Cody (c) vs. Dustin Rhodes – TNT Championship
Having the TNT Championship main event the first PPV event that it hails from immediately establishes it as a title worth gunning for outside of the World Championship and there is no main event AEW could offer that would justify its main event slot than Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes, one whole year after they had their Match of the Year candidate at last year’s Double or Nothing.
The story would be simple. Like with his match vs. Kip Sabian earlier in the TNT tournament, Dustin vows to retire if he can’t beat Lance Archer in the semi-finals, which he fails to do. He abides by that stipulation for himself (it’s never an official stipulation, but he gave his word) until he watches his little brother once again overtake the spotlight.
Perhaps in a rage of jealousy, Dustin attacks Cody until he’s granted a title shot. Give us a heel turn from Dustin to add some new spice to the rematch that wasn’t present last year. Officially, in contractual writing, he dubs it as his Last Dance (shoutout to Michael Jordan) if he can’t beat his baby brother once and for all.
And once again, he falls to Cody Rhodes. But because wrestling is wrestling, the brothers embrace each other in the ring one last time before Dustin rides off into the sunset for good.