Watch: Cody Rhodes Escapes Fyter Fest as TNT Championship With a Controversial Finish
Cody Rhodes left AEW's Fyter Fest event on Wednesday night still the TNT Champion, but the win [...]
Cody Rhodes left AEW's Fyter Fest event on Wednesday night still the TNT Champion, but the win came with a bit of controversy. Late in the match Rhodes' coach Arn Anderson tried to get involved at ringside and started confronting the referee. Rhodes was slapped by Hager's wife during the distraction, which promoted Dustin Rhodes to run down and smack Hager in the face. Cody was unable to capitalize as Hager reversed a Cross Rhodes into a uranagi, then locked in the triangle choke he'd been using to win MMA fights in Bellator. Rhodes rolled on top of Hager for the three count, but the challenger thought he won since Rhodes was knocked out.
The referee declared Rhodes the winner, prompting Hager to knock out the referee with a punch. AEW officials ran out to escort Hager out of the arena while Rhodes regain consciousness.
.@CodyRhodes SURVIVES! #FyterFest #AEW #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/cb6v9qG7ok
— Italo Santana (@BulletClubIta) July 2, 2020
Hager is just the latest challenger to fail at beating Rhodes. Since beating Lance Archer to become the first TNT Champion, Rhodes has beaten Jungle Boy, Marq Quen, Ricky Starks and now Hager.
Leading up to Wednesday's show, Rhodes addressed the fact that Fyter Fest was going head-to-head with NXT's Great American Bash (a show his father created) multiple times.
"I'm not going to get angry because it still brings up his name in a positive way,"It's a unique marketing thing and I'm not really upset about it," Rhodes told Busted Open Radio "I know my sister thought it was strange that it was announced willy-nilly and last minute. In the strangest of ways, I would hope that they do something special with it."
The same could not be said for how he feels about what WWE has done to Starrcade, turning what was once WCW's version of WrestleMania into an annual house show.
"I think our show is better. I think our show it will be better in execution, but I hope they do something special with it because I hated what Michael Hayes did with Starrcade," he added "He took a creation of my Dad's and made it a live event because they weren't selling any tickets in North Carolina and he wanted to save his job."