I've been thinking about ALL IN since we finished watching
the Pay-Per-View. Then I would stop. Then I would think about it again and say
to myself, "What a great show!"
I'll start by saying that at the time of writing this, I
have not seen ALL IN Zero Hour but did hear as to what took place and plan to
catch up with it very soon.
One of my biggest anticipations was what the set would look
like, what the ring skirts would look like. I was pleasantly surprised when the
opening shot was of Justin Roberts. Either I hadn't known he was going to be
the ring announcer or I just forgot. Whatever the case, I knew that we were
going to be in for a treat with this man announcing people to the ring! The
scene spoke high production value. It was great to see TGIF and
Crackerbarrel as sponsors for the event
- and I loved the incorporation of an actual Crackerbarrel in one of the
matches later on in the night!
The first match match was a solid opener for me, I'd seen
Matt Cross wrestle multiple times - mainly in Lucha Underground, and MJF was a
face I was seeing for the first time. What stood out was he used Josh Bodom's
pendulum piledriver from the middle rope. Usually for me, that means game over
- but not this time! I'm giving the match a thumbs up.
What really talked me into mentally investing into the
Stephen Amell match was an episode of "ALL US" - in particular, the
comments Christopher Daniels made about the perception of Pro Wrestling being
easy. I felt that promo. It was real to me damnit! I admire Amell's search for
a challenge, but I also knew that CD was going to show the world why he dresses
as a ring general. The match itself was very entertaining, and I found myself
again, invested. I was ALL IN. When Daniels rolled himself onto the table I
said, "He's goading Amell to feel froggy and make that jump!" and he
rolled out of the way, sending Amell plummeting down to earn some more stripes.
In the end, I didn't expect Amell to get up from taking the BME - nor did I on
paper expect this to be more than a filler. How wrong I was about that. Thumbs
up and Respect!
The Women's 4 Way match, rather misleadingly billed as 'Four
Corner Survival' has strong connotations of victory (or defeat) by elimination.
This was more of a Fatal situation, than a Survival one. Tessa Blanchard would
pick up the win, against Chelsea Green, Madison Rayne and Britt Baker in a
match that was (as cliche as it sounds) awesome. It was a touching moment when
Tessa was surrounded by her family, and when the Women raised each other's arms
up to show the world that Women's wrestling
is ALL IN.
The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship match graphic came
up on the screen at the beginning of the second hour of PPV and my immediate
(and innately programmed pro wrestling mentality) thought was, "Isn't this
on way too early? This could be the last match. This could end the show!"
- before quickly reminding myself that there was no setlist for this show and
just went back to enjoying myself. Which wasn't hard because how epic were both
men's entrances? But I'll get to that in a moment. First I just wanted to say,
what a wonderful job BTE and 'Ten Pounds of Gold' did collaboratively to
promote this championship match using YouTube. What a build up! As Nick Aldis
may have pointed out, I found it really hard to know for sure - who was going
to win. On the one hand there was Aldis, who has the brand on his back, and
would be able to stamp a great victory as the NWA representative on this
platform. On the other hand is Cody. The son of a son of a plumber. Who's
father had previously held that championship that had meant so much to him. It
would make a terrific story. Not to mention there was a part of me thinking
that, Cody was one of the 3 hands with the pencil. But then the counter
argument would be, that could be why Cody loses. Or perhaps ultimately it'll be
the NWA's decision? It was hard to make the call. I was invested. I was ALL IN.
Now, getting back to the entrances - they were so appropriate, and you could
see the emotion in Cody's eyes as he was flanked by Tommy Dreamer wearing the
yellow polka dots, Diamond Dallas Page, Glacier, and other members of the
Nightmare Family. Non got a louder pop than Pharaoh. The definition of
entrance. Cody would get into the ring and take his spotlight in front of the
10,000+ fans 'they' said couldn't be drawn. What a picture this was now.
Goosebumps. Aldis would be walking out with Jeff Jarrett, Sean Daivari, Samuel
Shaw - an impactful contingent. This was a big fight feel for sure. Both men
put on a great display in my opinion, and there were sprinklings of drama which
culminated with Sean Daivari eating a picture perfect Diamond Cutter. The blood
on Cody's face only added to the story, along with the use of the Figure-4-Leglock it reminded me of one of the greatest NWA
World Champions of the past. Speaking of submission holds, when Aldis had
locked in the Cloverleaf, what stuck out to me (in a good way) was the
commentators references to all who had been beaten by Aldis - which really
helped steep everything we were watching in some deep history. We were watching
history in the making, and history would be made when Earl Hebner's hand hit
the mat to count the 3. What a moment. No theme music. Brandi's face. Sounds from
the Sears Centre. Cody being presented with the Ten Pounds of Gold. Bobby
Cruise announcing a new NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion. 'Kingdom' by Downstait
begins to play over the PA System and the crowd erupts to this as everything
sinks in. This is how you do professional wrestling the right way. This moment
will live forever.
To use an example that Taz often uses, there were no lack of
flavours for ALL IN. Meaning, if you ran an Ice Cream store, you would want to
have a few different flavours. You can't run on just vanilla. I think this is a
good analogy as this show had a good variety for all types of professional
wrestling fan, including the next match which was a Chicago Street Fight. Joey
Janela was a face I'd never seen before but was glad for the introduction as he
put in some solid work with Hangman Page. There were some pretty crazy spots,
like the powerbomb off the ramp and partially through a table. I think the Rite
of Passage from the ladder, through the table took the cake though. Or is it
Ice Cream in this case? Then came the Sports Entertainment, and I was very much
entertained! The rise and ressurection of Joey Ryan - a segment that perfectly
encompasses the Sports Entertainment side of professional wrestling. Which by
the way was probably (for me atleast) completely comprised of story building
through episodes of BTE. It's a good thing because it continued to round out
what this show was providing. A little bit of everything. If this match and
segment were an Ice Cream Cone, it would be dual flavoured.
Getting back to BTE for a moment, I enjoyed seeing Jay
Lethal's struggle with his alterantive persona. Seeing him as Black Machismo on
the night was great for me, and reminded me of his time from promotions past.
The cherry on the cake was that he would be accompanied to the ring by Lanny
Poffo and donned Randy Savage's ring gear.
This was another great moment of the
night, coupled with the fact that he would be defending his ROH World
Championship against Flip Gordon who was teased to not be part of the event.
This match was a little bit of a surprise for me as I hadn't seen that Flip had
won the Over the Budget Battle Royale during ALL IN Zero Hour. It was good to
see Brandi Rhodes out there again in a different attire from when she was
managing for Cody's match. My God, totally forgot to mention the elbow drop she
took from Aldis in that one! Brandi is awesome.
Pentagon. Omega. This was the dream match I was looking
forward to the most. One of the things I enjoyed very much before the match
even got underway was Justin Roberts announcement of Kenny Omega - it still
blows my mind as to why he was let go. I don't know. I look forward to reading
his book even more now. No one announced the Undertaker better than Justin
Roberts. Pentagon Dark is my favorite in Lucha Underground dating back to
Season 1 and the early story with Vampiro. Kenny Omega has been a proponent in
professional wrestling that has Changed The World as of late - this was for me
a true definition of crossover. It was everything I thought it would be, and
delivered a solid performance.
The Fear Factor piledriver to Kenny on the ring
apron stands out when I think back to the match. I popped for the spot where
Penta was to break Kenny's arm. [I'd love to see Pentagon vs. Zack Sabre JR].
When the lights went out after the match, my heart was pounding pretty hard in
anticipation. It was actually believeable that due to the fact that it was the
first show produced by the promoters, a light out was entirely a possibility.
The commentators did a great job. As soon as the lights were back on it didn't
take more than a few seconds to realise that P2J had arrived. Again, I was not
at all expecting that Jericho would be a part of this show in any form because
of his past comments but - there we have it. Thumbs UP!
The first time I saw the Villain persona was in December
2013 at Tidal Championship Wrestling show in Elephant & Castle in London.
It was practically 'Party' Marty Scurll - clean shaven, heel, and a promo that
made him seem so much larger than life. The beginnings of a Villain, in front
of less than a couple hundred people. Seeing his development over the past 5
years (mainly at RevProUK shows) and then getting to see him live at
WrestleKingdom 12 was a proud moment for one of our own. This match reaches
that same air for me. I remember telling my brother as we watched, "With
this arena, this production value, this is what it would look like if Marty
Scurll was on Monday Night RAW with the same gimmick, music and all." Not
that I ever want to see that to be honest. Even though Okada felt it was time
to send Scurll to 205 Live. That was probably one of the most memorable spots
that night, you know the one. Where Okada signals '2, 0, 5' before unreeling
the ripcord of a rainmaker. Only overshadowed by the ALL IN Umbrella opening at
the right time to stop the Rain. Thumbs up!
The final match of the night would be The Golden Elite (The
Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi) vs. Rey Mysterio, Rey Fenix & Bandido. Goes
without saying, something was up during Rey Mysterio's entrance - because it
took way too long to get everyone out there. The only other downside was the
fact that they were running behind schedule and wouldn't have enough time to
enroll everything they had in mind for the Main Event. Nonetheless they did the
best they could with what they had - which seems to be a recurring theme. And
that was still pretty good. Part of me wants to think that the reason the Bucks
would go on last was to adjust on the fly so if they had to deal with time
contraint, they would do it on their watch. I loved Rey Mysterio's Wolverine
attire, got to see Bandido wrestle for the first time, and seeing Kota &
Mysterio in the ring at the same time was an incredible crossover. Thumb's still
Up!
There's a few things I thought were worth noting and
highlighting about the overall show. One of those being that the production
crew, did an amazing job. The commentators were stellar, the referees were from
various promotions, the camera crew did a solid job with the shots, and the set
staff really helped bring ALL IN to life. There are probably various other
aspects that I'm not even aware of but it must take a great deal of effort that
goes into producing an event such as ALL IN. It felt like a labour of love and
passion for Professional Wrestling.
I'm ready for ALL IN 2.
 |
| ALL IN 2018 |
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