Dustin Rhodes Says TNT Title Win ‘Was Not Expected,’ Tried to Talk Tony Khan Out of It

Dustin Rhodes was surprised when he found out he was going to win the AEW TNT Championship and says he tried to talk Tony Khan out of doing it. The AEW star won the TNT Championship at AEW All In 2025 in a four-way match that also included Kyle Fletcher, Sammy Guevara and Daniel Garcia.

The win was a surprise for fans not only because of Rhodes’ win, but because that wasn’t the original match. Adam Cole was set to defend the title against Fletcher, but he had to vacate the championship due to injury issues.

Rhodes was a guest on What Happened When and looked back on the win. He noted that he thought that Fletcher was going to win and tried to convince Khan that he shouldn’t get the victory.

“That day, I can’t explain it,” Rhodes said (per Fightful). “It was not expected. Due to the circumstances, I understood.”

He continued, “With the way they were building Kyle Fletcher, who is a machine and an unbelievable talent. I figured…I tried to talk Tony out of it. He said, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’ I had a little run with it. I only had one successful match against Moriarty, and the next one was Kyle Fletcher.”

Rhodes lost the title to Fletcher in a Street Fight less than a month later, and he has been out of action after undergoing double knee injury.