Dustin Rhodes Threatens to Retire If He Can't Beat Kip Sabian on AEW Dynamite

The final two matches in the opening round of AEW's TNT Championship tournament will take place on [...]

By Connor Casey

The final two matches in the opening round of AEW's TNT Championship tournament will take place on AEW Dynamite this week, and Dustin Rhodes is raising the stakes for his match with Kip Sabian. In a segment from the latest Road to Dynamite, "The Natural" told Cody Rhodes via a voicemail that if he loses to Sabian, he'll retire from in-ring competition.

"If I can't beat that son of a b—, I will retire," Rhodes said.

Rhodes has been working as both a wrestler and a coach for AEW since the promotion launched. At 51-years-old with decades of matches to his name, Rhodes has still managed to put on consistently great bouts when he's featured on television, though nothing has come close to his match with Cody back at Double or Nothing in May 2019.

Chris Jericho, who has been working as a color commentator alongside Tony Schiavone ever since AEW had to move Dynamite tapings from Jacksonville to Georgia, seemed pretty confident that Rhodes would lose.

The winner of Rhodes/Sabian will take on Lance Archer in the semifinals. On the other side of the bracket, Cody will face the winner of Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara.

The new champion will be crowned at this year's Double or Nothing pay-per-view event. AEW recently confirmed that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event will still take place on May 23 but the venue will have to be changed.

"AEW's DOUBLE OR NOTHING event will be televised on pay-per-view as scheduled on Saturday, May 23, at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT). Additional details related to DOUBLE OR NOTHING, which was initially scheduled to be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, will be revealed in the weeks ahead with features of the event itself ultimately being determined by the latest guidance of national and global health authorities," the company wrote in a series of tweets.

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