"We broke every rule" - Cody Rhodes reflects on historic event

These days, Cody Rhodes is one of the top names in WWE. But even after becoming the face of Monday Night RAW, The American Nightmare's legacy will always be tied to the creation of All Elite Wrestling and its preceding event, 2018's All In.

Before the founding of AEW, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks gambled both their money and reputations on a now-historic independent wrestling event. The three partnered with Ring of Honor to book the Now Arena (then called the Sears Centre) for a showcase of wrestling's top talent outside WWE. All In 2018 would serve as a precursor and proof-of-concept for AEW, which was founded just a few months later.

Cody Rhodes recently reflected on the event in an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his Dale Download podcast. The American Nightmare explained that while Ring of Honor helped out, Rhodes and The Young Bucks were the ones footing the bill:

"We told everybody, it's all us, it's all me, Matt, and Nick.' We presented it as 'we're doing this, we're breaking all the rules, we're bringing all the companies together, we're literally going All In.' We did have help from a company, Ring of Honor was the company that helped produce it. People think Ring of Honor footed the whole bill or we footed the whole bill. The truth is somewhere in the middle. We, literally, did have to go All In. We were going All In on our name alone in the sense that we had to get over 10,000 people," he said.

Cody Rhodes further described how chaotic the days preceding the event were, calling it the Woodstock of wrestling:

"We did everything we possibly could, we broke every rule. I never use PayPal, but I laugh when I look back at my PayPal, and all the paydays are still there from these different little things that I had to pay for to get, like Road Warrior Animal to come over to ride his motorcycle. My buddy Conrad [Conrad Thompson] did a convention because he said, 'I bet if this sells out, people will piggyback off it, you should let us piggyback. We'll do a whole convention, and you can steal some legends and assets.' It was like Woodstock for wrestling. I walked into the hotel and the energy was through the roof. The lobby was filled to the brim with fans. It was mind-blowing." [H/T Fightful]

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Cody Rhodes reminisces on the success of All In

Although Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks set up the original All In event, AEW couldn't use the name for any of its events due to Ring of Honor's involvement. That is until Tony Khan purchased ROH earlier this year.

The company revived the event for 2023 and hosted it at Wembley Stadium in front of more than 81,000 fans. In the wake of that achievement, Cody Rhodes recalled the wild success of the original All In's ticket sales:

"We were trying to go on the site to buy tickets, and I'm thinking, 'If the site is frozen, we're screwed' or 'is it blowing up? Can it crash?' It crashed immediately. It was 11,236 in 28 minutes. I said 'We need this,' that welcome to the Indies letter. 'It can be bigger.' I like to think big. It was all in front of us, and we had to execute and make it happen. A wonderful memory. I have trouble with the fact that I no longer own the name to it. I kind of look at it in the sense of, it's not mine, it's the fans'. Let them have a good time with it." [H/T Fightful]

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Are you excited for the future of AEW's All In event? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!