How Vince McMahon's Biggest Nightmare Hid In Plain Sight

Vince McMahon lost his North American wrestling monopoly in 2019 when a January press conference unveiled All Elite Wrestling as the realisation of an idea hatched by several indie wrestling giants, a few major stars, and a billionaire's kid who just happened to be a wrestling fan. Nothing about this screams "hiding", but by the end of 2018 the group were as topical in wrestling circles as WWE itself. Maybe more so.

A few months prior, the aforementioned giants had put on a show in Chicago that had been promoted as making the impossible possible. In stakes laid out from a casual Twitter exchange between Dave Meltzer and Cody Rhodes, All In was presented as the biggest independent wrestling show ever, celebrating collaboration, creativity and one glorious night of beating the old enemy at his own game.

The card capitalised on the momentum that created it - a Battle Royal afforded a Being The Elite favourite a Ring Of Honor title match later on the show. The main event brought together wrestlers from four different promotions racing through moves that would never have made it onto a Raw or SmackDown because the show was running intoxicatingly short on time. Cody, just as his Dad would have wanted, lifted an otherwise valueless NWA World's Heavyweight Championship to the biggest and most emotional crowd response of his career. Chris Jericho shocked the world by appearing on McMahon's side of the Pacific Ocean for the first time since crossing it the prior year, and all to continue a feud with then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega.

And all bankrolled by the 10,000 tickets sold in the aforementioned Twitter bet for one glorious night. Truly the magic of the business proving itself still able to function the old fashioned way.

Or, not quite.

CONT'D...