All In: How AEW Began

What makes a group of friends decide to do something ambitious?

Is it the drive to succeed? Is it the money? Is it wanting to do something for their fans as a way to say “Thank You?”

Or is it to prove a point?

These questions all answered themselves when three of the best professional wrestlers decided to self-finance their own independent wrestling show. When Cody Rhodes, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson decided that they wanted to do the most ambitious thing they have ever done, they created history. It’s amazing to look back one year later and realize what this one night in Chicago would lead to: a new promotion… change…and a revolution.

In 2017, Cody and The Young Bucks were all under contract with Ring of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). They were all major players within the companies, holding championships, headlining events and even winning the 6-Man Tag Team Championships in ROH. A tweet by Dave Meltzer caught Cody’s attention, setting the whole thing in motion.

Not any time soon https://t.co/Vu3xLV2ThZ
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) May 16, 2017

Cody would see this response and reply with “I’ll take that bet Dave. I already gave them their biggest buy rate…put the Bucks and I on the card and 3 months to promote.” This was all in the month of May.

Little was heard for a bit until major pro wrestling news sites would begin to report in November that Cody and the Bucks were in the planning stages of a self-financed wrestling show that would look to sellout a 10,000-seat arena. During this, Cody was the ROH World Heavyweight Champion getting ready for a title defense against Dalton Castle at Final Battle while the Bucks were teaming with “Hangman” Adam Page to defend the 6-man Tag Team Championships. To say that “The Elite” had a lot on their plate at the time was an understatement.

By the end of January, it was announced that the show would be taking place on September 1, 2018, from the Sears Centre Arena in Chicago. A press conference would be held at the Pro Wrestling Tees store in Chicago on May 13th. The conference would be streamed via social media and would feature all members of “The Elite:” Cody, The Bucks, Page, Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, amongst others, announced their involvement in the show. The two big surprises during the conference were the involvement of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time Rey Mysterio Jr. and that Cody would be challenging for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the same title his father Dusty Rhodes won on three different occasions in the 1980s. Cody and Dusty were already the second father-son duo in professional wrestling to win World Heavyweight Championship when Cody won the ROH World Title in June, but Cody was looking to win the title that his father built his legacy on. This was all put together after a partnership was formed between the NWA and ROH. Tickets would go on sale immediately at the conclusion of the press conference and in less than 30 minutes, they were all gone.

During an episode of “Being the Elite,” The Bucks and Cody would film footage of themselves inside of their cars heading from the press conference immediately to a ROH live event and getting the phone call confirming the sellout. Authentic emotion would pour from each man, but there were still months of work ahead for them and they only had one match announced thus far and no major television companies or streaming services announced to broadcast the show. This would be recorded as the first non WWE or WCW-promoted professional wrestling event in the United States to sell 10,000 tickets since 1993.

In June, Cody tried to regain the ROH World Heavyweight Championship from Dalton Castle in a triple threat match, also involving Scurll, at Best in The World. On that same show, The Bucks challenged the Briscoes in what was named “ROH Match of the Year” by the fans. Neither the Bucks nor Cody would win on that evening, but it didn’t matter at that point as they had already won over the hearts of fans that just wanted a big league alternative from WWE.

In August, the card for ALL IN was taking shape with announcements of a four way match involving Tessa Blanchard, Chelsea Green, Britt Baker and Madison Rayne, who was a replacement for new NXT signee Deonna Purrazzo. It was also announced that Jay Lethal would defend the ROH World Title against the winner of a battle royal that would take place earlier in the evening. The big main event matches would be revealed to be Cody’s NWA Title match with Nick Aldis, Kenny Omega facing off with Pentagon, Marty Scurll vs. former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and the Bucks teaming with Kota Ibushi against Bandido, Rey Fenix and Rey Mysterio. Oh, and don’t forget the Chicago Street Fight between Adam Page and Joey Janela.

ALL IN would be available on all major pay-per-view providers, the FITE TV app and ROH’s streaming service HonorClub. There would also be a delayed broadcast for New Japan’s streaming service NJPW World. The show would be uploaded the next day in lieu of being broadcast live. The pre-show, Zero Hour, would be broadcast for free on WGN America and would feature a battle royal match that where the winner would get a ROH World Title shot on the main card.

Finally, after months of preparation and finalizing deals, it was show time:

SoCal Uncensored (Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) defeated the Briscoe Brothers.
EL Chico Luchador (who would be revealed to be Flip Gordon) won the battle royal to earn a ROH World Heavyweight Championship match later that evening.
Matt Cross beat Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF).
Christopher Daniels pinned Stephen Amell of Arrow fame and good friend of Cody Rhodes.
Tessa Blanchard won a fatal four way also involving Chelsea Green, Madison Rayne and Britt Baker.
Cody won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Nick Aldis.
Hangman Page mauled Joey Janela.
Jay Lethal retained the ROH World Heavyweight Championship against Flip Gordon.
Kenny Omega defeated Pentagon, only to be attacked by Chris Jericho after the match.
Kazuchika Okada beat Marty Scurll.
Kota Ibushi and the Young Bucks defeated Rey Mysterio, Rey Fenix and Bandido in the main event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j85qNgp1dtk

The show would feature a less than 12-minute main event and the Bucks have gone on record to say that they signed off the air with only four seconds left on the broadcast. Timing issues would come into play throughout the broadcast as many speculated that most matches ran over their allotted timeframe. Rumors swirled that the women’s four-way match ran a few minutes over, along with Cody’s NWA World Title win (Cody has since refuted those rumors and said that time was actually cut from the match), Hangman Page and Janela ran long and Marty Scurll and Okada ran double-digit minutes over. Scurll claimed during an interview that his match didn’t run over and that the call was made to cut the main event.

When watching the broadcast, you can tell that the team was rushing through Okada’s post-match celebration and going straight into the main event. The Bucks and Cody would later confirm that they had problems throughout the evening with communication from the Gorilla position. Nick and Matt Jackson confirmed that their match time was cut in half due to the timing errors.

Regardless of any noticeable issues there might have been, the show was received with great praise from fans as one of the best shows of the year. In Meltzer’s Year End Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards, the show would finish 4th in fan voting for Show of the Year, behind New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom, Dominion and NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. Of the 11,263 in attendance that night, the majority ruled that it was one of the best live wrestling experiences they ever had. Fans began begging for a follow-up show, but there was already a contractual/legal back and forth between all involved considering most the producers, referees and wrestlers had existing contracts with other companies. Despite the turbulence, Cody and the Bucks led everyone to believe that maybe one day they would do it all over again.

So, what makes a group of friends do something ambitious? Is it the self-satisfaction that you delivered a product that was considered one of the best of all time? Is it because you want to “change the world?” Is it because you want to start a revolution? Or is it because you want to get a group of wrestlers together to entertain the fans of pro wrestling and show that the best wrestlers today are ALL ELITE?

These men proved that when you put your mind to something you can achieve anything. Cody Rhodes, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson gave the fans something to appreciate, something to respect and something to say just simply say “THANK YOU.” They proved that the wrestling business in 2018 is alive and well and that there is a major upswing ready to occur in 2019.