10 Times A Wrestler Went On An Insane Streak Of Matches
8. Cody's TNT Title Open Challenge
Is this the story bleeding into the take? If so, that's illustrative of its power; Cody's TNT Title run was attacked by bad faith critics as a vanity project when in fact the opposite is true.
Cody has sacrificed his babyface darling aura to get the undercard over; the idea, and it has manifested wonderfully, is to elevate his opponents by adopting a new, very aggressive demeanour. He has to flirt with suspect sportsmanship to win. The challenge is so strong that he has to sacrifice his core ideals and the best part of himself just to hold on. He gets his opponents over in defeat because would that win even happen, if he didn't hold on to a submission that bit longer than necessary, or if he didn't ruthlessly target an injured body part?
He had to taste his own blood to put the spirited Jungle Boy away. He had to risk exacerbating Marq Quen's injured ankle to overcome his stunning aerial threat in a match that showed a depth behind the Private Party man's usual hollow sugar rush. His matches with Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston - respectively, a flexing duel and an emotive, full-force brawl - were so effective that both men earned a contract in the aftermath. Cody even worked a tremendous match with Jake Hager, who has otherwise failed to convince.
This is what top guys do, and in doing so, Cody has already achieved his self-imposed objective: he's becoming as much of a master bell-to-bell as he is on the stick.