PI has the right idea. KJ is right too, this wasn't a NJPW PPV or even an NXT Takeover, but then again it was never going to be. This was a time capsule of 2018 Pro Wrestling performed in-front of a passionate crowd who really enjoy this form of entertainment. It was an event and it's the closest thing we've had to an ECW Barely Legal in all my years of following the industry.

And if you look at Barely Legal '97, most of the matches were disappointments. Sabu & Taz was merely a good match, Douglas & Pitbull draaaaaaaagged and in the end the match that seemed to be the most beloved was the Michinoku Pro 6-Man. There's a lot of similarities between the two cards, including the fact it was a historic event.

My only criticism is that from a match placement point of view, Cody vs. Nick Aldis should have been the main. It's the match that had the most stakes on the card, I don't care if it would have been self-gratifying, it's father's day here in Australia, Cody can book like his old man if he wants to.

John Mayer and Eddie Vedder?

I don’t disagree it’s a show for the niche audience that was there, but I think it was a further example of why everything outside the WWE is more niche than ever.

I’m glad it was a huge success, and I hope buyrates were strong too. I don’t wish them to fail, but I expected better.

All in is probably the most frustrating name I can think of for a PPV event, try and google it if you don't believe me...especially considering there's no company name to go with it.
Almost as bad as naming a band Brand New.

The show went over time and the promoter put the belt on himself, sounds like every other indy show to me :lol:

First off, I don't understand the production complaints. Was it WWE or NJPW standards? No. But it was only one step below in my eyes.

I'll comment on the three matches I watched.

Hangman Page vs Joey Something
The whole story they presented is all over place. The entire pre-match build is about the Hangman Page murdering Joey Ryan storyline from Being The Elite. What did that have to do with the match that actually happened? Not a clue. Maybe I missed something because I wasn't paying 100% attention, but it all seemed to relate to what happened after the match. The Street Fight itself was worked as a serious weapon-heavy brawl. Sure, there were a couple of comedy spots, but most of it was meant to be taken seriously. At least in the modern wrestling sense, where really stupid spots that are basically "look at what I can do" and have no place in what is supposed to be a real fight get over. Hangman Page wins, the match ends, then we get a full blown comedy segment with Joey Ryan and his stupid penis. The tone of this whole storyline doesn't work for me. They presented a long-term dark storyline with a nuanced character in Page and a one-dimensional comedy wrestler who only has one spot, and then there's some random street fight in the middle of it.

Considering the match in isolated, it was not bad. I generally hate the modern street fights where guys spend more time showboating and setting up elaborate pre-planned spots than actually trying to hurt the opponent or win the match, but I decided not to treat this match as a serious street fight (as mentioned, the presentation was ambiguous, so I didn't know how to treat it) and it was kinda fun. That woman was pretty good. Among all the convoluted spots there were a couple I really liked, and there was some (maybe unintentional) psychology: After Joey Something put Page through the table he took him to the ramp instead of going for the pinfall. That leads to Hangman putting Joey through the table, and he goes straight for the kill in the ring.

Kenny Omega vs Pentagon Jr.
There were a couple of things that took me out of this match. The long-term selling was atrocious, almost non-existent. The story of the first few minutes was Pentagon always being one step ahead of Kenny and hitting a few big moves. As soon as Omega gets on offense, he walks around fresh as a daisy, as though nothing happened to him. Later on he gets dropped on his head on the apron. Less than a minute later he's on offense and barely acknowledging the damage done. Pentagon was a little better in this respect but far from great. The second thing was Pentagon taunting all the fucking time. I get it. Zero Miedo. No fear. Cute little hand gesture. Aren't you special? It didn't help that my impression of Pentagon (having never seen him before) was that he was a sadistic violent luchador who brawled and broke people's arms. I don't expect a guy with that character to pose to the crowd every five minutes.

Those are minor complaints. The match as a whole was pretty good, but the aforementioned issues stopped it from being a great match. But the wrestlers succeeded in their goal: present a showcase match featuring two of the best wrestlers in the world who have, until this point, existed in different universes.

Kazuchika Okada vs Marty Scurll
Reaction in this thread is negative, but I thought this was a better match than Omega vs Pentagon. The reason for this is, as people have pointed out, it was more of a Japanese style match. The action was a little slower and more nuanced, and they actually sold stuff. I loved it. It was a typical Okada match with a slow build to a hot finish, and some really good near falls. It was smart of them to work the match in that way. It stands out from the action fests that surrounded it and presents a side of Scurll that you don't often see, especially not in the USA. Great match.

By the way, anyone notice the fan in the front row in the pink hoodie? He was...very strange. It was difficult to take my eyes off him whenever he was on camera because of the way he was reacting to the match and the big moves. Wonder how the fans near him felt.

Didn't actually see the show but I have the feeling it would have went over a lot better with out Joey Ryan. At least it should make for a good Corny rant in a few days.

Sept 2, 2018 16:21:42 GMT Emperor said:

First off, I don't understand the production complaints. Was it WWE or NJPW standards? No. But it was only one step below in my eyes..

It’s roughly the same price to pay for NJPW World or WWE Network for 4 months as it was to watch this once. Can’t blame people for being upset combined with other issues they had.



Agreed @x-Zero. Was cringey when his dick vid went viral and all my non wrestling fans tagged me in it

The only reason this show had any hype was the chance of Punk showing up, he didn’t and instead they put on a lacklustre show with numerous issues and Indy marks stil want to pretend it was Wrestlemania worthy..like they do every NXT takeover.

According to Meltzer some matches went over time, including Okada/Scurll going 12 minutes long. So they worked a 26-minute match instead of a 14-minute match, which feels really unprofessional. I haven't seen the match, but based on how people are talking in here, it isn't like they started out working a 14-minute match and got carried away and stretched the finish out forever. And they were second last, so they should have been very aware how long the show had to go at this point. Was no one telling them to go home when they'd gone 2-3 minutes over?

I think they did, but he pulled a page outta his former Chaos stablemate's playbook.

Sorry, no speaka Engrish.

Of course they also had to know there's no way an Okada match is going under 20 minutes, not when the first 15 is filler.

There's no way Okada/Scurll ran overtime by that much. I saw that little soundbyte online as well. I think the schedule was behind 12 minutes at some point, either right before Okada/Scurll or right after it. Lots of things could have happened to compound the overrun. For example, Pentagon took a while to come out after his music hit. Maybe he missed his cue. Lots of little things like that add up and the main event was cut short.

Sept 2, 2018 16:21:42 GMT Emperor said:

By the way, anyone notice the fan in the front row in the pink hoodie? He was...very strange. It was difficult to take my eyes off him whenever he was on camera because of the way he was reacting to the match and the big moves. Wonder how the fans near him felt.

Yes! That guy was weird and distracting as fuck.

Sept 2, 2018 18:58:54 GMT Emperor said:

There's no way Okada/Scurll ran overtime by that much. I saw that little soundbyte online as well. I think the schedule was behind 12 minutes at some point, either right before Okada/Scurll or right after it. Lots of things could have happened to compound the overrun. For example, Pentagon took a while to come out after his music hit. Maybe he missed his cue. Lots of little things like that add up and the main event was cut short.

In realise it sure felt like their match could've been 12 minutes shorter and better for it.

Sept 2, 2018 18:58:54 GMT Emperor said:

There's no way Okada/Scurll ran overtime by that much. I saw that little soundbyte online as well. I think the schedule was behind 12 minutes at some point, either right before Okada/Scurll or right after it. Lots of things could have happened to compound the overrun. For example, Pentagon took a while to come out after his music hit. Maybe he missed his cue. Lots of little things like that add up and the main event was cut short.

They could've been originally scheduled to have a 30 minute slot set aside (entrances, match, aftermath) so prepared a match for that. The show ended up overrunning by 12 mins before their match started and they were told they only had 15 or whatever for the match and then worked the match they'd planned anyway. It would seem unusual for Meltzer to pluck that number out of his arse considering that he is there for this All In/Starrcast weekend. He was very possibly speaking directly to Cody and/or the Young Bucks about this after the show.

Sept 2, 2018 14:41:01 GMT System said:

All in is probably the most frustrating name I can think of for a PPV event, try and google it if you don't believe me...especially considering there's no company name to go with it.
Almost as bad as naming a band Brand New.

The show went over time and the promoter put the belt on himself, sounds like every other indy show to me

Cody didn't put the belt on himself. The NWA decides who holds their belt.

Sept 2, 2018 22:31:43 GMT Krimzon said:

Sept 2, 2018 14:41:01 GMT System said:

All in is probably the most frustrating name I can think of for a PPV event, try and google it if you don't believe me...especially considering there's no company name to go with it.
Almost as bad as naming a band Brand New.

The show went over time and the promoter put the belt on himself, sounds like every other indy show to me

Cody didn't put the belt on himself. The NWA decides who holds their belt.

i.e., The Smashing Pumpkins

I watched up to the Jay Lethal match (and will finish the rest later) but if they ran out of time then maybe they shoulda cut out Joey Ryan. I can’t believe people are still enabling him in 2018.

Janela/Page is the best match of the first half of the ppv. Women’s match was good up until that weird finish that the commentators didn’t bother reading up on beforehand. Cody’s match wasn’t nearly as emotional as they were trying to convey either. It probably would have been more effective as the actual main event.

I thought the show overall was good, considering, these guys are first time promoters.

My frustration, even if you could call it that - I've seen much worse WWE, TNA, WCW PPVs - was the booking of the entire event. There was too much. I understand they wanted all their friends on the card, and wanted to give everyone the chance to get their shit in. But come on, it felt long, even for a show full of wrestling.

Ideally, it could have been a much tighter show, and it seemed like they were obsessed with trying to cram as many appearances in. Valets, entourages, half the time it felt like a UFC show. John Mayer and Eddie Vedder in the front row - How? Why? It makes zero sense.

I skipped a lot at the start. So I'll quickly review what I did watch.

I thought the women's match was decent, despite the botched ending. Tessa is a superstar, and have said this since the first MYC. It was OK. And I've seen a hell of a lot worse from WWE performers, weekly.

Cody v Aldis was a bad match. The pacing, the timing - I thought was a boring, convoluted, clusterfuck of a match. How long does it take to blade Cody? It felt like he had his head under that table for 10 minutes. The booking was strange, Cody should have been wrestling like a man ready to make history, even working as something of an underdog, it felt emotionless at times. Aldis, should have been heeling like a prick determined to ruin the day of the 10,000 people in attendance and to give the entire event a big fuck you. He didn't. And I've seen enough of Magnus in my day to know, he's not that great.

Page v Janela. Yeah, it was at times. Page deserved so much more here, and ideally instead of giving The Elite's apprentice a ROH Title shot.. maybe Page v Lethal might have been a better option, and a bigger match for Lethal.

Omega v Penta El Zero was good. It was two world's colliding and did exactly what it intended to do. I'm sure Kenny could carry me to a classic at this point, he's that good.

Okada v Marty. I liked this match more. I really enjoyed it. This is a guy WWE needs to pick up, and as much as Marty would love to stay back-packing the globe with his pals, what NXT could offer this guy could really and quickly fine tune his game.

The Golden Elite v Team Mysterio was good. It was a typical, unashamedly a Bucks match from what I've seen.

The women's match was so good. Pretty rare when you get a multi-person match where everyone in it comes of looking awesome, and it was very cool to see them get a standing ovation. WWE should quit fucking around and sign them all already.

Women's match stole the show, so that's pretty awesome.

Cody/Aldis sucked but the ending was great and I was happy Cody got to have that moment.

Okada/Scurll was boring and I'm upset about that the most. I was hoping it would be Scurll's big break-out match. Instead it was dull and made me wonder why people like Marty Scurll so much.

Omega/Pentagon was ok. It was about what I expected. I wish they had a Street Fight instead of Page/Joey. I think it would have been that much better.

Chris Jericho attacking Omega was dope.

Amell/Daniels I only saw highlights of, haven't watched the actual match yet. Not even sure if I will, as I only wanted to see what kind of crazy stuff Amell was going to get away with. Seemed like the spots they pulled went over huge, which is good.

I haven't watched any other matches and probably won't.

Did I seriously watch a different women's match? What was so good about it? Without rewatching, I'm pretty sure I had Penta/Omega, Page/Janella, the six-man, and Flip/Lethal over it in roughly that order.

Has Uncle Dave released his ratings yet?

Considering the entire thing was in spite of Meltzer.

He has and they're hilarious:

Briscoes vs SCU- 3.75*

Over Budget Battle Royal- 4*(Dave called it the best Battle Royal in years)

Cross vs MJF- 2.75*

Daniels vs Amell- 2.75*

Women’s four way- 3.25*

Cody vs Aldis- 4*

Page vs Janela- 4.25*

Lethal vs Flip- 3.5*

Omega vs Penta- 4.5*

Okada vs Scurll- 4.25*

Golden Elite vs Mysterio/Fenix/Bandido- 4.5*

Sept 6, 2018 11:22:11 GMT PB said:

He has and they're hilarious:

Briscoes vs SCU- 3.75*

Over Budget Battle Royal- 4*(Dave called it the best Battle Royal in years)

Cross vs MJF- 2.75*

Daniels vs Amell- 2.75*

Women’s four way- 3.25*

Cody vs Aldis- 4*

Page vs Janela- 4.25*

Lethal vs Flip- 3.5*

Omega vs Penta- 4.5*

Okada vs Scurll- 4.25*

Golden Elite vs Mysterio/Fenix/Bandido- 4.5*

That is pretty hilarious, and over generous.

Meltzer was in the building, which always skews perspective. Live wrestling is way better than television wrestling.

I quite enjoyed the battle royale. Most non-Rumbles are very forgettable, but it had a lot of moments so sure it's good but I dunno about all-time. It's like when I was convinced Seth/Dean had the best lumberjack ever. Probably true, but consider the competition.

Knock .25 or .5 stars off those ratings and you get what I think. For the three matches I watched, but probably for everything else too.

Sept 6, 2018 14:50:27 GMT Krimzon said:

Meltzer was in the building, which always skews perspective. Live wrestling is way better than television wrestling.

My one live wrestling experience says otherwise. OK, not really. I need to go to an NJPW show sometime.

Da Meltz is off his rocker.

I guess, All In had a lot of eyes on it, that ROH or NJPW wouldn't necessarily have, and what it shows, is just how consistent the big boys at WWE really are. If that Rhodes match was a 4 star match, I'd expect a less obvious bias from Meltzer here on in against the WWE's top performers.

I dunno... I hate live wrestling shows because it's so hard to see what's going on. I like a well produced television product that's shot well. I place an extremely high value on that, which is maybe why I was ragging on some of All In's production a little hard. I did appreciate their multiple cameras, that all cameras were white balanced, and the lighting.

The more I think about it, I'll retract any comments about All In, being the launch of a brand as such. What it will do is potentially launch NJPW state-side furthermore. There is absolutely no reason why NJPW couldn't produce a larger PPV in the US.

With much of the Bullet Club Elite cast, Okada, Naito, Tanahashi, with the addition of Jericho making one of his Brock Lesnar-like appearances.