In his first pay-per-view title defense, Chris Jericho defeated Cody Rhodes at Full Gear on Saturday to retain the AEW World Championship after Maxwell Jacob Friedman threw in the towel on Rhodes' behalf.

As a result, Cody can never again challenge for the title.

Cody's head was cut open earlier in the match after a failed attack on Jericho:

The challenger stayed in the match and mounted some attacks:

However, the champion retained the belt after MJF threw the towel while a weakened Cody was lying on the mat.

After the match, MJF appeared to console Cody but went heel when he attacked him:

Shortly after Jericho beat Adam "Hangman" Page at All Out to become the first AEW world champion, it was announced that Cody would be his first pay-per-view opponent. Cody was coming off pay-per-view wins over Dustin Rhodes and Shawn Spears to establish himself as the No. 1 contender.

Jericho first had to deal with Darby Allin on an episode of AEW Dynamite, but thanks to some help from Jake Hager, he was able to beat Allin and keep the title match against Cody intact.

In an effort to preserve his status as AEW world champion, Jericho built a stable consisting of Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz and Hager, who made a surprise debut by decimating Cody and Co. on the Dynamite premiere.

With Jericho and his Inner Circle running roughshod over Dynamite, Cody enlisted help from some of his friends in the form of Dustin, MJF and WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page. That resulted in the Inner Circle getting some comeuppance on Dynamite a few weeks ago.

Last week, Cody and Jericho took part in a contract signing ahead of their Full Gear match, and while there was no physicality between them, Jericho and the Inner Circle fired a warning shot.

During the signing, Hager attacked Dustin outside and smashed his arm in a car door.

On the go-home edition of Dynamite prior to Full Gear, Cody addressed the controversy over the fact that he was an executive vice president who placed himself in the title scene, and as a result of that, he declared he would never compete in another AEW World Championship match if he lost to Jericho.

Saturday's match between Jericho and Cody was arguably the biggest bout in the young history of AEW thus far, as it pitted one of the all-time greats against Cody, who is one of AEW's founders as well as one of the most popular figures in wrestling today.

Given how over Cody is with the crowd, it is likely only a matter of time before he wins the AEW world title in spite of the stipulation that was put in place, but Jericho was resourceful enough to keep his reign alive at Full Gear.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).