THIS Is The Most Complete Pro Wrestler In The World Right Now
Cody, in effect, realised a dream many thought impossible. WWE was too visible, too dominant. Sponsors couldn't accept the grittier version of pro wrestling WWE were fiendishly clever enough to bury, not that the monopoly meant there was a market for it, anyway.
September 1, 2018 was the first turning point. It was the night on which Cody perfected what was, for a time, his trademark match style.
What an outrageous flex it was: he worked an unfashionable talent in Nick Aldis, at a time when wrestling was fashionable, for a title some three decades away from its old prestige. He mastered the rhythms of the traditional classic pro wrestling match in such a way that it never once resonated as cosplay. This was timeless wrestling all the better for its contrast to the electric state-of-the-art fare elsewhere on the card. Cody was clever - ingenious - enough to make universal storytelling unique to himself as a USP.
When old school minds talk of "psychology" and "slowing it down," a lot of them are patronising you. They want to tell a story they think you are capable of understanding. There's no arcane, dark art. They think you won't get it, otherwise. There is immense artistic value to the slow build, when not done out of condescension, and Cody mastered it just under a year later.
AEW Double Or Nothing was Cody's breakthrough into the stratosphere of greatness.
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