NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: Cody’s Middle Finger Was For You

For months, many fans were critical of Cody Rhodes’s performances in NJPW and Ring of Honor, but at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in a huge spot against Kota Ibushi, the American Nightmare silenced the critics with a memorable display.

Cody Rhodes is one of professional wrestling’s premier showmen, and nobody has ever disputed that. Not even the most fervent of Cody’s detractors could tear down his ability to draw a crowd, generate interest in a match, or elevate a product. After all, he very clearly did all of those things at every promotion he worked for immediately after he made the call to leave WWE.

There’s no doubt that Cody has been making a boatload of dough, generating more interest for promotions outside of WWE, and putting more eyes on the Ring of Honor product. But as Ring of Honor World Champion, Cody caught plenty of flak for the quality of his matches, and these same criticisms were sent his way for his work in NJPW. Though I vehemently disputed this opinion, some fans went as far as to call Cody a “paper champion” in ROH.

Last month at Ring of Honor’s “Final Battle” Pay Per View, Cody dropped the title to Dalton Castle in the main event, ending his solid reign at the top. But Cody’s time as Ring of Honor champion wasn’t smooth sailing, and he still needed to prove himself as a wrestler to the far more demanding fans outside of WWE.

That’s what made his match against Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 12 such a big deal. Ibushi is well-known for being one of the best ten or so workers in the world today, and he’s capable of delivering masterpieces due to his elite athletic ability and story-telling. The man is especially prolific on big stages, and there isn’t a bigger stage for in-ring work than Wrestle Kingdom.

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When it was announced that Ibushi would be facing Cody at Wrestle Kingdom, fans took to Twitter to joke about how Ibushi would need to carry Cody.

They also downplayed the importance of the match, stating that the likes of Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito, and Hiroshi Tanahashi would make Cody’s match irrelevant.

The match ended up being absolutely brilliant, and while it wasn’t as good as the IWGP United States or Heavyweight championship matches, it wasn’t that far off either.

Cody got the crowd to absolutely revile him, and Ibushi ended up being the babyface to end all babyfaces.

It was classic story-telling that combined the strengths of both wrestlers, and it included some memorable spots. Brandi Rhodes used Ibushi’s good-natured disposition to his disadvantage by tricking him, and Cody hit his opponent with a devastating “Cross Rhodes” to the outside.

Those were my two favorite spots from a match that Ibushi won, but the moment that led to my biggest takeaway was this.

https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/948844208609288193

Cody’s crank up middle finger was another example of him being a scumbag heel, and his antics go quite nicely with his new hairdo, I must say.

I like to come up with weird metaphors, and the middle finger to Ibushi symbolized the match being a middle finger to Cody’s doubters. There were so many people who doubted his ability to have a great match at Wrestle Kingdom and to prove that he belonged as a top worker on a big stage in NJPW. When people brought up his excellent match with Kazuchika Okada, others simply retorted, “Yeah, well, who doesn’t have a good match with Okada?”

And while those same doubters could say the same thing about how easy it is to have a great match with Ibushi, they won’t make that same claim about this match. Because it was obvious that Cody wasn’t “carried”. He was excellent, and he was just as responsible for this being a memorable match as Ibushi was. So yeah, the match itself was a middle finger to the not-so-quiet murmurings and criticisms on Twitter, many of which were narrow-minded.

Cody hasn’t been outside of WWE for very long, but his match at Wrestle Kingdom wasn’t exactly an “arrival” match. Because Cody is too good and too experienced to have suddenly “arrived”. It was more of a “culmination” match, where everything seemed to click and all the adjustments that everyone whispered about seemed to have come together. Cody’s trademark ability to work a crowd, be a jerk, and add little wrinkles (see GIF below) were all there in the match against Ibushi, but the work rate and style seemed to connect with the non-WWE crowd more.

https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/948848401751461888

It sounds stupid, but the best way to describe watching Cody’s match with Ibushi was that “it clicked”. Every move felt like it meant something, and every move had you on the edge of your seat. You just wanted Ibushi to shut Cody up, and the finish of the match made you feel the sense of justice.

There’s no doubt that Cody had a memorable 2017, and the ROH World Title run alone made it memorable. But 2018 is going to be a much bigger year for Cody, if his match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 is any indication. He proved a lot of people wrong by nearly stealing the show, and that figurative middle finger to the social media hatred (though some of the constructive criticism from analysts was perfectly valid) was far more powerful than his literal middle finger to Ibushi during the match. But it probably wasn’t as powerful as his Cross Rhodes to the outside. No, that was just plain scary…and awesome.

Next: Full Wrestle Kingdom 12 Review

Scary and awesome? Sounds like two words I’d use to describe what we could see from Cody in 2018 if things continue to “click” for the Star That Left Them In The Dust.