10 Awesome AEW Booking Moments Nobody Ever Talks About
2. The Perfect Stipulation
People do talk about it, but in weirdly negative tones for what was a sensational, pay-per-view-calibre television match. It was felt by some that Cody "buried" Mr. Brodie Lee upon recapturing the TNT Title.
This take should be illegal. Cody bumped on tacks to get Eddie Kingston over. He got more than over; he secured his first mainstream contract, and he is hours away from headlining Full Gear.
But it isn't.
Regardless, even if you believe this to be an hubristic booking move, it was still a damn good one. Cody had to be written out ahead of joining the Go Big Show bubble. He did so by dropping the TNT Title to Brodie in a shocking match-cum-angle on Saturday Night Dynamite. He was destroyed. As the babyface and top star - he is prohibited from doing that which Kenny Omega "should" be doing, to understand how bullsh*t so much of the backlash was - he returned to avenge his big loss.
The stipulation was perfectly germane to the storyline, and it was yet more inspired because Cody excels at anything adjacent to '80s territorial wrestling.
Brodie, furious that Cody had ran away just to scurry back at his convenience, vowed to batter him like a scolded dog with a chain. Cody sold that abuse masterfully in his trademark modernised update on a timeless old standard. Enriched by shared universe storytelling - the All Out eight-man, Brandi Rhodes Vs. Anna Jay - all of this was fantastic, well-plotted, and booked in the old-school spirit.
It was everything pro wrestling had missed for two decades, and everything AEW is also criticised for not doing (!).