All In

How many of you are in? Are you "all in"?

Cody Rhodes is "all in". The Young Bucks are "all in". By the looks of it, 10,000 fans will be All In at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. From what I've been reading, thus far, this will be the first show to have 10,000 fans (or more) that was held by a company NOT NAMED WWE or NWA/JCP/WCW.

If I understand this correctly, in the last quarter century, the IWC was the last promotion to pull this off in the Continental US. If you want to exclude lucha libre promotions, you'd probably be looking at WCCW's Parade of Champions (May 4, 1986) or AWA's WrestleRock (April 20, 1986).

Just to put it simply, this is easily the biggest news hitting American wrestling in a long time. We've got a show being run in September in the Chicago area hitting at least 10,000 fans and no major promoter is involved.

We're talking about Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks running the show. At this moment, I'm not aware of anyone being announced for the show. Yet, according to Cody Rhodes' twitter account, it took 29 minutes & 36 seconds to sell out.

Think about that for a moment. Just under a half hour and they've sold out all 10,000 tickets. If this is a sign of things to come, the American wrestling scene is hot......and it's only getting hotter. Anyone outside WWE that can sell out a show with 10,000 fans or more is proof that fans are craving something different.

I don't intend this as a bash against WWE, by any means. For many fans, including myself, there's a need for something different.....an alternative, in all reality. TNA/Impact/GWF....whatever they're calling themselves......has failed to provide that alternative. Cody Rhodes & the Young Bucks are attempting to pull this off.

Obviously, we won't know if this is a success until the show is actually done. Then, and only then, can we determine if this was worth the effort.

I have to admit, I love the guts this is taking. This is a make-or-break scenario. Success could take them to whole new heights......heights that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. Failure will break them if they don't learn anything from it. I suppose you could make that argument if they succeed. If they learn nothing when/if they succeed, that's just as bad as losing.

Personally, I think they know what they're doing. I desperately want them to succeed. As a fan, there are few things I know. One of those things that I do know is simple. When fans have choices, it forces the rest of the business to get better. This includes WWE, as well. If WWE sees fans checking out something that they have no involvement in, WWE will (hopefully) see what the competition is doing differently. Maybe this will mean a few improvements in their own product.

At the very least, we'll have something different to watch. Hopefully, this is more then a one-off deal. I don't know Rhodes & the Bucks will use this as a chance to run their own promotion. Maybe they'll do cross promotion deals with different promoters. Who knows?

I'm excited to see where this goes. As I know more, I'll continue discussing the All In show.