Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles Represents Much More Than a WWE Championship Match

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Undisputed WWE champion Cody Rhodes will defend his title against AJ Styles Saturday in Lyon, France in the main event of Backlash.

Like the card on which it appears, the match is not flashy and doesn't inspire the most excitement on the surface.

Beyond that, though, is a showdown between two revolutionary pro wrestlers who have spent significant portions of their careers changing the game en route to becoming two of the most important and influential figures in the industry for the last 25 years.

A Phenomenal Game-Changer

Styles emerged onto the national scene in 2002 as the first legitimate breakout star of the upstart TNA Wrestling promotion and its signature X Division.

Combining speed, athleticism, agility, technique and in-ring explosiveness, The Phenomenal One introduced a style of competition that directly influenced what we see every week on WWE and All Elite Wrestling.

He was aggressive and intense when he needed to be and flew through the air with rarefied artistry.

Beyond what Styles could do between the ropes was the fact that he inspired an entire generation, including the competitor who many consider the best in the business today: Will Ospreay.

Styles isn't the same guy he was two decades ago, but he is a smart, cerebral worker who picks and chooses when he takes flight and when he focuses on the mat game, evolving his work to match the period of his career that we are currently in.

He has set the example for the likes of Ospreay and even Kenny Omega, physical workers with athletically based offenses, to follow so they can sustain their in-ring careers longer than they otherwise would based on the intensity of their signature work.

As important as any of that, though, is that The Phenomenal One has managed to star on every stage on which he has competed.

When TNA low-balled him on a contract offer in 2014, he went to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and became its biggest star, the leader of the Bullet Club.

From there, he arrived in WWE in January 2016, where he shocked the wrestling world with one of the greatest debuts in company history as the No. 3 entrant in the Royal Rumble.

A highly decorated competitor, it is what the 46-year-old has done for the industry stylistically, and the manner in which he inspired an entire generation, that will be his lasting legacy.

Dreams and Nightmares

Rhodes could have coasted for the entirety of his career in WWE.

He could have ridden on the coattails of his revered father, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, and gotten by on his family's name and the fact that he was a legacy Superstar.

Had he done that, The American Nightmare we see today as the face of wrestling's most prominent promotion would not exist.

Rhodes needed to leave WWE in 2016 and embark on his own journey, working every independent promotion that would have him and heading to NJPW, joining Bullet Club, linking up with The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and "Hangman" Adam Page, and revolutionizing the industry in a manner different than to Styles.

He needed to take Dave Meltzer's assertion that no indie show could sell out a 10,000-seat arena and do just that. He needed to work with the Bucks and Omega to sell Tony Khan on the idea of a new promotion that could change the industry.

He needed to be an executive vice president, do all the media work that went along with it, experience the highs and lows of being an integral part of that promotion and then leave when it no longer reflected the core ideals in place at its infancy.

Every experience not only helped make Rhodes the man he became but also changed the industry. He bet on himself, giving others the motivation to do the same. He helped create a company that gave young workers a place to ply their craft outside the confines of WWE.

When he returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38, he did so a bigger star than he ever was before and, more importantly, ready to conquer a company that left him to wallow in mediocrity and frustration six years earlier.

More Than A Championship Match

Saturday's main event in Lyon is a match between revolutionaries, two guys without whom the pro wrestling industry as we know it may look wholly different.

One changed what a pro wrestler looked like stylistically, while the other took his ball and instead of going home, traveled the world, sinking threes and making the industry better for those around him.

Beyond that, it's a match that should be a celebration of Styles and his many accomplishments.

"I'm done. I'm going to retire. I'm getting to that point where I am worried about embarrassing myself. My brain says, 'We can do this.' My body is like, 'You're stupid. We cannot do this. We're hurting every day when we roll out of bed. At some point, this has to come to an end.' I've realized, like so many others that come before me, the greats, they get out of it when we think there is still time for them."

That doesn't sound like a man who has any doubts about what the future holds, meaning this may well be the last big-time championship main event we get out of the future Hall of Famer.

That he can go out and have it against a guy who has also meant so much to the industry as we know it today is special. The match is, too.

What Rhodes and Styles accomplish in France will be another chapter in stories brimming with meaning and historic significance. Whether it's the last time they clash is another question.