Cody Rhodes defeats Zack Sabre, Jr. in his first post-WWE match

Cody Rhodes started his independent wrestling career off with a bang tonight for Evolve at Evolve 66 in Joppa, Maryland against Zack Sabre, Jr., picking up the win in the main event with an inverted Indian deathlock he calls the American Nightmare.

Any fear that he wouldn’t be able to keep up has to be cast aside now, as he acquitted himself well against the Technical Wizard, fighting a hold-for-hold match that was mostly built around pitting Sabre’s arm submissions and quick-thinking escapes against Rhodes’ leg submissions and size and power advantage.

Post-match he thanked his opponent before going on to talk about how he spent ten years in WWE, most of which in a very large shadow, but it didn’t matter because he loved that shadow. And what do you do when you wake up and the shadow is gone? Well, he discovered that you kick, punch, and scratch your way until you show everyone who didn’t believe you could do it that you can do it.

He then brought up Drew Galloway and his crusade, saying that Drew was wrong to assume that he’d be any part of the crusade, that he’s not his man and he never will be.

He’s got Chris Hero tomorrow afternoon (we’ll have our usual spread of coverage, of course!), and if you believe he can’t do it... well, maybe, based on tonight, he’ll be able to do it.

Thanks to The Chad Dukes Wrestling Show for our header image!