Cody has made his intentions known -- out with the old, in with the new.
The former NWA Worlds Champion turned AEW Executive VP spoke in the latest "Road To Double Or Nothing" to address questions around the natural matchup between he and his brother Dustin. With the two pegged to square off next month on pay-per-view, it's about a lot more than blood for Cody.
As opposed to being Rhodes vs. Rhodes, Cody stated that he saw this as his generation -- the AEW generation (paraphrasing) -- against his brother's -- the Attitude Era. In a passionate promo on Road to Double or Nothing, Cody explained himself.
"This match is generation vs. generation," said Cody, "I'm not here to kill Dustin Rhodes. I'm here to kill the Attitude Era. My entire life, my whole class of peers has been compared to late 90's to early 2000s for over a decade and it's a sham. Sure, you've paved the roads for us, but you set the speed markers at 35 because you're fucking terrified of any of us putting our foot down on the pedal."
The younger Rhodes would go on to compare the talent that he's worked alongside to that of the fawned over generation of performers in which they are often held to.
"You mean to tell me some pissant bodybuilder making everything a no DQ, meandering around the crowd, throwing the jib cam at his opponent compares to a Kenny/Okada match? Or some bra & panties spectacular can match up with what the women did last September 1st (at All In). Even Dwayne ("The Rock" Johnson), as electric as it was, was it really better than what (CM) Punk said sitting on that stage?" he asked.
Finally, Cody likened his brother to a dying animal, insinuating that it was time for he and the business he's ingrained in to move along.
"I am the least Rhodes of the Rhodes. They gave me boots, I've got the basics. When you do something to death, when you ride something to death, that's literally what happens. When that animal can't go anymore, and it falls out on the trail, and you feel the tension in its eyes, and it knows it's going to die, and it wants to die -- you don't just leave it, because you love it. You pull from the hip, you roll your fingers from the steel from the chamber, you do not anticipate the recoil, and you blow it away," said Cody.
The two last squared off in February 2016 in a match that no one would see, a dark match in Indianapolis shortly before Cody had left the company. Their singled feud was brought to an abrupt and perhaps anticlimactic halt the prior year, but seems to be firing on all cylinders again.
Cody faces his brother, the former Goldust, Dustin Rhodes at All Elite Wrestling's Double or Nothing on May 25, 2019 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fightful.com will be on the scene live, and will also have full coverage and a live, post-show podcast.
