THIS Is The Most Complete Pro Wrestler In The World Right Now
His match with brother Dustin Rhodes was a heart-wrenching bloodbath that, from the fraught emotion to the bare-ass whippin', positively nailed, with scintillating drama and catharsis, the brotherly core. It was a masterpiece worked - or barely worked - so perfectly that it elicited tears from what is a desensitised and performative modern fanbase. Cody, of course, famously smashed Triple H's throne during his entrance - but working a better match in Triple H's style than Triple H ever did was the true flex. This was the perfect fusion of the headline and the story, and it was of vital importance to the emerging promotion. This in microcosm proved that AEW had the substance to back up the buzz.
Some doubts remained over how great Cody truly was. His next big pay-per-view offering, against Shawn Spears at All Out, was a far better spectacle than a match, and as tends to happen, it was overwhelmed with one too many ideas that opened up a logic gap. Far better was the Lance Archer match at this year's Double Or Nothing, a very slightly muddled finish aside.
One could aim a similar criticism at his Revolution match with MJF, which was a pulsating if uneven and unfocused brawl that realistically is best watched back now we are used to that neck tattoo. But here's the thing: it wasn't the classic grudge match the build suggested it would be, but the build was such seminal episodic pro wrestling television that it earned a very polite response. This is what separates Cody from virtually everybody else in pro wrestling: he has consistently generated interest in everything he has done in AEW from the very first Road To Double Or Nothing series to today. Not once has he experienced a lull.
He has mastered the story, the ending, and every beat in between to ramp up the anticipation for what he sells, with huge stakes and his trademark entourage, as a fight.
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