(Writer’s Note: It would be foolish of me to go ahead with another column without mentioning the tragic deaths of Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt last week. We, as wrestling fans, have become accustomed to learning about these larger-than-life characters passing away, but it continues to rock us when another name is added to the list. Terry Funk was 79 years old when he passed, and had been in declining health for years, and the news of his death was still able to elicit plenty of shock all over social media. Both Funk and Wyatt were masters of their art and have built up some incredibly dedicated and devoted fan bases through the years. Their losses will be felt by wrestling fans across the world forever. My sincerest condolences go out to the families, friends, and coworkers of Terry Funk and Windham Rotunda. Folks, please make sure that the people you love and value in your life know that they are, in fact, loved and valued. Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us.)
(Writer’s Note, Part Deux: I had this entire column written, and then AEW made the last-minute announcement that they will be returning to London next year for another All In pay-per-view. I’ve decided to keep the column, as is, even after the announcement. There are parts that are outdated now, sure, but my general point remains. I will say, though, that I’m not exactly a fan of simply running it back at Wembley Stadium again a year from now. For multiple reasons. Perhaps I’ll get to that in the future. Bastards.)
All In.
Merriam-Webster defines the term as being “fully committed to or involved in something.” More specifically, they mention that, in the world of poker, to be “all in” means to bet everything on a single hand.
In 2017, Dave Meltzer was asked by a Twitter user if he felt that Ring Of Honor could sell 10,000 tickets for a single show, and his response was simple enough.
“Not any time soon.”
It’s worth noting that a month or so before the question was asked, RoH held their annual WrestleMania weekend show, Supercard Of Honor, at the Lakeland Center in Lakeland, Florida. The event set the company’s all-time attendance record at the time with 3,500 fans in the building. To go from 3,500 fans to 10,000 fans was a big ask, especially for a company that was already 15 years old and who many fans felt had their “golden era” end a few years earlier.
Cody Rhodes didn’t think it was too far-fetched, though, and he responded to Meltzer’s tweet by saying that he would take that “bet.”
This would get the ball rolling for Cody and The Young Bucks to help promote a completely independent show called All In that was to be held at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the perfect choice for a name, as Cody and the Bucks were essentially putting their names on the line. Imagine for a moment if they busted their asses to put All In together and promote it like crazy, but it ended up being a commercial flop, not even coming close to reaching the 10,000 ticket mark.
As we know, they didn’t have to worry about that. Within 30 minutes of tickets going on sale, All In was a complete sell out, and an announced attendance of 11,263 people witnessed the show in person.
Fast forward five years. The success of All In directly led to the formation of All Elite Wrestling, a promotion that has grown and grown to become one of the biggest on the planet today. They brought the “All In” name back for another major gamble, this time for their debut in the United Kingdom, with Wembley Stadium playing host to their biggest show ever. For AEW, this was like climbing to the highest diving board and doing a triple gainer before they bothered to check if there was actually any water in the pool. Again, imagine if they set this up and tickets sold poorly, making a gigantic stadium look downright empty when the show took place.
As we know, they don’t have to worry about that, either. The last public update we were given revealed that nearly 81,000 tickets have been sold, and the current setup for the stadium will allow for 85,472 fans to pack their way in. I am typing all of this before All In(nit) takes place, so I have no doubt that the tickets sold and the stadium setup numbers will go up between now and showtime, possibly ending up in a complete sellout.
What the hell is AEW going to do from here?
“AEW” and AEW have decided to push all of their chips to the center of the table, going “All In” twice now, and they have won big both times.
Why stop here?
I have zero idea if this is feasible, but I think AEW should try to go “All In” every year, or at least every other year.
Before I go any further, this isn’t one of those situations we’ve seen with the tribalism dorks who are WWE fans, moving the goalposts for AEW. I’m not saying “WWE draws that kind of crowd every year, so AEW doing it once isn’t impressive.”
There is no ulterior motive behind what I’m saying. I look at AEW having the hot hand when it comes to major gambles like this, so I just figure they should let it ride and try to hit on another major gamble.
How do they do that, though?
I’ve seen people say that AEW should run a show in the United Kingdom every year, even if it’s simply returning to Wembley Stadium. On the surface, that makes sense. AEW has sold more than 80,000 tickets for a show in London, so of course that means the fans in that neck of the woods are ready to continue supporting the brand for future shows.
Now, I could be looking at this all wrong, and please tell me if that’s the case, but I don’t know if I consider it going “All In” if you’re just doing the same thing over and over again because you know you can do it.
Could going “All In” again mean finding a bigger stadium with an even larger potential audience? There are a lot of options in that category. For example, Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India is listed as the largest stadium in the world with a capacity of 132,000. Even without “floor seats” for wrestling shows, that would set all kinds of stupid records for AEW if they even got remotely close to selling out. Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh have been used to build AEW’s presence and reputation in India over the last couple years since Dynamite and Rampage began airing in the country, so it’s not like the company would be strangers to the people there.
Too crazy?
Fine. What about college football stadiums in America? There are numerous stadiums in this country with massive seating capacities, and for one reason or another, companies like WWE never use them. Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan has a capacity of 107,601 people. Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania has a capacity of 106,572 people. Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio has a capacity of 102,780 people. Kyle Field in College Station, Texas has a capacity of 102,733 people. Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has a capacity of 102,321 people. Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee has a capacity of 101,915 people. Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas has a capacity of 100,119 people. Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama has a capacity of 100,077 people. There are ten more college football stadiums here that feature capacities between 80,000 and 93,000 people. If I had to venture a guess as to why these stadiums aren’t used for major wrestling shows, it would be the accommodations for those attending. For example, Michigan Stadium’s 107,601 person capacity is in a city with a population of about 121,000 people. Those football games are full of people who attend college in the town and the families of players in the game itself, and therefore, aren’t looking for hotels and places to stay for the weekend. Having all of these fans fly and drive in for a show and things like Conrad Thompson’s Starrcast convention would make things pretty difficult without the willingness to stay in surrounding cities and travel in and out for events.
Too difficult?
Fine. I’ve seen people mention NFL stadiums, similar to what WWE likes to do for WrestleMania and SummerSlam, or even MLB stadiums like we see WWE do for recent editions of the Royal Rumble. Those would be fun options, sure, but are they really matching the “All In” criteria? AEW would either be running venues that WWE has already done shows at, or they would be running venues that feature a smaller capacity than Wembley Stadium does, as precisely zero of the 32 current NFL stadiums top Wembley in that area. When it comes to doing any sort of large shows in North America, though, I would be foolish not to bring up, yet again, that AEW has had a lot of struggles filling up arenas here for a long time now. Venues for television struggle to sell 5,000 tickets, and venues for pay-per-views have taken almost the full time from on-sale date to event date to sell 10,000 tickets. The company would REALLY be gambling with things if they decided on a show of that size in the United States or Canada, no matter the venue.
Too much to ask for?
Fine. Another idea that I’ve seen… multiple times, actually… is an all-women’s pay-per-view. When I say I’ve seen that idea, I mean that I’ve seen it from random people on social media, not a rumor or a story on an actual site. The reasoning is simple, though… AEW has been very inconsistent and spotty when it comes to the amount of focus they place on the women’s division and the stories that are given to the women under contract, and this would be a great opportunity to show the world that they’re serious about becoming better with the booking of the woman from here on.
I actually dig the idea, but I do have a serious question about the whole thing… the idea of an all women’s pay-per-view from AEW would be accepted from the AEW diehards, but is there really enough there to get anyone else to buy tickets to the show or order the event at home? Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, Britt Baker, Toni Storm, Athena, and women of that nature are all capable of putting on some very entertaining matches, but it takes more than that to carry a pay-per-view. You also need star power. Those women, as good as they can be, aren’t on the level of Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks, Nikki Bella, Trish Stratus, Lita and the other women who helped carry WWE’s Evolution pay-per-view in 2018.
At this very moment, there are 37 contracted talents that appear in the women’s division for AEW. Depending on how many matches you have, that would be enough to have an entire show. 42 women appeared at Evolution, and that’s counting two managers and 20 women being in a Battle Royal. AEW has enough business relationships to allow different women to appear for one-night appearances, but the company would have to be careful about the amount of “outsiders” brought in, because that’s what Forbidden Door is for, you know?
I’m not going to fantasy book matches, as that’s way too far down the road in this scenario, but you would certainly have the AEW Women’s Title and the TBS Title on the line during the show. The NJPW Strong Women’s Championship would be a safe bet for the show, as well. It’s difficult to make any sort of real predictions beyond that. Tony Khan has never met a Battle Royal he didn’t like, but unless half of the entrants would be women coming in from other companies, or women who used to work in AEW, that wouldn’t exactly leave a lot of people left for the rest of the show.
I just don’t see something like this happening, at least not with the way the current AEW roster is set up. Now, if you wanted to talk about having an entire episode of Dynamite or Collision dedicated to the women, that’s something I could see, and it would be a lot easier to pull off.
Too much working against it?
Fine.
The more I think about it, the “easiest” option to pull off would be to run shows in new markets with large venues, attempting to pull off some more magic on a yearly basis. A show in India one year, followed by a show in Mexico the following year, with a show in Japan the year after that, and a show in Germany the year after that, and so on. That type of thing. Expand the reach that the company has, win over new fans in places that WWE either doesn’t go to, or at least doesn’t go to for more than a house show or two in a single calendar year. It’s difficult for some North American fans to understand how important that is, because we get shows all the time here. AEW is in a place where they can use every fan they can get, and doing shows like All In(nit) and continuing the All In tradition in such a fashion could/should/would be a way to gain new fans in abundance.
Let me turn things over to all of you. First and foremost, what do you think of the idea of AEW continuing to use “All In” for shows in the future? Secondly, if you dig the idea, do you think that it would be just another “normal” event, or do you think something like what I’ve mentioned in this column would be better off? Feel free to chime in with your own idea of the company going “All In” with something special in the future, too. As always, you can hit me up in the comments section below, or on Twitter (@HustleTheSavage), and let me know what’s on your mind.
Weekly Power Rankings
Terry Funk & Bray Wyatt Tributes: Under the most difficult of circumstances, WWE was able to put on an episode of Smackdown that featured wonderful tributes to both Funk and Wyatt, as well as a “normal” episode that furthered storylines.
Stadium Stampede: Blood, guts, violence, weapons, chaos… if you enjoy those things in your pro wrestling, this match was definitely for you.
FTR vs The Young Bucks: Perhaps the result wasn’t what many were expecting, based on real life situations, but the match itself was great to the surprise of zero people. Perhaps the match won’t be remembered down the road like FTR’s matches against Jay & Mark Briscoe, but that doesn’t take away from the quality here.
The Golden Elite vs Konosuke Takeshita, “Switchblade” Jay White & Juice Robinson: It’s a Trios match in AEW, so it’s going to be a wild time, and that’s exactly what it was. Everyone got to look good, and it helped to set up the one-on-one match between Takeshita and Kenny Omega at All Out.
Gunther vs Chad Gable: It’s amazing what can happen when WWE lets Chad Gable be Chad Gable, isn’t it? He has looked so, so good in recent weeks, showing that he is capable of so much more than he has been allowed to do. Once Gunther breaks the all-time record for longest Intercontinental Title reign, should Gable get his final shot and be the choice to dethrone the champion? I wouldn’t complain.
Rey Fenix vs Jon Moxley: Tons of fun, and it helped to advance the story of Fenix being taken out before Stadium Stampede. While we’re on the topic of Fenix being taken out, can I just talk about how piss poor AEW’s production team is? The entire point of the angle was for Fenix to be injured so badly that he needed to be removed from the pay-per-view, so of course, AEW’s brilliant production crew misses the “death blow” that took Fenix out. Over the last few years, they have missed endless major moments, match finishes, and important shots. Another thing… Excalibur doing the “somber wrestling announcer voice” as Fenix is being stretchered out of the arena, only to immediately switch to him doing a commercial read for a gambling website? Seriously? You couldn’t, I don’t know, have him maybe do the ad read a segment before or a segment after? Way to make him look like a fucking disingenuous putz.
MJF vs Adam Cole: As I said in my review of the pay-per-view, this was a match that happened in three different “acts.” There was the storytelling where their friendship was crumbling as the realization of just what was on the line began to sink in. Then, there was the heart of the match itself, where the majority of the in-ring quality took place. Finally, we got the Attitude Era overbooking and the roller coaster that carried us to the finish. It wasn’t like a lot of the main event matches we usually get on AEW pay-per-view, and I think that’s what has led to a lot of the negative reaction, but when you look at everything together as a package, it was well done, even if it won’t end up being an all-time classic.
Chris Jericho vs Will Ospreay: Can Chris Jericho still “go” in the ring? He continues to prove that he can. Should he be a featured performer to the level that he is these days? I don’t think so, no. It doesn’t help that seemingly every feud he’s in lasts for 28 whole calendar years, that’s for sure.
Carmelo Hayes vs Wes Lee: Melo needed the solid victory in a really good back-and-forth match. Lee needed the good performance to prove that he can “hang” in the main event scene. They both got what they needed here.
CM Punk, Sting, Darby Allin & Hook vs “Switchblade” Jay White, Swerve Strickland, Luchasaurus & Brian Cage: Your weekly “Collision tag match of some sort that is super fun and goes at least 20 minutes” was… a tag match of some sort that was super fun and went at least 20 minutes! Go figure.
Christian Cage: If you’re a member of the AEW roster and your father is no longer alive, consider yourself a future target of Christian. My goodness. To the people who are complaining that perhaps he’s going “too far” with his remarks, please stop. The only people who can say it’s “too far” are the families of the deceased, and as long as they’re on board with the comments helping to further the story, you have no place to complain about them.
Kevin Owens: It was good to see him back after a brief injury hiatus. Sami Zayn was a bit lost without his best friend and tag team partner.
Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs The Judgment Day: These guys are really helping to carry Monday Night Raw these days, although we’ve reached the point where it is time to see something fresh and new soon. It feels like I’ve mixed and matches these six names on my Weekly Power Rankings since 2003.
Trick Williams vs Ilja Dragunov: As I said on Twitter after the match, NXT continues to present test after test to Trick Williams in regards to a possible singles push, and he continues to pass each test with flying colors. Not that long ago, he was viewed strictly as a sidekick to Carmelo Hayes, and maybe a future manager for others on the main roster one day. Now, he has proven that he is worthy of an in-ring push of his own. Kudos to him.
Nathan Frazer vs Noam Dar: NXT is going to try and try and try and try and try to make the Heritage Cup a “thing” in America, and even though I continue to say they haven’t been successful yet, at least it has led to some entertaining matches.
Chris Jericho & Will Ospreay’s Promo Battle: In one segment, both Jericho and Ospreay were able to sell a lot of people on their All In(nit) match. Their promos were fiery, intense, and strongly based in reality. High quality work from both men to help advance things that weren’t off to the greatest of starts.
CM Punk vs Samoa Joe: It wasn’t on the same level of quality as their matches against each other in Ring Of Honor, but you’re a fool if you expected that, nearly 20 years later. It was a good mix of intense action and silliness, and they did a really good job of starting the pay-per-view and getting the fans amped up.
Dragon Lee & Lyra Valkyria vs Dominik Mysterio & Rhea Ripley: Boy, that Shawn Michaels really sees a lot of great things in Lyra Valkyria’s future, doesn’t he? She has become a bit of a “pet project” for him in recent weeks, but she has risen to the occasion with some really fun matches in that time. Watch out for her in the not-too-distant future.
Santana & Ortiz: While it’s great to see both of them back in action, it is incredibly sad that their real life friendship disintegrated to such a level that they still can’t even look each other in the eyes, even after agreeing to work together for the first time in over a year.
LA Knight vs Finn Balor: You usually see a lot of rare matches on these “tribute shows,” as you’ll either get random people facing off because there’s a lack of people who want to perform that night, or in this instance, it’s people who share a connection to the deceased. Finn Balor was Bray Wyatt’s first opponent after he debuted The Fiend persona, and LA Knight was Bray Wyatt’s final feud and opponent before he was taken off the road with his illness six months ago. It didn’t need to “make sense” beyond that.
MJF & Adam Cole: I could’ve done without them teaming up to win the RoH Tag Team Titles, but here we are. I’m not expecting a lengthy title reign out of it, because there’s only so far this entire story can go, but hey, the crowd loved the title change, so cool beans, I guess.
Hikaru Shida & Britt Baker vs Saraya & Toni Storm: It’s a pretty tried-and-true story in wrestling… if you’re having something like a Four-Way Dance coming up soon, split those four up into two teams and have the teams square off, preferably on the “go home” show for the pay-per-view. That’s what we got here, and it was a nice preview of what was to come.
CM Punk: Since he returned, there has been nothing but drama surrounding him. Reports of backstage fights, arguments, and disagreements seem to happen whenever he’s in the building. For most, that isn’t good news whatsoever, but for news sites and people who talk about the sport in any way, shape, or form, it continues to provide ammunition. Punk is going to help send a bunch of people’s kids to college with all of the columns, news stories, and podcast episodes that are happening because of him.
Saraya: Her AEW run has been a disappointment, and I think that’s putting it mildly. Does giving her the AEW Women’s Title here make up for that disappointing run until now? We shall see. It’s a shame that Jamie Hayter couldn’t be the champion for this show, and it’s a shame that Hikaru Shida’s reign was cut short at 25 days to make this happen.
The Acclaimed: Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, and Billy Gunn are your brand new AEW Trios Champions. Billy Gunn is a champion in a major wrestling promotion in 2023, and he’s two months short of his 60th birthday. Crazy.
This Week’s Playlist: “Bad Blood” by Asking Alexandria… “Latex Gloves” by 38 Spesh, Lloyd Banks & Conway The Machine… “No Amiris” by Peezy & Key Glock… “There I Go” by Gucci Mane & J Cole… “Your Side Of Town” by The Killers… “Heaven Shall Burn” by Imminence… “Lose Control” by Death Blooms… “Trapped” by Prospective… “Signed In Blood” by Shadow Smile… “Our Morality” by Shadow Smile… “Cheese and Dope” by Project Pat… “Cooped Up/Return Of The Mack” by Post Malone, Mark Morrison & Sickick… “I Belong To You (Every Time I See Your Face)” by Rome… “Gun Harmonizing” by Royce Da 5’9 & Crooked I… “Swim Good” by Frank Ocean… “Say You’ll Haunt Me” by Stone Sour… “It A Ring” by Tonto Irie… “John Crow” by Jimmy Cliff… “Often” by The Weeknd… “My, My, My” by Johnny Gill