News

AEW News: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes Announced for Double or Nothing on May 25th

By John Canton • Published 20th April 2019
TJR Wrestling

The opponent for Cody (Rhodes) has been announced for All Elite Wrestling’s debut event on Saturday, May 25th. That opponent will be Dustin Rhodes, who most famously wrestled in WWE as Goldust for most of the last 20+ years.

The match was announced in a video that AEW released tonight. The way the match was set up is that Dustin is the older brother that wants to humble his egotistical younger brother because he believes Cody grew up as a spoiled rich kid that had a silver spoon in his mouth, which was different than how Dustin grew up. Dustin talked about how he always wanted to make his dad, the legendary Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, proud and the storyline is that Cody has a big ego while Dustin is more humble. In the video, Dustin also painted his face red and black. Obviously, he can’t use the Goldust look outside of WWE. Here’s part of what Dustin said in the video:

“I know everything there is to know about my little brother, Cody. And he is one egotistical son of a bitch. So many times that I’ve told him how proud I am of him. How much I love him. And how dad would be proud of him and everything that he’s accomplished. Never, not one time, never, has he said ‘thanks man, I really do value your opinion. You’re wonderful. I love you to death.’ No. I don’t get that from Cody.”

Last month, Dustin’s WWE deal expired or was close to expiring, which we wrote about and he went on Twitter to deny it. Dustin claimed he was still with WWE, but it was likely just a smokescreen. Dave Meltzer noted on Twitter today that Dustin’s contract recently expired, so there’s no 90-day no compete clause. He’s free to go.

There’s a new Dustin Rhodes t-shirt available as well.

There have been teases of the Cody vs. Dustin match for weeks. Dustin turned 50 years old earlier this month. Cody will turn 34 year old in June, so there’s a 16 year age gap between the brothers.

The Double or Nothing lineup looks like this so far:

Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho

Adam Page vs. Pac (formerly Neville)

The Young Bucks vs. Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix

Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes

Dr. Britt Baker vs. Kylie Rae vs. Nyla Rose

SCU (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) vs. CIMA and two partners.

Over the Budget Battle Royal: Glacier, Brian Pillman Jr., Sunny Daze, MJF, Joey Janela, Sonny Kiss, Kip Sabian, Brandon Cutler, Ace Romero and more to be announced.

I plan on reviewing Double or Nothing when it happens next month.

TJR Thoughts: It’s not a surprise that Dustin would end up in the company that his brother is running. Dustin has a lot to offer AEW in terms of helping other wrestlers put together matches, he’s great at promos, he knows a lot about character development and I’ll sure he’ll be a huge asset to AEW behind the scenes.

When Cody and Dustin had matches against eachother in WWE they did not turn out great, but perhaps they are both older and wiser now. This could be one of the better matches on the show.