worldwide. Thank you
1:34 PM - 21 May 2016
755 755 Retweets 652 652 likes

That's Cody Rhodes on his personal Twitter account revealing that he has asked WWE to release him. Rhodes has been working as Stardust dating back to June 2014 but the character never really caught on beyond leading to actor Stephen Amell working a tag match at SummerSlam. He's teased going back to his original character at various points, but it never happened. His father, Dusty Rhodes, who he was very close with, died in June of last year, though it's unclear if that has played a role in his decision here. He said last year that he continued working as the Stardust character to honor his dad.

Cody Rhodes being Stardust was essentially a career killer...when he and Goldust were feuding with the Authority he was red hot then they for some reason killed his momentum by giving him a gimmick that never got over. They should of had Goldust turn heel and have Cody go over in that feud to keep it going.

Yeah I don't even keep up with WWE anymore but I've seen/heard about his Stardust gimmick and didn't really like it. Still though, kinda sad he's asking to leave.

I think he was amazing when he was paired with Damien Sandow. As a heel, he's an amazing performer, and his Cody Rhodes gimmick was always very good. Pity to see the WWE never tried to give him some nice push on better titles...

WWE just Tweeted that he's been released.

This sucks but it's not like he was going anywhere as Stardust.

Cody Rhodes was a good wrestler and made every gimmick work, including the one he use to wear the mask to protect his face.

It sucks WWE didn't do the best with him, and sad they never let him bring Cody back when he asked. Sucks to see him go, good luck Cody Rhodes with the future

As noted, Cody Rhodes requested and received his WWE release over the weekend.

In Rhodes' statement that he posted online yesterday, Rhodes mentioned that he had "pleaded with WWE Creative" to drop the Stardust character and become Cody Rhodes again. He wrote:

In the past 6-months I had pleaded with WWE Creative and both of my bosses to let me roll-the-dice and once again be Cody Rhodes. I had pitched to every writer on the staff like a door-to-door salesman on "how" & "why" & "when"…and believe me, there are many of those who sought to help me (Brian James, Nick, Faz, J Russo, Dave K, JBL & Cole for letting me go wild on their YouTube show and a few others I'm sure) but for all that, both "head writers" of RAW & Smackdown (one pretending to be Brian Gewirtz and the other too busy hitting on developmental divas) continued to not return my pitches or e-mails, and in face-to-face encounters tried to big league me by pretending to be on their clearly powered-off laptops…barely willing to listen to an idea I considered beneficial to more than one talent. What's that expression? Don't take no for an answer…what do you do when you don't get an answer at all?

You may recall back in March that Rhodes started teasing the end of the Stardust character on social media. Dave Meltzer noted on the most recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that the plan was in fact for Rhodes to drop the Stardust gimmick right around WrestleMania 32 - or the night after - and go back to simply being Cody Rhodes.

"Vince McMahon and Triple H - and it was more Vince McMahon on this one, from what I was told - they decided [that] we're not going to do it," Meltzer said.

Meltzer noted that despite being released by WWE, Rhodes is still being held to his WWE contract and the split is "not amicable." Meltzer said that WWE is "kind of putting the screws to him," and that since Rhodes quit, they are trying to make it hard for him contractually to do anything for another wrestling company.

WWE

Eden Stiles has asked for her release too and is now gone too

I loved the Stardust gimmick, I hated the way it was booked though.