The original All In event in 2018 will go down as one of the most important wrestling events in recent memory as, without it, All Elite Wrestling probably wouldn’t exist. The main event saw The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi defeat the all-star team of Rey Mysterio, Rey Fenix, and Bandido in a frantic trios match that could have gone very wrong for one main reason: time.
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During a recent interview with Undisputed, Matthew Jackson explained how time constraints got in the way of what could have been a truly epic main event. “The night had run a bit heavy and the production team was scrambling,” Jackson said. “We were told our 25-plus minute main event would have to be cut down by more than half. We immediately started trying to come up with things to cut.”
Not only did they have time working against them, but in the middle of everything, one of the six participants mysteriously went missing. “Rey Mysterio’s theme music was playing, but apparently there was no Rey Mysterio. We took it upon ourselves to race down the hallway to his locker room to investigate what was going on. Apparently nobody had smartened up Rey that his music was looping, so he quickly threw on his mask and sprinted to the entrance.”
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All In could have ended in disaster
Jackson explained that once the match started, trying to work with half the time allocated, Mysterio not being in position in time, and the fact that there were three different languages in play, people backstage genuinely thought that All In would end in the same way that “The Sopranos” did in 2007 where the show’s finale abruptly cut to black. That would have been a huge financial disaster too, as WCW infamously had to issue refunds to people when Halloween Havoc 1998 went over its pay-per-view timeframe.
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In the end, The Golden Elite looked to have had the match won, but a rogue Rey Fénix thought that they had time for one more spot, a decision that could have cost everyone dearly.
“We tried to go home early with a More Bang For Your Buck combination with Kota Ibushi, but Rey Fénix broke up the pin. We couldn’t believe it. I remember the referee yelling, ‘We’re going to go to black! You have like 20 seconds!’ So we rapidly went into a Meltzer Driver and made the fall within seconds. Nicholas and I sat there almost in disbelief and immediately started laughing and sighing in relief. I remember at first both of us being upset that our big moment was so rushed, but minutes later we filled the ring with family and friends, and we quickly remembered this show was much bigger than just a wrestling match.”
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