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What's the story?
Cody Rhodes, one of the bigger names of the current crop of pro wrestling free agents, announced on twitter that he's having his last match in ROH at Final Battle on December 14 in New York.
The match will be against the man he had his first match against in the promotion, current ROH World Champion Jay Lethal.
In case you missed it . . .
Cody has been building his own reputation in promotions like TNA, ROH and NJPW since leaving WWE in 2016.
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He's wrestled for many independent promotions across the U.S. and had a short stint in TNA. He concurrently wrestled for TNA and Ring of Honor, but has exclusively been wrestling for ROH and NJPW since mid 2016. He defeated Christopher Daniels for the ROH World Championship at Best in the World on June 23, 2017.
Rhodes would later lose the belt to Dalton Castle in December of the same year at Final Battle 2017. During his tenure in ROH and NJPW, Rhodes became a member of the worldwide phenom Bullet Club. He mainly interacted with the Young Bucks, Adam Page, Marty Scurll and Kenny Omega.
As a top member of the Bullet Club, Rhodes won the ROH Six-Man tag titles with the Young Bucks. He also defeated Juice Robinson for the IWGP United States Championship at Fighting Spirit Unleashed at the end of September.
During his run in NJPW, he had a personal feud with Kenny Omega over the leadership of the Bullet Club. Cody also challenged Kazuchika Okada and Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship while in NJPW.
Another huge accomplishment of Cody's was putting on the most successful independent show in history with the Young Bucks, All In. At the event, Rhodes won the NWA Heavyweight Championship from Nick Aldis (Magnus of TNA).
The heart of the matter
With free agency looming in pro wrestling at the end of December, Rhodes let the world know on twitter that his ROH tenure would be ending next month.
He entered the company as a free agent and that was his first storyline - winning the ROH World Championship as a free agent.
He also teased taking the belt into free agency if he was victorious at Final Battle.
What's next?
Rhodes had been dealing with a knee injury lately which forced him to miss a defense of his IWGP U.S. Title.
Since he'll be fighting for the ROH Title next month, the injury must not be too serious.
If he wins the ROH Title, he might be sticking with ROH and NJPW even though he announced he wouldn't be.
Rhodes, Omega and the Young Bucks are among the hottest free agents once the calendar turns to 2019, and this could be a sign of his intentions.
He did initially leave the WWE due to wanting to end his run as Stardust but WWE allegedly wanted him to continue portraying the character. Maybe he's hoping that his time away from WWE has helped to build his star power to allow him the creative freedom he felt he lacked in his first stint with WWE.
Rhodes, Omega, the Bucks and Adam Page also all reportedly made a verbal pledge to each other to stay together wherever they go in 2019.
His announcement on Twitter might just be a smokescreen or we could be seeing Cody Rhodes return to WWE in January. If he does, he might be joined by the Bucks and Omega. If that is the case, WWE would have gutted NJPW of four of it's most popular non-foreign born talent.
