Why Dustin vs. Cody is the biggest match ever
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The weight of this announcement actually makes it the biggest match ever in the history of professional wrestling.
There are several reasons why you have to watch this match and here are all of them:
3 Decades In the Making - Brother vs. Brother
For 34 for years, when Cody Rhodes was born, this match became a possibilty. For a long time it was unclear if Cody Rhodes would even become a wrestler and follow his legendary father's, the WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes and his brother's, known to the masses as Goldust, footsteps and become a professional wrestler. At first he was leaning more towards becoming an actor - today he is both and so much more.
The match of matches has been teased quite a lot since Cody joined WWE in 2006. For example around 2008/2009 when Goldust and Cody Rhodes both wrestled on RAW, in a segment that has since been deleted, Goldust presented Cody Rhodes with a DVD in a backstage segment. Because the DVD had the match 'Dustin Rhodes vs. Steve Austin' on it, Cody refused the offer.
In the 2009 Royal Rumble Goldust and Cody Rhodes got involved in a fight, that was ended when Orton put Goldust out with an RKO, making it possible for Cody to eliminate his golden brother.
In 2011 it seemed like Goldust had retired from wrestling, but he appeared as Dustin Rhodes during the feud of Booker T and Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Title. He just could not wait in the back when his best friend and his brother are fighting. Cody then attacked Dustin. The following week saw Dustin trying to convince Cody that he is in the wrong. WWE did not follow up on this. Dustin left the company shortly after.
In one of the most shocking and earth-shattering Royal Rumble returns in history, Goldust served for one of the biggest crowd reactions of the night as he appeared and immediatly took on his brother in an epic brawl. WWE, shocked by the amazing reaction, signed Goldust back a few months later and put him into a major storyline, involving The Authority, The Shield, Cody Rhodes, Dusty Rhodes and WWE Champion Randy Orton.
WWE fired Cody Rhodes in storyline, when Goldust returned to face the WWE Champion Randy Orton. The stipulation said, if Goldust would be able to defeated the champion, Cody would get his job back. Goldust came very close to beat Orton on RAW, but was unable to.
This called for their father, the WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, to appear on RAW calling out Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, demanding the injustice to stop. The Authority answered and offered The Rhodes Family a deal:
If they could beat the undefeated and dominant Shield (Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins, accompanied by Dean Ambrose), who also were the WWE Tag Team Champions, Cody would get his job back and and in addition Goldust would also get a new contract with WWE. But if they would lose to The Shield, Dusty would be fired from his job at NXT and the entire Rhodes Family would be banned from the WWE forever.
At Battleground 2013 Cody and Goldust, accompanied by their father, did the unthinkable and were able to defeat The Shield. Not only did they became the first team to ever do this, they did in one of the best matches i have ever seen. Truly remarkable.
The following night on RAW they became the WWE Tag Team Champions, beating The Shield again. Their reign was seen as fantastic as Goldust and Cody Rhodes were included in a series of awesome Tag Teams Matches on RAW for the following months.
After they dropped the Tag Team Titles to The New Age Outlaws, Cody became unhappy with his performance and rather then teasing a turn, STARDUST was born as Cody's new character that was an hommage to Goldust.
Once again the became WWE Tag Team Champions, before they dropped the title to The Miz and Damien Mizdow.
In early 2015 Stardust then turned on Goldust.
With Dusty Rhodes unable to solve the issues with words, he asked Goldust to hurt Cody/Stardust during their match at WWE Fastlane 2015.Goldust beat Stardust at WWE Fastlane, but was attacked by Stardust afterwards. The match was received as boring by the WWE audience and backstage. The reason for that was the storyline required Goldust to go soft on Stardust in order to have a bigger and propper match the following Pay-Per-View: WrestleMania. This part of the storyline never translated to the majority of the audience or even Vince McMahon, who cancelled the match for WrestleMania, ruining the big match once again.
In May 2016 Cody Rhodes surprisingly asked for his release with WWE. 11 months after the passing of his legendary father, Dusty Rhodes. With Goldust approaching 50 and remaining under a WWE contract, once again, like it did in 2011 (when Goldust left WWE), this match seemed like it would never happen. Until....until now!
The Legacy
As touched on earlier, Dustin and Cody are brothers. And they are the sons of WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes. For those who do not know: Dusty Rhodes is one of the biggest legends of the wrestling business. Not only was he able to win an insane amount of championships, including NWA World Titles, during his career, his feud with Ric Flair is probably one of the greatest feuds of all time. The man known as The American Dream is remaining in people's mouth until this day as he ensured the future of this business. After he retired from wrestling Dusty worked as a writer, especially for WCW, where he came up with the STARRCADE pay-per-view name aswell as the WAR GAMES match. Also: To this day, when a wrestler is believed to have won the match, but the match result is reversed due to a technicality this is called the 'Dusty Finish', as this is what he loved to book for this matches.
But that was not all: With NXT Dusty Rhodes impacted the future of this business, probably forever. Almsot every WWE Superstar is influenced by Dusty Rhodes and his knowledge. In post-mortem honors WWE also created the annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament, as Rhodes loved Tag Team Wrestling and unveiled a bronze-statue of the Common Man - an honor only the biggest wrestling legends receive.
No wonder both Goldust and Cody Rhodes have a tough time filling the gigantic shoes of Dusty Rhodes.
At one point in his career Dustin learned that is just not possible, but he was able to create his own legacy with the amazing Goldust character, who helped kicking of the beloved Attitude Era in the WWF(WWE before 2002) with the WrestleMania Hollywood Backlot-Brawl in 1996 against Roddy Piper, aswell as wrestling as the character for WWE in the 90s, 00s and 10s. Goldust also won the WWE Intercontinental Title 3 times, is an 8-time Hardcore Champion and held the WWE Tag Team Titles with Booker T and Cody Rhodes.
Cody Rhodes, who made his official WWE main roster debut in 2007, is a 6-time Tag Team Champion. He held the title with Hardcore Holly, Ted DiBaise Jr., Drew McIntyre and Goldust.His most celebrated time in the WWE came when he won the WWE Intercontinental Title on two occasions.After quitting WWE the held multiple titles, most notably the ROH Six-Men Tag Titles with The Young Bucks, the IWGP United States Title, the Ring of Honor World Title and the NWA Championship, which he won from Nick Aldis at the ALL IN event. A legendary moment as he literally following his father footsteps by winning the title that Dusty made famous. But not only that, he did at ALL IN, a wrestling show with the aim to to sell over 10,000 tickets for a wrestling show, something no one has done since WCW folded in 2001. Cody Rhodes, aswell as the Young Bucks and Adam Page took the challenge and did it. The show sparked the idea for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), that Cody and his friends, with the help of multi-millionair Tony Khan, announced to the world on January 1st 2019. A promotion set-up 'change the world' as the first big alternative to WWE in almost 20 years. The show Double or Nothing in May is going to be the start of that.
As you can see. Both created their own legacies in a unique way, despite having the large shadow of their legendary father behind them. Insane that these two are brothers, brothers who could not be more different. There lies a lot of weight in a collision. A lot you can work with.
Amazing Talents Collide
You now have learned that both are brothers almost destined to collide in the ring and both carry an incredible legacy.
But what about the actual match and it's build?
Well you can expect big things.
As I pointed out earlier, Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs. The Shield was an amazing match. Watch it on the WWE Network: Here.
As Cody states in the backstage promo before the match, he gives his brother a lot of credit for his incredible in-ring skill. And that is true. In three decades inside the ring, Goldust rarely under-performed. For example on a random episode of WWE Superstars him and then World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho produced an in-ring classic.
But Dustin's talent does not stop there. His comedic and serious sides are both intriguing and super entertaining to watch. His promo can captivate you or just make you laugh real hard. His passion for the business and for the Goldust character he portrayed for such a long time were incredible.
And Cody Rhodes is no different. The launch of AEW is not convincing you? Then go watch his match against. His match against Jay Lethal at Ring of Honor's Final Battle 2018 was one of the biggest ROH World Title matches in history. Go watch it on HONORCLUB here.
And let's not forget Dashing Cody Rhodes, Stardust or whatever gimmick Cody was tasked for portray in WWE. He made it work, against all odds.
The Rhodes work best when there are no restrictions and emotions are involved.
We have that with AEW and Double or Nothing.
A match even Triple H wants to see, atleast he had to convince Goldust to actually grant him his release. Red more on that here: wrestletalk.com.
Still not convinced? It might be Dustin's last ride, so you better watch! Or is it?
Rest in Peace Dusty Rhodes 1945-2015. You are missed.
