10 Most Important Matches In Modern Wrestling History
4. Cody Vs. Dustin Rhodes - AEW Double Or Nothing 2019
AEW Double Or Nothing had be great. It could not be merely very good.
AEW had - and it was marketing, but you had to believe it for it all to work - promised to change the world. Anything less than a seminal show, one so great that it did nothing less than restore your faith in the medium, would have been unacceptable. The promotional bluster was that intense.
The main event was saved by the shocking, awesome debut of Jon Moxley, but watching it back, Kenny Omega Vs. Chris Jericho II really fell apart by the finish. The Young Bucks Vs. Lucha Bros. was fantastic - the Bucks working through "ring rust" was an inspired choice to articulate the promise of a "sports-oriented" presentation - but it wasn't the true classic that Tony Khan needed to build his credibility and that of AEW.
Cody Rhodes Vs. Dustin Rhodes was that classic: a match so unforgettable in its emotion and drama that it reduced many in the crowd to years.
Dustin leaked so much blood that the drama verged on the harrowing, the unbearable. Cody played situational heel, almost patronising his older brother, which drove the fan support of Dustin to a near-unparalleled extent. Watching a visibly, literally drained Dustin only just getting the shoulder up when caught in the figure-four was as stirring as wrestling gets - and the catharsis of the spot in which Dustin spanked his brother's bare arse was the sort of only-in-wrestling joy that reminded fans of how distinctly great the medium could be.
Cody Vs. Dustin was so different to the genre that helped create AEW that it underscored AEW's "something for everybody" USP - and was so timelessly great that it proved AEW, on night one, had staying power.