What a show! A really enjoyable fun afternoon/ night of wrestling. And this year I had the pleasure of sharing this experience with a friend. It was great to hear about Rob’s recent adventures and experiences too.
It was great to have sometime to enjoy something as just me; most of my time is either working, parenting or at the very least thinking about those things. So it was nice to have a day to enjoy wrestling away from those responsibilities for a short time. That said I’d love to be able to take Henry to wrestling in a few years time and while a whole hotel bed is nice, I did miss Laura being next to me. Also, I must confess I did look at work messages as we had an event happening on the same day. So it was the briefest of breaks.
While it was my opportunity to be out of the house for nighttime, that of course meant I woke up at 5am! So much for a baby free lay-in.
It’s has been nice to have a break and a few days off work this week after some really stressful weeks with a lot going on mentally, not helped by some personal interactions I’ve had recently. Separately I’ve also noticed more the longer term impact of being a neurodivergent household, in a way that I’d not before. What has made this more tricky is seemingly it’s something not everyone understands or has compassion for. Which every much feeds into my don’t share or expect support from anyone. In turn leading to more stress and tiredness.
So… While I missed Laura and Henry, it was nice to have a day at the wrestling.
All In - The matches
PAC, Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli win Ladder Match (AEW Trios Championship)
Timeless Toni Storm def. Mariah May (AEW Women’s World Championship)
Hook def. Chris Jericho (FTW Championship)
Young Bucks def. FTR and The Acclaimed (AEW Tag Team Championship)
Christian Cage Wins AEW Casino Gauntlet Match
Will Ospreay def. MJF (AEW American/ International Championship)
Mercedes Mone def. Britt Baker (AEW TBS Championship)
Jack Perry def. Darby Allin in a Coffin Match (TNT Championship)
Bryan Danielson def. Swerve Strickland (AEW Men’s World Championship)
All In - The Experience
While an amazing attendance on the night (54,000+), this was a big difference in experience to the 82,000+ at last years All In. In part this was due to the much improved staging, which sectioned off an end stand. But there were also more empty seats. Which is was a shame, but it’s fine almost 55,000 people at a wrestling event in the UK, Woosh! It was always going to be hard to beat the first shows attendance, and last year had such a build as the first show at Wembley in decades.
The show generally felt a little slicker than last year and ran well. I did really like to new staging and was pleased with our view from the seats in the sky. My personal stars of the show were: Christian, Toni Storm, Osprey, MJF, Swerve and Bryan. I do wish they’d swapped the running order with the TBS and TNT title matches. Mercedes and Britt weren’t at their best, but they weren’t helped by the match placement. The shorter very underwhelming TNT match would have been a good buffer and given the TBS match a better opportunity to shine.
The ‘American’/ International title match and Men’s World title matches were amazing! Swerve has been great as champion, and Bryan getting a title run before retirement is 100% the right move.
My moments of the night: Bryan winning, MJF’s entrance, Jamie Hayter returning, Ricochet’s debut, seeing Okada, Osprey and Bryan.
Next year’s event will be ‘Forbidden Door’ with All In returning in 2026. I’m slightly less keen on Forbidden Door as a PPV, the builds are usually not great with a focus on just one or two matches. So I’m not sure about attending at the moment. However, it’s still an opportunity to see great wrestling and support my favourite promotion; so maybe. All In 2026, I definitely want to be back for that.
Signposting
Blogger's note: This post does not include sponsored content; I purchased my own event ticket. The views, experiences, thoughts and insights expressed in this post are my own. The links included in this post are direct web links and are not affiliate links.
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