Cody Rhodes WWE return: Former star's top five AEW moments

Cody Rhodes, to the surprise of absolutely everyone, is heading back to WWE after the expiration of his AEW contract.

With his time with AEW now over, just over two years after the promotion launched, let’s look back on Rhodes’ five best moments for Tony Khan’s promotion.

Written by Simon Bullock.

Cody Rhodes vs Dustin Rhodes

Arguably the match that really put AEW on the map, it is no exaggeration to say that it was years in the making.

For years, the brothers had tried to have singles match against each other, but everything fell into place perfectly at AEW’s first-ever PPV, Double or Nothing 2019. The ‘this is awesome’ that echoed around the MGM Grand as soon as the bell rang set the tone for the 20+ minutes that lied ahead.

There were tributes to Dusty Rhodes aplenty, references to Stardust from Cody and even Dustin hitting an apron flipping senton.

This match had it all and more than lived up to the expectations that anybody could have had for it. The post-match was even more memorable though, as an emotional Cody asked Dustin to be his tag partner to face the Young Bucks at Fight for the Fallen, and the ‘I need my older brother’ line is one that will stay with AEW fans forever.

Undesirable to undeniable promo

Still to this day, Cody’s promo on ahead of his AEW World Championship match with Chris Jericho is one of his best pieces of work.

His feud with Le Champion was something of a throwback, in the sense that there wasn’t a single person out there who didn’t want super babyface Cody to become the face of the company he helped to build from the ground up.

Cody talked about his family legacy, and how he and Jericho are cut from the same cloth, but Jericho needs this generation more than it needs him.

The Grandson