5-Star Match Reviews: Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles – WWE Backlash France

Cody Rhodes is on top of the world right now. After finishing a years-long story and finally reaching the top of the mountain, fans all over the world were left with a much-needed sense of closure at the end of WrestleMania 40. But WWE’s never stops and within 24 hours of Rhodes’ big win came the most important question of all: “now what?”

When you watch pro-wrestling for a certain length of time you learn how to follow certain patterns and predict what’s going to happen with fairly good accuracy. In many ways we’ve gone in a circle when it comes to world champions: gone are the days when titles changed hands several times a month. Instead, most champions have long reigns and a quick switch after only a month rarely happens anymore.

Because of that, any wrestler with the dubious fortune of being any champion’s first challenger is almost always presumed to lose. This presents a big challenge for any promoter: how do you sellout a big venue when your audience knows how the main-event will end before it has even started?

WWE’s answer was simple, and, to be honest, brilliant: take the program somewhere the company has never been and let the wrestlers play the hits. This strategy worked in the moment: though there’s still plenty of time still left in the year it’s pretty clear that no crowd anywhere will match the level of noise, passion, and animation as the 11,000 or so in Décines-Charpieu. But if you were to step back and think for a moment, was this match all it was hyped up to be?

The Story

Styles won a tournament on SmackDown to become the #1 Contender for Rhodes’ title. Simple but effective.

The Match

This took place on May 4, 2024.

The crowd is going absolutely nuts for these guys, this show, this place, and well, pretty much everything. It might as well be a street party or a football celebration. Rhodes and Styles soak up the atmosphere for a bit and then have some tense lock-ups. They struggle against the ropes around the ring leading to a stalemate. The hard cam literally shakes from the vibrations caused by the crowd cheering and jumping up and down. A quick chain grappling sequence ends in another stand-off. Back-and-forth they go trading control on the mat. They continue with lightning-quick counters and rear waistlock exchanges until Styles gets Rhodes in a corner, forcing another stalemate.

Styles trash-talks Rhodes so Rhodes bitchslaps him which, again, sends the crowd into a frenzy. They go a my-turn-your-turn corner strike exchange followed by a standing dropkick and the Stardust cartwheel taunt. Styles breaks up an attempt at a knuckle lock and drops him with a back elbow. Again, crowd goes ape. Styles charges but runs into a big back body drop and gets a one-count.

Styles fights out of a front facelock but Rhodes maintains control and lands a delayed gourdbuster. But before he can capitalize Styles rushes him into a corner and drives him shoulder-first into it. Rhodes tries to create some separation but hurts himself in the process as a clothesline does further damage to his arm.

Styles works the arm until Rhodes rips away but then Styles drops him with a kneelift to the gut for another standing ovation. Styles hits some stiff kicks until Rhodes tries a counter. They trade cradles until Rhodes lands a throat thrust but then Styles drops him with an enzuigiri. Styles tries to capitalize but Rhodes dodges, sending Styles into the bottom rope. Cody fires up and goes for a dive but Styles cuts him off and smashes him into the commentary table.

Styles teases a powerbomb onto a commentary table but Rhodes drives him into some steel steps. A strike exchange ends with Rhodes landing a Cesaro-style deadlift superplex which causes lots off recoil damage. Styles takes advantage with an electric chair drop and tries a lionsault but Rhodes gets his knees up.

After recovering, Rhodes fires back with punches followed by a counter sequence that ends with a snap powerslam. Rhodes lands a springboard front kick for two and goes to the ropes again. This time Styles catches him on his shoulder again, only for Rhodes to counter with a victory roll for another near-fall. Ushigorishi by styles. Two-count. Styles misses a corner splash and Rhodes lands a running bulldog. Both men end up on the apron…and then Styles counters a suplex with an apron Brainbuster.

Styles breaks up the ref’s count and goes for a kick from the apron but Rhodes catches him and powerbombs him through one of those ringside tables. Both men stay down for a very long time but still make it into the ring. They collide into each other and start trading blows until both go down once more. They fire up in opposite corners and trade blows yet again. Styles lands a KENTA rush but Rhodes hits back with his trademark combo for a near-fall.

Rhodes attempts a Cody Cutter but Styles blocks and lifts him into the Tombstone position. Rhodes escapes but Styles lands a snap suplex into a corner. Styles hits a rib breaker followed by a springboard 450 splash for two. Then he hoists Rhodes onto his shoulders and – Burning Hammer! Rhodes kicks out at one and fires up like Hogan. Color drains from Styles’ face. Rhodes absorbs a strike barrage and lands a Cody Cutter for another near-fall. They trash-talk again and Styles rushes forward only for Rhodes to clothesline him out of his boots. Styles avoids a Cross Rhodes and a clothesline and hits a Pélé kick. Styles ends up on the apron and tries a Phenomenal Forearm. Rhodes hits first with a superkick and locks in a kimura. Styles resists with all his might and powers out. Styles tries a Clash but Cody kicks him back. Styles counters into another Clash attempt. Rhodes does a back body drop which leads to a sunset flip but Rhodes counters that with a cradle for two. Rhodes hits a top-rope Cody Cutter and a successful Cross Rhodes for the pin and the win. Cody Rhodes retains!

Winner and STILL Undisputed WWE Universal Champion after 27:18: Cody Rhodes

Review

I watched this match both with and without volume to see if the crowd made a difference here and, despite being loud and cheerful, they were a non-factor. That’s because this was a virgin crowd getting their first taste of WWE programming so of course they were going to cheer for everything so enthusiastically. Getting this crowd to react was like wrestling on easy mode. They cheered everything that moved and gave these guys standing ovations for the smallest of gestures, even things that weren’t really all that special or wouldn’t’ve earned such praise elsewhere. And besides, looking at this match without taking the crowd into consideration is the same thing as watching a match unfold in front of a stereotypical “bad crowd”. An exceptionally wild crowd might inflate in-the-moment opinions of a match just as a dead crowd might deflate perceptions of a match as well.

So by neutralizing that factor, we can look at this match on its own bell-to-bell merits. And based on what happened between the bells, it’s safe to conclude that this is a solid match. Not excellent or historically impressive, just a good match carried and in some ways overshadowed by an audience that loved what they got.

Rhodes and Styles had good chemistry here and told a good story that fit the circumstances. This was never meant to be a balanced match in which Styles stood any chance of winning; far too much effort had gone into Rhodes’ coronation at WrestleMania. Instead, this was meant to be Cody Rhodes beginning his (presumably long) title reign on a high note and a sort of blank slate to shift him firmly from challenger to champion. As such, no one expected Styles to win here. And yet he tried everything in his power to create the illusion that he still might. To that end Styles threw everything he had at Rhodes and tried so desperately to hit his biggest finishing moves. He never managed to land any of them which left the match with just as many questions as answers and had enough of a curiosity factor to justify a rematch. Rhodes played the hits and played the babyface to a T and took hit after hit, never wavering. In terms of playing a classic babyface Rhodes ticked every box one could think of.

This forced Styles to bust out something special, something he had only used on a handful of occasions as new super-special mid-match high-spot, in (his take on) the Burning Hammer. Some people really questioned that spot for a variety of reasons: that it was too cartoonish to be handled in the way it was, that it made Rhodes into a less believable superhero character, that it’s not something one should kick out of ever, and so on.

Personally I’m ambivalent to all that noise because, a) Kenta Kobashi himself once said, “if I’m not the one doing it, it’s not a Burning Hammer”; b) wrestling moves are the tools of a wrestler’s expression and the use of that move fit the story being told, that being Cody’s continued ascension to superstardom; and c) that spot’s positives of shocking the crowd and selling the idea of Rhodes as this unstoppable hero outweighed the drawbacks of that move’s reputation being watered down. It worked in its own way: diehard fans zeroed in on the contentious use of that move which brought more attention to the match while more casual audiences saw it as merely a shocking and scary-looking move that made Cody look like a beast for surviving.

At the same time, I got the feeling that they both could’ve pulled off something better here. They started some different elements like attacking different limbs but never completed those plot points. A hefty chunk of the match had a much slower pacing that followed this sluggish big move-double down formula which created this rough and uneven flow. It’s the same stylistic drawback that affects guys like Kenny Omega and others like him: going from one extreme to another back to back and in such short order creates these jarring and almost nonexistent transitions from spot to spot that make matches lose their seamlessness. And when I mentioned that Rhodes was firing up like Hogan that wasn’t necessarily a compliment: he dropped any sense of sustained selling and turned into something of a cartoon character. It was a bit over-the-top and if you were to watch this without sound (as I know some of you do) then Rhodes’ actions at a few points in this match have him resembling the Ultimate Warrior and not the sort of believable and more grounded hero he’s supposed to portray.

Final Rating: ****

On one hand WWE’s business practices here were nothing short of brilliant. They came into a virgin territory and delivered a well-worked main-event that delighted fans to such a degree that they’re all but guaranteed to come back at some point in the future. On the other hand this main-event came was a bit underwhelming in its execution since Rhodes winning was never in doubt and Styles just played the hits. And yet Styles was MVP here as he out-performed Rhodes in almost every way yet he still lost because he just couldn’t match Rhodes’ heart and tenacity. And since he failed to land all of his biggest moves, there was still a glimmer of possibility that he could still do so, which is why these guys had a rematch soon afterwards. Even though most of the actual wrestling action here was solid the pacing left it feeling off. As for the crowd, they didn’t help, hinder, or hijack proceedings; they were simply delighted to have something from WWE so I think it’s safe to write them off as a non-factor.

If we were to compare this to Rhodes/Reigns from WrestleMania XL both are similar in quality. This one has better wrestling but a choppier pace while that one has a better story that goes by faster. Both have wild crowds but at WMXL they were more invested in the story and complemented its biggest moments whereas here there was this overall party atmosphere which, while fun, wasn’t tied into anything specific.

Thanks for reading.