10 Modern Wrestling Moments That Gave You Chills
1. "I Need My Older Brother"
AEW Double Or Nothing felt like a special night well before the sun set in Las Vegas. Cody and Dustin Rhodes, in their emotional, traditional classic, elevated it to something more towering than even that.
In many respects, this was the perfect work.
The emotion was earnest. Real. Cody and Dustin were told by WWE that their story wasn't rich enough for adaptation on the Grandest Stage, and instead micromanaged it at Fastlane 2015 in a humiliating - fateful - disaster. Cody and Dustin harnessed this simmering resentment and worked it into a tale of two brothers and the dramatic eruption of their fabricated, complicated relationship. This manifested as a primal, blood-drenched battle in which the older, battered brother bled like a fountain. He leaned into the disturbing visual - that claret thickened and oozed, poetically, like paint - by selling as if his life, let alone his dignity, was on the line.
But he worked it.
As the molten, anxious fans reached for their smartphones to book a transfusion on his behalf, Dustin revealed the genius of his performance by nailing his brother, who operated in prime little-bastard mode, with a stunning sunset flip powerbomb. He didn't need a trip to the hospital; he just made everybody think that he did. But Cody, in a tear-soaked coda felt by all, needed his older brother. Cue a hug, and a visual, that will live on forever.
Blood, sweat, tears: Cody did the work, all right.