What if Bret Hart books All-In 2?

All-In was a huge success, as the largest independent wrestling show in contemporary history, and the first non-WWE or WCW show to draw 10,000 plus fans domestically, besides its success on PPV.

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Building off the Bullet Club name and stars from New Japan, Ring of Honor, and top independents, the event captured the imagination in a rush of entrepreneurship, do it yourself spirit, and wrestling traditionalism, all coordinated by Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks.

One of the featured matches on the show saw Cody himself step between the ropes to challenge Nick Aldis for the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Championship. It’s essentially the same title that Cody’s famous father Dusty spent much of his career chasing (and some of it holding), albeit the fact that the NWA name has a bit less lustre now than it did in the American Dream’s heyday.

The finish to the match saw Cody win with a kneeling pinning combination that reminded many fans of how Davey Boy Smith pinned Bret Hart in the highly revered SummerSlam 1992 main event.

This nod to The Hitman, and the pinning combination he wrote passionately about in his book, referring to it as “the Leo Burke finish,” introduced a question—what if Hart, one of the most respected wrestling minds alive today were to be put in charge of the second edition of All-In?

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#5 DH Smith stars

DH Smith would carry forward the torch for the Hart family.

Few and far between are the wrestlers left who came up under the Hart family learning tree, let alone who have blood ties to the Hart family itself. DH Smith is first among such wrestlers, Bret Hart’s nephew, the son of the British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith.

DH had a run with WWE, but despite a push out of the gate, wound up peaking in the Hart Dynasty tag team with Tyson Kidd.

He wound up leaving disgruntled to work the indies and Japan. While DH may not have his father’s star power or his uncle’s all-around prowess, he’s nonetheless a solid talent who has deserved more of a chance to succeed stateside.

A show booked by his uncle would put DH in a position for which he could trust management, and under the Hitman’s guidance he may well put on the match of his career under the All-In spotlight.

#4 A focus on wrestling

Modelled after Hart's own style, this show would focus on wrestling substance

While Bret Hart was involved in no shortage of great angles throughout his career and grew into a very good promo man, he was first and foremost a wrestler’s wrestler. It’s hard to find anyone who will deride the quality of The Hitman’s performances bell to bell and indeed those critics who do deride him tend to do so on the basis that they feel he takes himself and his wrestling career too seriously.

If Hart were to be at the helm of booking a show like All-In 2, you can bet that he’d keep the focus squarely on wrestling—treating it like a sport and letting the action in the ring tell stories more than any shocking twists and turns, surprise appearances, or comedy bits.

One can only imagine the field day Hart might have to direct traffic for talents the calibre of Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, and other proven big match stars.

#3 Young tag teams get an opportunity

Bret Hart could seek to push young teams he sees something of himself in

Bret Hart broke out as a worldwide star via his efforts as half of a tag team. Sure, he would go on to be a main eventer and have his best-remembered matches as a singles star.

But it was alongside Jim Neidhart that he got his bearings working in front of a WWE audience, besides having a bigger and more vocal partner with him to help cover for his limitations early on.

If Hart were to steer the direction of a second All-In, it would only make sense for him to give young tag teams from today’s independent scene a similar opportunity to thrive in front of a big audience and perhaps unlock the potential for a singles star to emerge years into the future.

Moreover, Hart is certainly a guy who can understand and appreciate the place of good tag team wrestling in diversifying a card and delivering a show-stealing match.

#2 Another appearance by Chris Jericho

If only to honour Bret Hart, Chris Jericho would likely be All-In again

Bret Hart’s fellow Canadian Chris Jericho shocked the wrestling world by pulling off a legitimately surprising, unannounced appearance at All-In.

The appearance made sense given Jericho’s ties to New Japan Pro Wrestling and ongoing storylines with talents from there.

Moreover, while Jericho ostensibly remains in good standing with Vince McMahon and WWE, he is not under contract to them and has pointedly called his own shots about where he works when.

McMahon is likely to redouble efforts to lock Jericho down with an exclusive contract moving forward if only to keep him from appearing at anything resembling a competing show from here on.

Jericho may cagily keep himself open for anything but short-term deals, though. If he’s contractually able, there’s little doubt he would want to be a part of this hot show again, and if it were to involve Hart, whom Jericho openly admires, it would offer one more reason for Y2J to make sure he doesn’t miss it.

#1 The Hitman and WWE are at odds again

Bret Hart's relationship with Vince McMahon and WWE may never recover if he headed All-In 2.

When it comes to wrestlers who were estranged from WWE, there are few guys with higher profile issues than Bret Hart, who was the infamous victim of the Montreal Screwjob on his way out the door to WCW. It took the better part of a decade for Hart to mend fences with Vince McMahon and his company, including the gradual build of cooperating on a DVD release, accepting a Hall of Fame induction and finally making a return to WWE television.

Hart has expressed some dissatisfaction with WWE in recent years, including being hypercritical of Seth Rollins and Triple H.

If Hart were to work with a second edition of All-In, it may well push things over the edge to effectively ending what relationship he now has with WWE. Even though The Bullet Club and affiliates aren’t really in a position to compete with WWE, All-In nonetheless suggested wrestlers can not only survive, but thrive on the indies, and word is that WWE doesn’t want that movement gaining any more steam.