Cody Rhodes Reflects On His Classic Meeting With Dustin At Double Or Nothing, Names Darby Allin Match As His Favorite In AEW

AEW superstar and Executive VP Cody Rhodes recently spoke to Inside the Ropes about a wide range of topics, which included the American Nightmare looking back on his classic encounter with his brother Dustin at the inaugural Double or Nothing pay per view, and how his favorite match for the promotion was against Darby Allin at Fyter Fest 2019. Highlights from the interview are below.

Says he knows how special that matchup with Dustin was at the inaugural AEW Double or Nothing:

I knew when I was in the arena, and in the moment, that something very special was happening. Our generation really takes it for granted when we say, ‘We got them’ because, nine times out of ten, when we say it, we don’t got them. That was one where I was like, ‘Oh, we really do.’ It’s so special that I share that connection with the audience, with my brother who, for the most part, all of the match, I kept thinking about, ‘He’s bleeding too much.’ And it wasn’t a matter of like, ‘Gosh, that’s cool. It’s wrestling, there’s blood.’ I was very concerned. ‘Well, we have X amount left, I don’t want him to pass out or be hurt,’ and a lot of what you see in the later part of the match is actually me coddling him via violence, which can only happen in wrestling.

Says that while he loves the match and ranks it in his top five, it is not his favorite match in AEW:

Where it ranks for me, it probably will disappoint a lot of people. It’s probably the most important match in my AEW career, but it is not my favourite match that I’ve had with the company. Maybe that’s just because it was so real that it’s raw. It’s almost a beautiful thing, but it’s like you don’t want to revisit it. I’ve never watched it back, and I was speaking to a free agent this morning who was talking about that match being something that had made this person interested in us, and the power of the match isn’t lost on me. I know what it did for the company. I know what it did for me and Dustin, and for the fans, but I’d say top five, for me.

Names his match with Darby Allin at the first Fyter Fest as his favorite:

I think my favourite match is Fyter Fest against Darby [Allin] for the very first time, because there was a lot that went into that match behind the scenes. There was a lot of faith placed in me to introduce him, and I love that people now today go back and talk about how they knew Darby, but they didn’t. Darby had a wonderful run on the US independent scene, but that was his first main stage appearance and, looking at him now, I’m just so proud. He has a real connection with younger members of the audience and I feel like, in a small way, I was part of that. So that’s something I’m very, very proud of. I wanted to debut somebody correctly because I’d seen so many debuts done poorly and that was just a big responsibility. So that’s probably my favourite one.