30 Best AEW Matches Ever (So Far...)
4. Cody Vs. Dustin Rhodes (Double Or Nothing 2019)
With hindsight, there is just one flaw to a Muta Scale-breaking masterpiece so incredible that, you could argue, it made the entire promotion: Dustin Rhodes has wrestled, and wrestled brilliantly, for several years subsequently.
Does Dustin’s continued excellence undermine his doomed last stand? Or does it highlight the genius of the work?
On May 25, 2019, it truly felt like Dustin Rhodes was narrowly surviving his last ever in-ring showing. Hell: drenched in blood and barely able to lift his shoulder off the mat, in the unsettling devastation of the moment, thousands of crying fans were begging for him to be airlifted out of the ring and given a blood transfusion.
The emotional extremes were profoundly intense. Before Dustin sold the entire arena on the idea that he was dying, he had busted out a senton to the outside. The shift from “He’s still got it!” to “He can’t stand under his own power” was horrifying to endure.
In an all-timer of a hope spot loaded with wit and the interior lives of the characters, Dustin rose from the dead and spanked his brother’s ass. That was amazing. Cody was such a brilliantly cocky prick throughout.
The last time true, earnest distress was felt in a pro wrestling ring, Cody Vs. Dustin was so powerful that the match alone substantiated AEW’s lofty, impossible promise.
AEW really did bring wrestling back.