What Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, And ‘ALL IN’ Did On Saturday Was A Game Changer: What IMPACT Wrestling, WWE, and Ring Of Honor Can Learn From ALL IN

Saturday, September 1, 2018 will go down in history as the night that professional wrestling changed forever, even if the show was a one-off. 

ALL IN was a massive success for everyone involved. And while i haven’t been able to finish all 4 hours of the show, what I have seen is enough to know that this show has changed the game (yes, I know I said that twice now). 

The ALL IN – Zero Hour special on WGN America had some technical issues, but it’s forgivable for them to have those issues as this was the first show they’ve produced. 

At the end of the night, I walked away extremely proud of the guys involved. They put on a massive show, had very little problems, and made the show feel special without having their own TV outlet to promote their show. 

There is a ton of things that IMPACT Wrestling, WWE, and Ring of Honor can learn from the success of ALL IN. 

READ MORE: WHY CODY NEEDED TO BE NWA WORLD CHAMPION

The first lesson that can be learned is on story telling. The NWA World Championship Match with Cody Rhodes defeating Nick Aldis to become the new champion was a perfect story told perfectly without the two men ever fighting or without any major over-the-top trash talking. 

The job that Billy Corgan, Dave Lagana, Cody Rhodes, and Nick Aldis told with a few promos, a camera crew, and a compelling story arc was impeccable. All the guys needed was an outlet to tell a story and the arc and the rest was done with the imagination of the fans, the desire to see these two men fight it out for the title, and the need for the babyface to come out as champion. 

The story in the ring was just as epic. Seeing Nick Aldis take it to Cody, seeing what the title meant to Cody and his continued fighting effort to keep fighting even after his wife tells him that he didn‘t need to keep going, and then seeing his wife take an elbow drop from Aldis just made the story so much better. 

And in the end, a quick roll up gave Cody the win. We didn’t need to do a complicated finish or angle, we didn’t need run ins or weapons. All we needed was a story, a match, and a conclusion. And I can’t wait for Cody to defend the title against Aldis at the 70th Anniversary show in October. 

The second lesson that can be learned is more for IMPACT and ROH and that is that production matters. 

The stage set up that ALL IN had was amazing. It looked like something WWE or an MMA group would have set up. I kept thinking, “Man, this looks a lot like a big budget production being done” and in reality, it was three guys who boot-strapped the whole production themselves with the help of sponsors and their corporate sponsors. 

The final lesson, give the fans what they want. Stop trying to push your agenda and ideas that don’t work. ALL IN was a fun show because there was no agenda. There was no one person that needed to get over. The people who needed to be over were and the ones who needed to not be over were not. The fans were able to choose. 

I hope that if there is an ALL IN 2 that these principals are taken into account.