The AEW Rundown: The Build to Revolution Heats Up

4) MJF and Cody Proves that Old School Angles Still Work

Since the beginning of AEW, the inevitable turn of MJF on Cody was bound to happen. They teased it for us for months, giving us little looks into the real heart of MJF, as he held a chair a little too long, or looked at Cody in just the wrong way. It was clear MJF was using Cody to advance his own career and when the time came, he was going to turn on him.

The inevitable happened at AEW Full Gear, when MJF threw in the towel, costing Cody the AEW World Championship. Cody, as a result, is now unable to challenge for the AEW World title again. Adding insult to injury, MJF punted Cody between the legs and left him lying in the middle of the ring.

Cody, wanting a match with MJF to get revenge, offered to meet MJF’s stipulations to get the match. The first was that Cody could not touch MJF until the match, the second was that Cody would suffer 10 lashes with a belt from MJF, and the last was a steel cage match with Wardlow. Cody met all of the stipulations, though it cost him a lot.

The whipping was one of the more violent angles in wrestling in a very long time, and the cage match saw Cody bleeding everywhere before hitting a moonsault off the cage for the win.

Cody has gotten the upper hand over MJF at every turn in this feud, and I expect we are going to see him squeak out a win somehow at the PPV, either through cheating, or Cody being caught doing something that MJF wasn’t caught with earlier like a low blow or something.