Cody Rhodes had a heated confrontation with Penta El Cero Miedo on Dynamite last week. The luchador claimed to be the Lord of Lucha Libre to Cody’s Prince of Pro Wrestling. He also said that if he got Cody one-on-one in a singles match, he’d break his arm before he held his soon-to-be-born baby girl.

Cody Rhodes surprises Penta El Cero Miedo

Penta got his wish and faced Cody Rhodes in the opening match of St. Patrick’s Day Slam. This was a genuine dream match between two of the best wrestlers in the world, but only one could walk away victorious.

Before the opening bell rang, Penta promised to send Cody into an early paternity leave, before wiping him out with a dive. He bossed him around the ring before throwing him inside, hitting his signature moves like the Slingblade and the Backstabber.

Rhodes put his Lucha Libre skills to the test, hitting an insane super rana from the top rope, sending Penta crashing to the mat. He even hit one of Penta’s signature moves, the Mexican Destroyer, with perfect accuracy, dropping the luchador on his head. He followed that with the Cody Cutter for a nearfall.

The American Nightmare pulled out the Cross Rhodes, but the luchador somehow kicked out of that move too. With time running out and options running scarce, Rhodes tried to destroy Penta with his old finisher from Ring of Honor. He hit him with a move called the Gringo Killer, which drew another very close nearfall!

Cody tried to end things with the Figure Four, but Penta fought his way out of it. He snapped Cody’s arm and looked set to put him away, but the opportunistic Rhodes surprised him with a roll-up for the win.

What’s next for Cody?

With this win, Cody moves closer to challenging for a title in AEW. Despite being the TNT Champion for a long time, the American Nightmare feels empty without a title in his hand. Fans might want to see Cody team up with his brother Dustin and challenge for the tag titles, but that seems very unlikely.

A TNT Title shot against Darby Allin at Double or Nothing makes sense for the American Nightmare, given how much value he added to the title. Allin’s title win meant so much more than it was meant to purely because he beat Rhodes for the title.

From his matches against Brodie Lee and Darby Allin to his open challenges with Ricky Starks and Eddie Kingston, Cody Rhodes was a damn fine TNT Champion, and it’s time he tries to get back into the title picture.

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