10 Secret Genius Details Behind Wrestling Finishers

5. Cody's Cross Rhodes

Kenny Omega One Winged Angel
Lee South/AEW

Vince McMahon gets a bit lost in his old age, doesn't he.

He has long outlawed the piledriver, having deemed it dangerous, and yet he has allowed variations of the Canadian destroyer on the main roster. It is a piledriver. A more convoluted and therefore more ambitious and risky piledriver. Cody also, somewhat ingeniously, "stole one" by using a crown-first cutter variation on television, which was cool in itself, but it was not the secret detail behind its brilliance.

Cody Rhodes has a magnificently expressive face. His amazing, hyper-jock energy on peak Being The Elite was so fabulously aggressive that he got a flat earther over as a babyface. That face was also perfect for playing a babyface himself.

The first indication of his potential greatness unfolded at Battleground 2013, when, at the height of a beautiful throwback tag, he put Rollins away with his finish to save his job. He roared with such fire that his open mouth took up his entire face.

WWE of course obscured that face and those eyes with paint and contact lenses.

Cody's Cross Rhodes allows him to project the emotion with which he connected so profoundly with fans that he helped form a major company for them.

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Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!