Are You "All In"?

Tonight is the biggest non-WWE wrestling show in years, "All In". 

If you're not familiar with it, Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson aka Generation Me in TNA Wrestling) have promoted this show and it will feature most of the top wrestlers currently who are not affiliated with WWE. When tickets went on sale earlier this year, they sold out instantly which made it the first non-WWE wrestling show in over 20 years to sell more than 10,000 tickets.

I've been trying to figure out a way to commemorate this show with a blog post. However, I couldn't really come up with anything incredibly creative besides borrowing scans from COMC for those on the main card so I could talk about the show.

Cody Rhodes
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Nick Aldis
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

In one of the top matches on the card and what was the first announced match for the show, the man simply known as "Cody" will challenge for the Nick Aldis (the former Magnus in TNA/Impact Wrestling) for the NWA World Championship. Aldis won the belt back on December 9 from Tim Storm. 

This is probably the highest profile match for the NWA World Championship since it was aligned with TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling) nearly 10 years ago. The story of this match is simple. Cody wants to hold the same championship his father Dusty Rhodes did and Nick Aldis, the current champion, is the best the NWA has to offer.

The Young Bucks
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Rey Mysterio
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Fenix
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The main event of the show is rumored to be the giant six-man tag team match pitting The Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi (collectively known as the Golden Elite) against a trio from Mexico of Fenix, Bandido, and the legendary Rey Mysterio.

Mysterio has made the rounds this year, appearing in two Royal Rumble matches for WWE and making appearances in both New Japan and AAA. Fenix and Bandido I've heard of but I haven't seen many of their matches. 

Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

This is the only card I could find of both Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi. As I mentioned, Ibushi is teaming with the Young Bucks. However, Kenny Omega, the current IWGP World Champion (and #1 ranked in the world in the recent PWI 500) is facing one of the top wrestlers from Mexico, Pentagon Jr.

Pentagon Jr.
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

I wasn't aware of Pentagon Jr. until he won the Impact Wrestling world title at their "Redemption" pay-per-view earlier this year. He's been wresting in the US on and off since 2015 making the rounds in promotions such as PWG and AAW. Much like Fenix and Bandido, I've never really seen any of his matches as I don't follow lucha libre but him against Omega should be a wild match.

Jay Lethal
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Jay Lethal is the current Ring of Honor World Champion and will be defending his title in the only other title match on the show against the winner of the "Over Budget Battle Royal" on the All In: Zero Hour pre-show featuring such names as Colt Cabana, Moose, Punishment Martinez, Jimmy Jacobs, and Billy Gunn among others.

Madison Rayne
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The only women's match on the show is a four-way match featuring Madison Rayne, Britt Baker, Chelsea Green, and Tessa Blanchard. The only one I'm somewhat familiar with in the match is Madison Rayne as she actually got her start working southwest Ohio independents in the mid-to-late 2000s. I first saw her on an HWA show in 2009 wrestling as Lexi Lane. 

As far as the others in the match go, Tessa Blanchard is the daughter of former Four Horsemen member Tully Blanchard, Chelsea Green in a Storm Wrestling Academy graduate who's wrestled in Impact Wrestling as Laurel Van Ness, and Britt Baker debuted in 2015 and has wrestled in numerous independent promotions across the midwest.

Christopher Daniels
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

In one of the more interesting matches of the show, Christopher Daniels is wrestling the star of the "Arrow" TV show Stephen Amell. I'm not sure how I feel about the match as Amell has only had two other matches, both of those being tag matches and the first of those being at WWE SummerSlam in 2015 against Stardust (aka Cody Rhodes).

So, that's all the cards I could find related to the matches on the show. There are other matches on the show with Kazuchika Okada facing "The Villan" Marty Scurll, Joey Janela fighting Hangman Page in a Chicago Street Fight, and Jay & Mark Briscoe facing Kazarian and Scorpio Sky on the All In: Zero Hour pre-show.

I'll admit, I'm ordering the show and watching it mainly out of curiosity as I just want to see what all the hype is about. Plus, it's something fun to do on a Saturday night over Labor Day weekend. A friend of mine has also offered to bring pizza so there's that too. 

I have gotten into Ring of Honor recently and watching their TV show has helped me familiarize myself with those on the show I don't really know. But overall, I'm really looking forward to this show. 

WrestleMania Week: Fun With Funkos

Happy April everyone! It's a new month and WrestleMania week trudges forward. Tonight is when everything kicks off in full with the NXT Takeover special on the WWE Network. For something different today, I though I'd share the WWE Funkos my wife and I have in our collection. I'll admit, I'm not a huge collector of the Funko figures. They're cool and all and I'll get them as I see fit for particular things I'm interested in but I'm not going to go crazy with them. My wife is the "Funko Fanatic" though in the house, so technically, these are her figures.

Here are John Cena, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and CM Punk. We took these out of the boxes just to make room on the shelf for everything. Don't worry, we kept the boxes. This is not the only Cena figure we have either

This figure was just procured during a visit to the local Gamestop over my wife's birthday weekend. I think I like this one a little better that the blue one above, just because the orange helps it stand out more.

This Roddy Piper figure is a Target exclusive figure that was hanging out with a bunch of other Funkos from Frozen, Star Wars, and a bunch of other ones. This, along with the Ric Flair figure are pretty hard to get. The Ric Flair one I haven't been able to find anywhere. Sadly, Piper passed away last summer.

The man defending the title this weekend against Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania, Triple H. This one strikes me as pretty plain as if it was out of the box, I probably couldn't even tell you who it was.

Who's that jumping' out the sky? It's Rey Mysterio! I really like the detail on this figure with the mask and even the tattoos and the necklace. Even though Rey doesn't wrestle for WWE anymore, this is still a pretty awesome figure.

The Beast, Brock Lesnar! We stopped at numerous Wal-Mart stores last summer in search of this figure but no luck. We were about ready to give up when we randomly found this one on the back of the shelf. Lesnar is an absolute beast and his matches are just wars with whoever he is in there with. I'm looking forward to his match against Dean Ambrose this weekend.

Last one is this bearded Daniel Bryan figure that is a Hot Topic exclusive. I'm not much of a Hot Topic person and I forget exactly how we got this one, but since neither of us get to the mall much I'd venture a guess and say we got it at the flea market last summer. Daniel Bryan just recently retired last month due to injuries and while it was really sad to see him go, this is still a cool figure to remember him by.

Thanks for stopping by today! WrestleMania Week continues tomorrow with a look at the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2016!