In an era where big flips and moves are the standard and ring psychology is a lost art, we’re lucky to have two like Cody Rhodes and MJF (Maxwell Jacob Friedman) to do it right.
AEW has made a name for itself since arriving on the scene or professional wrestling. Not all of it good as many of its roster have ignored old school tactics for one reason or another. One was tag team rules, which Chris Jericho straightened out. The other in the focus on high flying, high impact moves (video game wrestling) instead of telling a story in the ring.
They’ve introduced us to fun new school wrestlers like Orange Cassidy and the Young Bucks, and young talent willing to listen and learn like Darby Alin and MJF.
Along the way, we’ve seen a myriad of matches that have set new (old?) standards that have been missing, all while blending new school and old school.
They’ve proven there’s always room for evolution in sports entertainment, and that’s part of why they’re so popular.
It’s in the body language
This weekend, AEW’s pay-per-view Revolution is taking place and it’s pitting two of the promotion’s top talents head to head.
As great a match as Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley will be, Cody Rhodes and MJF will be the showstopper.
We’ve seen both at work, and while Cody, like his brother, has the pedigree to be great, he’s really shown it the last few weeks as his and MJF’s feud comes to a head this weekend.
Last week’s cage match was perfect as it put Wardlow over as a power to be reckoned with while Cody cemented himself as the hero overcoming the odds. Both played their parts perfectly, and we had a match we’ve been waiting for.
Subtle things like how they react to each other from their stance to swaying when hurt conveyed all we needed to feel to be with Cody in the ring as he eventually went on to win.
MJF cemented himself as the top heel (Sorry once again to Chris Jericho) the previous weeks by whipping Cody with his belt, and then facing “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry in a singles match. Much like Cody did his struggle, MJF conveyed his arrogance as he beat up Jungle Boy and nearly lost the match because of it. He not only put himself over through his actions, but also his facial expressions and how he’d look at the fans. He also put Jungle Boy over as a face as we wanted to see him beat MJF. In the end, this was the best match of the night.
With a light night this past Dynamite, we can expect an awesome match at Revolution that’ll probably be worth the price of the pay-per-view itself.
There’s no doubt they’ll set the bar high, and this could be the event that sends AEW’s viewership into orbit.
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