10 Most Important Days In The Creation Of AEW
8. All In (1 September 2018)
Tickets for All In went on sale on 13 May 2018. That only a single match had been announced for the show didn't stop it from being an immediate, unprecedented box office hit, with all 10,000+ tickets selling out within 30 minutes.
Cody had won his belt with Dave Meltzer.
The build-up saw names like Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Pentagon Jr., and countless more confirmed. A YouTube series, All Out, was put together to accompany Being the Elite's build before the show hit Chicago on 1 September, becoming the first non-WWE or WCW event to break 10,000 ticket sales (they shifted 11,263) since 1993.
All In had hitches (major timing issues saw the main event's runtime slashed in half, for one), though it was still a colossal success. Already a business smash, matches like Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon, Cody vs. Nick Aldis, and Okada vs. Marty Scurll drew widespread critical acclaim. The excitement coming out of Chicago that night was unreal and while The Elite's long-term future remained unclear, though a post-show promo saw Cody promise "we're sticking together. Not one entity, not one company owns pro-wrestling. We own pro-wrestling!"
He was on the money.