Double or Nothing: Should Cody/Dustin Rhodes Match be MOTY?
Photo Credit: Wrestling News
At AEW’s inaugural “Double or Nothing” event, fans saw a lot of great action. SCU took on the Strong Hearts, Kenny Omega took on Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks took on the Lucha Brothers and others. You also had a lot of moments that saw Bret Hart appear and the debut of Jon Moxley (fka Dean Ambrose).
However, there was one match, in my opinion, was both a moment, match of the night; it should be put in the discussions for Match of the Year. I’m talking about the match between Cody and his older brother, Dustin Rhodes. WWE fans may remember Dustin Rhodes as Goldust in the WWE. Let’s first look at the build for this match. Since this match did feature one of the founding members of AEW, it was featured a lot in their Youtube series, The Road to Double or Nothing.
The story was you had two wrestlers from two different eras who were trying to prove themselves. On the hand with Dustin, he was trying to show that while he is on the older side, he isn’t ready to go out. On the side of Cody, he was trying to put an end to the Attitude Era. The match itself both told a great story. You got fans both at MGM and watching it on BR Live to become emotionally invested in it. We did see a lot of the moves both brothers used in WWE. You had Brandi Rhodes, Cody’s wife, get small parts in this match. It even got to the point that Diamond Dallas Page even paid a visit to the ring. This was to get Brandi out of the match. Cody ended up winning the match.
After the match, Cody had a few things to say. But the way he delivered it is how people remember it. After telling Dustin about his tag match at Fight for the Fallen, Cody then asked Dustin to be his partner. However, he said it like this, ” I don’t need a partner, I don’t need a friend, I need my older brother.” It was one of the first times that a promo made people cry. When people think of Double or Nothing, this will be the match that they will remember. If not for nothing, fans became very emotionally invested.
Jon is a diehard wrestling fan but still takes time to show his devotion to the Giants, Mets, and Knicks
Maybe.. it had all the elements that make a good match. Buildup was there, they told a story that started before the opening bell and went after the final one. Dustin never had a better match imo. Cody was fairly solid. One of those times where everything was going right. Even the DDT misstep came off looking good. The chairsmashing bit at the beginning distracted from something the Cody character should have been fully focused on but that was a minor story break and nitpick. Brandi’s small parts in the match added entertainment and got DDP involved which is always a good moment to have.
I feel I enjoyed a couple of matches more this year and it definitely wasnt the most athletic contest we’ve seen lately. But it was incredible and a top 5 performance to say the least. I dont think I’d be able to give a good argument against someone saying it was MOTY.