The ‘All In’ press train is still steaming ahead, with Cody, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks seemingly inundated with media junkets for their sold-out event, which takes place September 1st.
Anticipation for the event is undeniable, with the card offering a mix of wrestling styles and wrestlers from promotions around the world, brought together under one roof at the Sears Centre in Chicago to create wrestling history.
The breadth of work, craft, and organisation to book a feat of this magnitude would intimidate most people. Not Cody, et al.
A Booking Crossroads
Speaking during the Starrcast media conference, Cody broached the topic of modern pro wrestling booking, and how that has inflected ‘All In’, as well as his mindset towards the business going forward.
“The approach and the attitude of a booker, promoter, performer, competitor… however you wanna put it, towards the audience is still a bit gripped in the concrete of old. A little bit,” said Cody. “There was this whole thought process of “We know what they want more than they know what they want”. And to some extent, it’s still your narrative. And it’s still yours to put out there for them to enjoy. And you hope you judge their sensibilities correctly.”
He goes on to comment on today’s modern booking style, as he sees it, “[…] what I’ve learned, especially since I paired up and hooked myself up to the Bullet Club, which has been so beneficial to me, what I’ve learned is that you cannot force anything… anything on the fans.”
“This is the era of absolute gag reflex,” he states. “They [the fans] will push it back. They do not… They’re not interested in things being forced on them and that makes this playing field a lot more even for different wrestlers, managers, different promotions, everything. Because everybody gets to go out there, play their music and maybe it’s not the reaction folks intended but it gives you the opportunity… it’s a whole different ballgame. And it’s made me much more open-minded.”
If there’s anyone who would know about the old way of booking, it would be the son of a son of a plumber.
The education Cody would have been privy to through sheer osmosis watching his father, Dusty Rhodes, would put him in a prime position behind the scenes.
It’s encouraging to see him question the old mindset, pushing forward with his own ambitions for the backstage process, whilst listening to and acknowledging the tastes of a modern audience.
The kind of audience that sells out an event like ‘All In’ in approximately thirty minutes.
Visit our All In event page for more information.
