10 Things ALL IN Wrestling owes its success to

ALL IN Wrestling is going to (if it hasn't already) bring a change to the face of not just independent but professional wrestling altogether. The ELITE holds in their hands a key to the kingdom of pro-wrestling or a golden ticket to the WWE. Hopefully, for the sake of fans and the business, they choose the former.

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A revolution comes about by individuals willing to rebuke the system and personal wealth for the greater good of the people. In the ELITE, wrestling has found its Robin Hood and his band of merry men. Yet the revolution doesn't build from isolation, there are multiple factors from within and without the system that gives it birth.

Even for all their efforts and success, the ELITE especially Cody and the Young Bucks cannot take credit for ALL IN's success. A multitude of factors came together on the very night the ELITE decided that they shall go through with this impossible-seeming event.

That's not even mentioning the wager placed between Dave Meltzer and Cody that pushed forward this ALL IN event. Either way here is ten things that ALL IN owes its success to beside the perseverance of the ELITE.

Being the ELITE

Starting with the most obvious, Being the ELITE is the ELITE's youtube video show. It began as a way for the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega to document their wrestling journey across the world. Since then it has grown into its own meta-infused series, imbibed with intriguing storyline details that wrestling companies can't capture on their own.

Sure technically the credit for this goes to the ELITE but had the content not been interesting or engaging as it is and vice versa with fans, then it wouldn't have worked. Thankfully the ELITE found a loyal fan base willing to give them a chance.

Fans needn't see the show to get a sense of storylines concerning the ELITE such as Adam Cole's exit or the Bullet Club civil war. Yet the detailing and addition of these elements give storylines intriguing heft and some great touch of comedy and drama.

Being the ELITE will remain for life and it's success (with a possible network/OTT platform buyout) trickles down to the ability for ALL IN to become a promotion handled by these business-savvy wrestlers.

Z True Long Island Story

Speaking of wrestling life documentation and meta-comedy, one can't deny Zack Ryder's influence on the whole concept. In 2011, a frustrated and somewhat inspired Zack Ryder decided to take his career in his own hands. Underutilized he created a youtube show to get himself over. It worked for a moment, fans lapped up the genius work and WWE also supported it.

Or so it seemed, once the show got consumed into the WWE juggernaut things changed for Ryder. Either out of spite for getting over outside the system or failing to understand it, Zack Ryder found himself shoved unbearably down the pecking order. Cody Rhodes, then just about staying afloat was witness to Ryder's rise and fall in a company hellbent on control.

Since then Ryder has tried and failed to rise up the ranks, he hasn't escaped the WWE. Both as an inspiration and a warning sign for what the system can do to one mired in its complex network.

ALL IN is only possible because Cody decided after suffering the same to get out and change all of it with like-minded individuals. Now it's time for them to pass the deed forward and not go back to WWE, no matter the millions.

The Mount Rushmore of Wrestling

Long Island Iced Z might have made Youtube and a burgeoning social media, an option for wrestlers to get over outside the ring. But the kernel of the BTE and by default, ALL IN's inception has to have come from the Mount Rushmore of Wrestling.

This was a faction formed in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla between the Young Bucks, Kevin Owens (formerly Steen) and Adam Cole. Their backstage promos, filmed primarily by themselves lit the world on fire. In one of them, Kevin Steen, in fact, predicted that he would one day be the champion of the Universe!

While both Steen and Cole would go on to join WWE, the idea behind the Mount Rushmore was to ruffle feathers and make themselves a business of their own, proven by the savvy minds of the Bucks and the T-Shirts sold over the concept.

This initiation caught the idea of a lot of companies including the WWE. Eventually, though Young Bucks found themselves in another faction altogether, to birth the ELITE and push their business minds into a whole new direction; the ALL IN event!

Prince Devitt and The Bullet Club

For all their efforts to try to make the ELITE a brand on its own, The Young Bucks and friends will always remain tied to the Bullet Club. The Bullet Club brand is bigger and much more profitable to NJPW thanks to the history behind it.

Formed inadvertently as a Gaijin (Foreign) stable in New Japan by Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga it has since gone through three phases with countless champions among them.

It's why the current civil war is ongoing between the factions originals and the men who feel responsible to the ELITE brand rather than the Bullet Club, which gave them the platform. It's an intriguing part of the story that one wishes the ELITE had tied up to ALL IN.

Nonetheless, it even furthers the hate more and pushes one to remember that ALL IN, in many ways is the fruit of the labor of the Bullet Club. Hopefully, they get a piece of it too.

NJPW's incursion onto U.S. Soil

ROH and NJPW have also managed to sell out MSG, the mecca of Professional Wrestling

Bullet Club's rise as the only foreign-led stable in New Japan opened a completely different avenue for wrestlers and fans. Frustrated with management, AJ Styles left Impact Wrestling with whom he'd been synonymous with for ages. He joined New Japan on a whim, becoming the next big thing for the Bullet Club faction.

Even then New Japan wasn't ready, Styles brought with him a decent set of eyeball and exposure to the brand. Then the ELITE took it on a whole other level. By then WWE might not have had a legit competition for their brand (they still really don't) but New Japan had a new set of fans mired in the wrestling world.

Their strong style form caught attention and an incursion into American shores made possible. Coupled with their partnership with Ring of Honor and other rising independent the face of wrestling was going through a transformation. ALL IN, a conglomerate of all this talent and push becoming the resultant final explosion.

NXT and a spotlight on the Indies

New Japan's rise among the American contingent comes about from a cyclical fascination between the Independent scene and WWE with fans in between. The two forms of products have always been tied up with one another ever since WCW's failure created a vacuum in the Wrestling world.

While WWE had always sought out to create homegrown talent from pretty much scratch, their ranks were still filled with wrestlers from the independent scene. This exporting of talent has since exponentially grown over time, with Professional Wrestling slowly losing out its appeal to the likes of Mixed Martial Arts for fighting competitors.

In its current form, WWE has a veritable collection of Independent stalwarts. This gives them the chance to form a number of permutation and combination of dream matches, for the company's niche loyal fan base.

In turn, it also generated interest in the past of such competitors among a WWE specific fandom. This giving eyes to the rising if somewhat constantly pilfered Independent scene in America and beyond. Eyes that the ELITE used to their advantage to go all in on their own brand, outside of the system and bring about a revolutionary change from within it.

The Rise of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan

That drastic change in WWE's thinking that has produced NXT and made it into a future global phenomenon, all comes down to one thing. In July of 2011, a pipebomb by a former Indie wrestling icon changing the viewpoint of fans for the better.

For all the mistakes WWE made with their brilliant CM Punk 'Voice of the Voiceless' storyline (itself taken from ROH). The one thing they did succeed on is making Punk a beloved star for the masses.

His promo planted the seeds for fans to go out of the WWE bubble and witness competition. One which the company had completely ignored, now became a viable outlet. Especially for those looking to see the past of CM Punk. In turn, the rise of another indie giant would be the next step.

Daniel Bryan's meteoric and miraculous entry into the fan's hearts all over forced WWE's hand to change the main event of its biggest and most important creation; Wrestlemania. That's no mean feat, it showed to wrestlers all over the world that they could be made men in WWE and hence NXT was born.

But it also showed fans a world outside of WWE, giving the ELITE the impetus to become their own men and brand. The very same ELITE who went all in on bringing Punk back to wrestling, even if just for a signing.

IWC's outlet for the alternate

Yet for all of WWE's efforts to appeal to core wrestling fans and for new ones attracted to something out of the box. None of this would be possible if the wrestling community weren't seeking an alternate from the same brand based product.

ALL IN might reek of a house show or not be as weirdly out there like a Lucha Underground, but it is a product by the wrestlers themselves. New Japan at times is to niche to really get into for just about everyone, Impact Wrestling had become WWE light and ROH's inconsistency is frustrating.

That's where affable fighters like the ELITE, fighting the good fight, fans of wrestling themselves and just having fun; makes a big difference. A core fanbase for the ELITE comes from a core fanbase seeking change and hence 10,000 strong at ALL IN.

ALL IN, an event by the wrestling fans for the wrestling fans.

Progress, PWG and Fans/Wrestlers Turning Promoter

Much like the fans of the product themselves, fans turned wrestlers or wrestling fans with just enough money started becoming promoters of their own. The most prominent companies among these are PWG and Progress Wrestling.

The former an American company founded by the dickish (pun intended) Joey Ryan and friends has been a major stalwart on the independent scene. Popular for its comical nature as well as the annual PWG Battle of Los Angeles. It even has a celebrity fan in Gillian Jacobs (of Community fame).

Progress Wrestling is a punk rock Britsh wrestling brand, the brainchild of comedian Jim Smallman, comedy promoter Jon Briley and actor Glen Robinson. It in effect revived the British wrestling scene with a mix of the traditional catch style as well as styles from around the globe, even catching the attention of the WWE.

These smaller promotions have definitely been on the minds of the ELITE, often competing at their events. Providing a set up for the bigger stars to go all in on their own product. It's apt then that Cody would choose his platform to help revive the NWA as well, now under the guidance of another fan in musician Billy Corgan.

NWA and nostalgia marketing

Speaking of the NWA, before the juggernaut that was WWE. A coalition of territories controlled the business of wrestling under the umbrella of the National Wrestling Alliance. Its champion would tour each territory and promotion, competing against the talents of a local area and building the business of professional wrestling.

WWE's rise changed the game, bringing forth on corporate giant at the center of a booming and then floundering business. While that NWA may never really come back, fragments of it can still be found within the Indie scene.

In fact, the revival under Corgan with a touring champion like Cody is the first step to bringing the disparate promotions to battle WWE's global takeover. ALL IN set an intriguing precedent for this, bringing promotion branded stalwarts into one big event.

It also rode on the idea of Cody and his father's legacy as a former NWA champion. The event itself played on the form of classic NWA promotion cards. This form is known as nostalgia marketing, a lucrative technique used on a generation full of love for the retro.

It is also what has made ALL IN such a success, the glorious past feeding the success of present-day for a shining future.

Edited by Amar Anand