AEW All Out: Why It Was a Statement Show For the Promotion

AEW All Out was one of the most anticipated pay-per-view shows in recent memory, and it is now in the books.

Usually when there is an enormous amount of anticipation for something it leads to some form of disappointment among the masses as it is just so incredibly hard to live up to the high expectations that we as fans set.

All Out, however, did not disappoint.  And for the amount of hype that surrounded this pay-per-view, that is really saying something.

At some point in the future, we will look back at this All Out pay-per-view as a pivotal show in AEW’s history as the promotion continues to build and capitalize on its momentum.

AEW All Out was a statement show for the promotion.

All Out was a statement show for All Elite Wrestling.  And it will be remembered as such for a variety of reasons.

AEW has always done a number of things well.  Storytelling, in-ring work, and promos have all been strengths of the promotion.  And those things continued to shine at the All Out pay-per-view, highlighted by what just may end up being the match of the year, between the Young Bucks and the Lucha Bros.

But those are all things that we as wrestling fans expect when we spend our hard-earned money to purchase pay-per-views.  And those qualities, while they usually make the difference in whether a show is viewed as a success or a disappointment, they do not have the ability to change the professional wrestling scene as a whole.

But All Out was a game-changer for the landscape of professional wrestling.

First, we learned just what a huge signing CM Punk was when he and Darby Allin delivered an outstanding wrestling match.

There was a lot of excitement surrounding the signing of CM Punk.  But the man had been out of the pro wrestling game for over seven years, due to having the “passion stamped out” of him.  So there was a little unease with what to expect out of Punk.

But Punk delivered in a big way, against the perfect opponent.  And in grand fashion, CM Punk made it known that he was still capable of delivering a fantastic match that can live up to even the loftiest of expectations.

AEW may have just replaced WWE as the most coveted destination for free agents.

Since the WCW was purchased by the WWE in March of 2001, the WWE has pretty much run unopposed as the place that all professional wrestlers strive to get to.  When you spoke about professional wrestling in the United States, you were speaking of WWE.

When AEW came to fruition in 2019, it did so as all new businesses start, with people wondering if they would make it.

As AEW slowly built a roster from young talent on the independent wrestling scene and some of those that the WWE had cut, many people scoffed.

AEW was being billed as the home for people not good enough to make it to WWE and WWE rejects.

Even when AEW brought in clearly talented performers such as Jon Moxley, Miro, Malakai Black, FTR, Andrade, and Serena Deeb the stigma was always there that AEW was picking up the scraps that WWE no longer wanted.

Well, that all changed on Sunday night at All Out.

The last seven minutes of the pay-per-view ended with the AEW debut of the man that headlined NXT Takeover 36, Adam Cole, and the man that headlined WrestleMania 37, Bryan Danielson, fka Daniel Bryan.

These two men could never be labeled as WWE rejects.  They were both major players that were no stranger to being called on to main event pay-per-views with the WWE and NXT brands.

And in the media scrum after the All Out event, both Cole and Danielson alluded to the fact that they were happy in WWE…….yet they still chose to come to AEW.

And that is the definition of competition.

Look, WWE isn’t going anywhere.  They have been around for forty years and have built a very successful worldwide brand that many wrestling fans are loyal to, possibly to a fault.

And in all honesty, any true wrestling fan shouldn’t be hoping for any wrestling promotion to go out of business.  Competition should breed a desire within both promotions to put on the very best show they possibly can on a week-to-week basis.  And that is a beautiful thing for fans of professional wrestling.

But where AEW can compete with WWE is in attracting free agent talent, which they proved by landing main event talents in Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson.

And the more contracts that start to expire in WWE the more opportunity AEW will have to continue to strengthen their own talent base, while further weakening WWE’s.

In the span of about seven minutes on Sunday night, AEW changed the game in professional wrestling as the sold-out Now Arena in Chicago chanted A-E-Dub at a fever pitch.

In the words of the legendary Jim Ross as Bryan Danielson stood in the ring at All Out with Jurassic Express and Christian Cage staring down the Elite, “Oh, the days lie ahead”.