Cody Rhodes vs. Orange Cassidy AEW TNT Championship Match Ends in a Draw

This week's AEW Dynamite marked Cody Rhodes first TNT Championship defense since regaining the [...]

By Connor Casey

This week's AEW Dynamite marked Cody Rhodes first TNT Championship defense since regaining the title from Brodie Lee. But things didn't turn out the way "The American Nightmare" had likely hoped, as his match with Orange Cassidy ended in a time limit draw at 20 minutes. Cassidy was clearly in control late in the match hitting his signature Beach Break before setting up for his Orange Punch with less than a minute left on the clock. Rhodes countered, but Cassidy managed to roll him up with his Mouse Trap pinning combination. The clock expired before the referee could complete the three count, meaning Rhodes retained via champion's advantage.

The commentary team confirmed during the match that Darby Allin would challenge for the title at the Full Gear pay-per-view on Nov. 7.

Later in the night, it was confirmed the two will have a rematch on the Oct. 28 episode of Dynamite.

During an interview with USA TODAY this week, Rhodes talked about what he intends to change in AEW's second year on TNT.

"I wanted to really promote the brand, I wanted to pound the pavement, but in speaking I kind of confined our product, I tried to give an identity to a product (when the) identity is evolving, its identity is growing. AEW is going to have a different identity in Year One than it has in Year Two, and we want that identity and that flavor profile to improve. But to say it's one thing would be incorrect because wrestling is something that there's no one specific way to do it right. There's many different ways to do it right."

"So I spoke too much as an executive in my efforts to promote the brand and a lot of this kind of click-bait journalism (followed) in areas where what I said was taken out of context and might have rubbed people the wrong way or might have created more tension between an NXT fan and an AEW fan. A little less talk from me, a little more action, is one of my goals (going forward)."

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