Thoughts on All In
Eric Denton is the founder of @LAANGELSINSIDER. Besides being a huge Angels fan, Eric is a lifelong pro wrestling fan regularly attends the Southern California independent shows. PWG, PCW Ultra and Bar Wrestling. And while it hurts his head sometimes, he still loves WWE. He and his son were two of the 10,000 plus to attend All In 2018… These are his thoughts
I experienced Hulkamania then later the Attitude era at their peaks. It was quite something and a bummer it didn’t translate to TV. The crowd was rabid for Cody. There was absolutely nobody cheering Aldis. Huge “F*ck you Aldis” chant. My 10 year old and he’s hadn’t seen much Being The Elite. He had no problems figuring out the storylines. Actually he’s a little too smart. He says during the opening promo “Cody’s hair is blond again, I think he gonna bleed”. [I’ve rewatched] Cody’s match… The blood stuff didn’t work on TV. Camera showed Cody’s face and he was fine. He lays back down. Nobody touches him but magically he’s now bleeding. I think he was trying to do the Steve Austin spot but he didn’t get enough juice (which is totally fine by me because eww gross). Earl Hebner was terrible and the X thing with Cody took forever. The crowd audio did not pick up the crowd at all. After Brandi took the elbow you can hear the crowd better so we must have been getting louder. When Aldis slams Cody on the outside after he’s bleeding you can hear “Cody is the best, Cody #1”, it’s faint but if you know what to listen for you’ll pick it out. I’ve seen everything but I’ve never experienced that kind of emotion. 100% of the crowd behind the same guy. If people weren’t screaming they were singing “Kingdom” during his entrance & exit. [I wonder] did they not put Rhodes vs Aldis on last to try and deflect trolls from saying this was a Cody vanity project? My only minor quibble was the that match not being the main.
[Being a Southern California guy, I was happy to see] SCU! Was over big. Great to see Scorpio Sky get a chance to shine on a big stage. A star making performance for a him. Kazarian can still go and the execution of the finish of the match blew the crowd’s collective mind. [During the “All In Over Budget” Battle Royal], there were bunch on smarks doing Reigns “Ooh Ahh” chant when Colt and the others did The Shield powerbomb. [I thought it was funny.]
The match line up was a bit confusing. I think the Matt Cross match was added to give Jericho some more time. Around 5:30 there was police effort arriving at the arena.
Merchandise was a disaster. They had two set ups and the lines were out of control. At one point the credit card machines went down. And not to be a dick, why they even bothered to print & sell S & M. I’m a short fat dude who once he finally got to the front of the line they sold out of 2x. Hats were sold out almost immediately. 6 items to choose from. WTG ROH! I missed most of Page vs Janella because of the merch line. For some reason Penelope Ford doesn’t come to PWG with Joey so I hadn’t seen her before. Wow. Joey Ryan being The Undertaker with Druids was top drawer. The place was howling with laughter. He’s was an acquaintance via Angels baseball and his MLB Fan Cave audition. We met a few years ago after he was let go from Impact, he sounded down so down about it. If he didn’t come up with The Dick Flip he probably would have had to move back home with his parents and quit. Thankfully his publicity stunts paid off. He met Laura and Bar Wrestling has become super fun promotion that I love attending. Very happy for his success.
Kenny Omega was super over but so was Pentagon and the crowd was split until they gave up and chanted “Both these guys”. Pentagon vs Kenny did not feel long. Almost everyone I talked to after show said Scurill vs Okada was their favorite match. I’m a huge fan of both but I felt it went long. That one or Flip vs Lethal probably should have gone where NWA title match was placed. The main event was definitely rushed. The entrance was weird, Fenix & Bandido came out and it took Rey like at least an extra minute (felt longer since I was aware of the time constraints) to come out. I was in an elevator after the with one of the guys who worked in the truck. I asked him if he was sweating it out with the show ending with “3 seconds left”. He just laughed and says “What? No! We were fine. They had 30 minutes of satellite time”. Maybe Cody & Bucks had to pay extra for every minute after 11pm?