I understand what Pugh is trying to say. If you're going to bring someone in, say a family member, and you want that shock effect when you hurt them; you should build it up. Bringing someone in, destroying them, and then they're never to be seen again...what did it really accomplish?
On the other hand, I know what Cody wants. He wants to come across as this scumbag heel who will powerbomb his own mother just to be a scumbag. He wants to flesh out his character. Develop himself into something he wasn't before. I think it still could have used a bit more build up, but with Lution being three weeks away, I don't really see him having a sufficient amount of time to build up any solid character development. I did enjoy the ending though.