AEW EVP and the former AEW TNT Champion, Cody Rhodes, seemingly retired from the sport of pro-wrestling. Malakai Black defeated him in a dominating fashion at AEW Dynamite: Homecoming in August.

However, ‘The American Nightmare’ appeared earlier this month when Malakai Black seemed impossible to stop. Eventually, Cody Rhodes and Malakai Black faced on tonight’s edition of AEW Dynamite: Grand Slam.

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The one thing that stood out was, during the entire match, even though Malakai Black is a heel and Rhodes left AEW as a babyface, the crowd welcomed Rhodes with the loud boos.

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Malakai Black lays waste on Cody Rhodes, again

At best, Cody Rhodes received a mixed reaction from the crowd. It looks like AEW’s plan to legitimize Rhodes as a babyface backfired when ‘kayfabe’ retired from his in-ring career.

Rhodes appeared with Arn Anderson and his wife Brandi Rhodes, who made her return to AEW after being away because of her pregnancy.

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Right after bell, the two men exchanged quick back-and-forth strikes to get things going. However, this time again, Black had the upper hand on Rhodes the whole time.

Brandi Rhodes also got involved in the match. During the fight, Brandi got into the ring and flipped off Black. Black laughed it off, but left himself liable to an attack from Cody.

At this point, the crowd had gotten bored with watching Cody Rhodes, which is something AEW never expected. Maybe it is because the AEW creative team has constantly pushed Rhodes down the fans’ throats.

Or maybe it is because of his kayfabe retirement ceremony, which rubbed the crowd the wrong way. Whatever it may be, it looks like the fans will witness another match between the two, since Black beat Rhodes clean again.

Looks like AEW needs to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to correct the babyface image of Cody Rhodes.

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