10 Biggest Highlights Of Cody Rhodes' AEW Career

There’s an incredible, iconic shot of Cody, face right up to the camera, selling the pain of MJF whipping him with his belt. Each one of those lashes resonated. It was almost as if we could feel them ourselves. Cody winced and the world winced with him.

This was the first time the Dynamite audience had seen MJF’s particular brand of delaying tactics and while he hoped to keep Cody at bay, failing that he would deliver as much damage to Cody ahead of their eventual match as possible.

The human back is, in theory, one of the safe spaces where workers can hit each other hard without causing any serious damage, but that doesn’t extend to leather belts. The photos of Cody’s lacerated skin showed how much he was willing to suffer for his art and our entertainment. Of course these days Instagram shots of cuts and welts after cage matches and the like are par for the course but this was elevated by the character work of both men.

Situational face or heel he may be, but his MJF feud allowed for no shades of grey. This was full-on babyface Cody, refusing to back down and doing whatever it takes to get his match in one of AEW’s most memorable segments ever.