The injury (and bruise) that Cody Rhodes wrestled with has to be seen to be believed

Anyone who sees pictures of Cody Rhodes and the bruise he wrestled with at Hell in a Cell can’t help but come away amazed and impressed.

There are times when fans pay lip service to the idea that pro wrestlers put their bodies on the line to entertain them, and other times that they sincerely appreciate it. When it comes to Cody Rhodes and what he put himself through to be in the main event of Hell in a Cell on Sunday night, it’s hard to imagine anyone watching wouldn’t fall into the latter category.

Shortly before the show, WWE tweeted that Rhodes had injured his right pectoral tendon earlier in the week, then made it even worse training for the show. Despite that, the company insisted he would face Seth Rollins inside Hell in a Cell as planned.

This being wrestling, Twitter lit up with a variety of reactions, including people questioning whether the injury was legit.

Once Rhodes walked to the cage and removed his entrance gear, revealing possibly the nastiest bruise ever seen in sports or sports entertainment, that question became entirely moot.

Not only did the bruise look extremely painful, but the underlying injury couldn’t have been any picnic either. Nonetheless, Rhodes not only participated in a lengthy, physical match ⁠— which included shots from various weapons and at one point, a bullrope ⁠— but he pulled off a number of wrestling maneuvers essentially with one arm. Full credit needs to be given to Rollins’ typically high level of skill and professionalism here too, because even more than usual, the match required two superior talents to pull off.

Rhodes eventually got the pinfall victory, but that hardly even mattered in the end. It’s a match anyone who saw it will remember for a long time, and people who only see the pictures of Rhodes won’t believe actually took place.

Common sense suggests Rhodes is headed for surgery and a lengthy recovery, which is unfortunate given how much momentum he had built up since returning to WWE at WrestleMania. WWE positioned him as a major star in a way it never did during his first stint, and he was repaying that faith.

He did that again at Hell in a Cell in a different but even more impressive way. That kind of performance will ensure he’s still wildly over when he recovers, and it’s well deserved.

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