10 Essential AEW Matches For New Fans
6. Cody Rhodes Vs Brodie Lee - Dynamite, August 22nd 2020
A decimation when one couldn't possibly have been predicted, Brodie Lee assumed control of a title for real in a presentation of wrestling television that was so impossibly perfect that it became arguably the company's greatest ever moment. And all from a run that was cut cruelly, cruelly short by his tragic passing later in the year.
Cody's first TNT Championship reign was the first overt step AEW took in acknowledging the wider wrestling world. A victory for ambition even when it very occasionally slipped up in execution, that one title reign could encompass defences against the likes of Sonny Kiss, Warhorse and Eddie Kingston spoke to Rhodes' ambition to be an Ace and an EVP at the same time.
Brodie Lee saw no romance in any of this, and instead fumed that Cody would simply see him as another challenger-of-the-week rather than somebody about to discus lariat the p*ss-coloured hair from his head.
He did just that in an iconic one-sided assault that concluded with his smashing the bagged pieces of the original TNT belt across the former Champion's skull. An incredible and iconic bit of business, this showed AEW's resilience and reach when it came to their bad ideas as well as an unreal sense of how to execute their great ones. Lee and The Dark Order were all the way over in an instant, and it's all the more devastating he never had the opportunity to enjoy fruits of his hard labour.