“You people, you know who I am, but you don’t know why I’m here.” The famous opening words from the hostile takeover promo on May 27th 1996 from Scott Hall when he jumped from the WWF to WCW. Kevin Nash debuted weeks later. The NWO was created. The Monday night wars heated up to levels the business might never reach again. Wrestling fans have wanted to relive the Monday night wars ever since the death of WCW and ECW. TNA tried years later but deep down everybody knew they had no shot.

Fast forward to 2018, a friendly wager evolved into All In. A ‘WrestleMania for the indies’ sold out the Sears Center in Chicago in less than 30 minutes. I somehow got tickets for All In and it was an experience I will never forget. What made me the most excited? The show was fun. A forgotten feeling when trying to marathon through an 8-hour WrestleMania. All In was new and wrestling fans were shoving all their chips in the middle.

Enter All Elite Wrestling. A new wrestling company. The stars aligned (literally and figuratively) with the Elite and the financial backing from the co-owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars: Tony Khan. Their goal? Former WWE star, Cody Rhodes, cut a promo at the end All In declaring, “Nobody, no man, no company, no entity owns pro wrestling, we own pro wrestling!” The company is comprised of former castaways from WWE that made their marks on the business elsewhere. No longer do wrestlers feel obligated to sign nor stay with WWE to be successful. The Elite comprised of Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and Adam Page are determined to further change the wrestling business.

One year later from All In, AEW returns with All Out. The Sears Center sold out in a flash and once again I was lucky to have friends that scored tickets. The hype for All Out was slightly hindered with the absence of John Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose from WWE). An injury to Moxley forced AEW to call in Pac, aka Neville in WWE, to face off with Kenny Omega. I preferred to see Moxely vs Omega and have their story arc play out. Regardless, this was a big match even with no build. Allowing their wrestlers to work elsewhere before big shows and possibly get injured is already a problem for AEW. They might need to address this policy sooner rather than later.



The match of the night undoubtedly was the ladder match between the Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers for the AAA Tag Team championships. It was a relentless spot fest with the Lucha Brothers getting their first victory over the Young Bucks in AEW. There were numerous times my friends and I jumped out of seats in awe. I’ll be interested to check out how commentary called this match. Spot of the night goes to Pentagon Jr. delivering a Canadian Destroyer to Matt Jackson off the top of a ladder through a table. Thankfully the Young Bucks confirmed on Twitter, they are alive. My MVP for All Out would go to Cody Rhodes. Cody shined once again with an old school story-driven match. While it didn’t reach the heights of the Double or Nothing match against his brother, this match delivered.



Like other AEW shows, All Out gave the fans a diverse style of matches. I didn’t enjoy the hardcore match with Jimmy Havoc, Darby Allin, and Joey Janela but it was nice comedy blow off after following the physical Omega vs Pac match. Some of my favorite moments of the night were the surprise run-ins. Fans dreamed of a CM Punk appearance, but I knew the chances were extremely slim. Arn Anderson delivered his signature spine buster to Shawn Spears. Orange Cassidy saved the Best Friends after losing their match with the Dark Order. Finally, a masked mystery team beat down the Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers post-match. They were revealed to be LAX. Add another tag team to an already stacked tag team division.



All Out won’t be the best show of the year but it is worth a watch even when clocking in at lengthy 5 hour run time. The show overall delivered in creating excitement for the anticipated television debut on Oct 2nd. There are a lot of questions for AEW going forward. Ultimately, how can they handle weekly television? AEW was built on a YouTube show. They utilized that platform to properly build storylines for all their shows thus far. Most of the roster has little to no experience with live television. Even Kenny Omega, a huge star in Japan, has not faced the chaotic nature of a weekly live prime time show. AEW will need to lean on guys like Chris Jericho, John Moxley, and even lead commentator Jim Ross to help with the transition.

Will AEW be able to develop new stars? This is something WWE even struggles with currently. All Out proved that Kenny and the Young Bucks can take PPV losses to put over other talent. Chris Jericho, however, was crowned the inaugural AEW Champion over Hangman Page. The crowd naturally wanted the established legend to win but AEW needs to be careful not run into the same problem WCW and TNA did. Watching the old stars consistently go over the young new stars gets old real fast. Jericho is not Hulk Hogan though. I mean that in a positive way. Jericho consistently has reinvented himself. He has already proven that he can successfully elevate companies like New Japan Pro Wrestling while letting the home-grown talent get the victories. His time in AEW should be no different. Without question, the 48-year-old Chris Jericho should be ‘The Guy’ to walk in as Champion into the first television show. How will the young 28-year-old Adam Hangman Page develop now? We’ll have to tune in and find out.

Will the announcement of NXT’s television deal with USA create a Wednesday Night War? Times are different now and television isn’t the be-all for wrestling anymore. Will AEW eventually launch their platform? New companies will always have the disadvantage by starting from scratch. Especially in wrestling, long term booking and the rich history of the business make it great. AEW still has the Omega/Moxley feud. Can that compete with Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, Adam Cole, and Shayna Baszler? You want to go to war? The fans are gonna get one!