Becoming All Elite: The Rise of AEW

by Michael Sidgwick

Becoming All The Rise Of AEW, penned by WhatCulture.com’s Michael Sidgwick (Development The NXT Story), chronicles the short but powerful history of All Elite Wrestling - the first North American wrestling promotion in nearly two decades to challenge Vince McMahon's WWE-led monopoly.

In less than two years, AEW has captured the imagination of wrestling fans exhausted by McMahon's output. Owned and operated by billionaire Tony Khan in league with a slate of in-ring Executive Vice Presidents that created a viable vision and wrestling world within which it could thrive, the company has become an industry mainstay overnight.

It's the story of an independent scene WWE at once courted and rejected, of Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks making good on lofty promises to change the world, and of pro wrestling history repeating itself as a ratings and stylistic war symbolised the confirmation of a bold new era.

Genres: Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2021

Reviews

[Matt B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish this. I couldn't. I really wanted to but I just couldn't. There's a story to be told about the formation of All Elite. Unfortunately this isn't it. I love What Culture so this isn't bashing the company in the slightest.

But this book should be called Becoming All Elite: A step by step outline of various shows and events with constant WWE / Vince McMahon bashing on every page. Oh and overuse of the word Yore.

Starts off like just about every wrestling book does, outlines WWF in the 80's into the early 90's, how and why WCW Nitro became a thing, the rise and fall of ECW and eventual conclusion to the Monday Night Wars. So far so good.

Then we get into the first bit, outlining the careers of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes. Again okay insofar that the book is about becoming All Elite. Slowly it falls apart.

We start with the origins of Bullet Club. No issue here. It goes over the gang warfare angles in Japan in the 90's and how that inspired the NWO. We also get our first match breakdown here when the author goes over move by move Suzuki v Tanahashi. Is it needed? Probably not, as he's only pointing out the style of matches at that time, it's nothing to do with the formation of Bullet Club. We then get told about Nakamura inventing strong style and Prince Devit turning and creating Bullet Club. Not the worst chapter, does its job

Then The Young Bucks. Starts off with WWE bashing and how Vince never liked tag team wrestling and that WWF dropped the ball on countless number of tag teams over the years. He does point out success stories of The Hart Foundation, Demolition and the British Bulldogs. Another handful of WWE banishing comments regarding monopolizing the business and how they dropped the ball on the invasion angle, we're 2 pages into the chapter before the Young Bucks are even mentioned by the way. We do get there finally and it starts with how they got into wrestling, their career around ROH, PWG, tryouts with WWE and so on, so far so good. Then we get to Threemendus in PWG and the 3 way ladder match they had Super Smash Bros and Future Shock which gets a complete move by move breakdown of the match. Okay, but is it needed? Not really. The match is online easily accessible and anyone that's picked up this book probably knows the Young Bucks, so a quick review would've sufficed in a match they didn't even win.

What completely gets brushed aside is the ladder match they had against their idols, which is pointed out once, The Hardy Boys, the night before Wrestlemania. That match was arguably better than the Threemendus one but doesn't get spoke about in the book. We do get an insight into the meetings they had with HHH and WWE, and Matts wife is quoted a couple of times which is definitely needed in a book about becoming all elite, which they turned down WWE once AEW started to become a thing. The book also makes a good point of how arrogant and hard to work with the Young Bucks were, and how no one wanted to work with them. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen as there are no quotes in the book from people in the know and this seems as though it's been pulled from boards online. The chapter abruptly ends with the author saying the Bucks were effectively members of Bullet Club in October 2013. Not the worst chapter, could've been 5/6 pages shorter if he left out the first 2 pages about the WWE tag scene and the PWG match.

Next up is Kenny. And long story short the author goes over his career up until his first match with Okada. So far so good. But the author painstakingly goes through the Okada 1 match move by move step by infuriating step, in more detail than the previous chapter. It's like he's watching the match and writing it down as he goes. Is this needed? Absolutely not. And Okada v Omega 1 isn't the only victim of this. We get the same treatment for Omega v Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom. Why this is needed I do not know. Anyone who's reading this surely to god knows about these matches. If not then they're wrestling fans in that they only watch WWE, which is fine, but we do not need chapter upon chapter of breakdowns of matches. Then it goes on to talk about Kenny in Bullet Club before the Jericho match keeping in line with the timeline, but it's hardly touched on other than how he turned on AJ Styles, again move by move although there wasn't much in that angle, but never really touches on why he left Japan / Bullet Club. We do get told about The Golden Lovers and Kenny's time in ROH, but this part of the book is so convoluted with pages outlining matches that it's hardly noticed. He does put Kenny over by detailing his move set as deadly, but again the breakdown of matches and spots isn't needed. We're here to find out how AEW became a thing, not a full review of the mans career.

Next is Cody. Another quick history review, who his relatives in wrestling are, a few lines of WWE bashing and how the way they do things isn't good and how Cody set about himself differently from this evil corporations way of doing TV. We get a brief look at his run with Hardcore Holly and the tag belts, then his career from then up until he requested and got his release as Stardust. Is it needed? Not really. Maybe the last part as Stardust is relevant as he was released from WWE then hit the independent scene. We then get his full career from leaving WWE to Bullet Club. It's 10 pages of match breakdowns, angles and interviews all detailing his career but it isn't needed. How is a match on Raw where he turned on Hardocre Holly in 2008 relevant to becoming All Elite in 2019? Answer, it's not. Cody leaving New Japan and Bullet Club in 2019 and starting with All Elite IS relevant though.

Next up is things actually about All Elite Wrestling. We get an outline of the press rallies they had, trademarks being filed and how Tony Khan and the Young Bucks got together to start AEW. This parts not too bad and is actually delivering what the book is about, how they became All Elite. Easily the best and most relevant part of the book.

Dave Meltzer and the tweet regarding the sell out is spoke in detail as it should. Jericho getting involved gets a good chunk of text, Hangman Page too is given a lot of detail. After this is when I gave up on the book.

From the All In event the author outlines every match. Seriously. Then we get to Double or Nothing. Another match by match move by move break down. Even some entrances are detailed in painstaking detail. The crowd reaction to Mox's debut quite rightly so gets given a lot of mentions, but we do not need to be told how Jericho is stood to one side of the ring pandering to the crowd whilst Omega prone on the other side as the camera pans to the crowd and so on. We already know all this. Then we get to the weekly Dynamite shows. These aren't exempt as the book seems to have been written whilst the author is sat watching it and writing it. Every single match is broken down here. He does touch on the weekly numbers and ratings, but by this point All Elite are already a thing and the book is about BECOMING All Elite. The main bulk of this book is things about when they already are All Elite. I gave up on page 142.

The word yore gets used more in this book than I have ever seen it being used. The author refers to wrestlers of yore, or PPV's of yore, or gimmicks of yore so often I might start using it in every day conversations. It is so overused it's meme worthy.

If you didn't know better either you'd think that WWF/E have personally attacked the author as his bashing of them goes beyond comprehension. Okay so they monopolised the industry, why is that bad? That's good business practice really. A lot of fans tuned out of WWE from 2002 onwards, this is true, and some angles were bad and the quality of wrestling wasn't as good as it could, again true but do we really believe the authors view that WWE are the worst company in the world? I am sure the author like the majority that will read his book have liked wrestling since being kids in the 90's when WWF was as big as they are now and not once then did we dislike them or bash them. If it wasn't for WWE there wouldn't be national wrestling, and it might be accessible here in England, where the author and What Culture are, at all. You don't have to like or watch WWE to enjoy wrestling, there is plenty out there, but the negativity towards WWE in this book is worse than any other I've read.

In closing it should just marketed as a book detailing every show from All in to the books release because that's what it is. There's 1 solitary chapter on how Tony Khan and the Bucks, Omega and Cody started all Elite. That's it. The rest is simply an almanac of the PPV and weekly shows.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book begins in the years prior to AEW’s formation and follows the main protagonists rise from the independent scene to headlining New Japan and Ring Of Honor. Entire passages are dedicated to detailing their biggest matches move-for-move, which doesn’t work on paper. Dissecting storylines from Being The Elite also didn’t make for particularly interesting reading, nor did it feel particularly important to the narrative.

Once we get to the formation of AEW and the debut of Dynamite it quickly falls into a pattern of week-to-week TV recaps, with occasional focus on big matches, which again, simply aren’t very interesting to read. There’s nothing in the way of behind the scenes insights, just literally a rehash of what went down on TV, and there’s no insights or interviews with anyone at any point in the book.

Where it actually hits its stride is in the last two chapters which cover the death of Brodie Lee and the changing of the guard as AEW began to become a viable contender to Raw. At this point the recapping stops and we get a less rigid, much more engaging couple of chapters focusing on the human side of the story and the company’s growth. These are the real interesting parts of the story, and I wish the book had focused more of this and less on regurgitating the TV output.

For such a long read, I felt like this barely scratched the surface of the AEW story. While the author undoubtedly wrote passionately it was very rigid in structure and quite tedious in places. Many other parts meanwhile, particularly in the early chapters were under-explained or casually summarised in a word or two - even as a pretty clued-up wrestling fan I had to put the book down a few times and turn to Google to find out what was being referenced. This is a book written by a die-hard wrestling fan for die-hard wrestling fans. While I can appreciate the vast amount of research and time that’s obviously gone in to it, ultimately it just didn’t land for me.

[JoKo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough Documentation of the Rise of AEW

Having only started to watch AEW in the Summer of 2021 (right after Summerslam 2021 and the whole Bianca Bel Air and Becky Lynch disaster), this book was a really handy way to get caught up on the promotion and storylines.

The author is really and truly an all out fan and nerd when it comes to all things AEW and Wrestling in general. I especially enjoyed the analysis of all the things happening leading up to the formation of AEW. Sometimes the nerd in the author takes over, leading to very detailed, almost move by move descriptions of wrestling matches. At some points this can be a bit tedious to read, but the fascination and adoration of the author for the match always shines through and it made me want to catch up on some of those matches. But what's most interesting is when the author points out how certain moves or certain outcomes of matches relate to other story beats or the history of the wrestlers in other promotions, since I would never be able to pick up on those things without the necessary background knowledge.

Having finished the book and watching on a regular basis since August 2021, I do now feel thoroughly caught up on the history of the promotion and its important wrestlers. I can highly recommend this book if you want to get caught up as well or simply are interested in all the going ons behind the creation of AEW.

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let's be clear, this is a history only in the sense that it is a painfully long recap of matches I watched in real time and didn't feel half so glowingly about as this author. I also found it interesting that he chose to largely ignore any sort of criticism of the product considering I don't think he had one nice thing to say about its competition. All in all, it reads as a highly biased, extremely boring summary of the first 2 years of the promotion and spends more time valorizing Khan than I felt was deserving. According to Sidgwick, Khan is some sort of savant, but honestly, I find his product largely unwatchable these days, so clearly we're not watching the same thing at all.

In short, skip this unless you need to find a particular match summary, and even then you could probably find something that wasn't as painful as this.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, I did. There's likely a great story to be told about the formation of AEW. Unfortunately this ain't it.

If you will learn anything from this book, it's that it is possible to write a book while having your head firmly embedded in the asses of The Elite and Tony Khan.

[Scott Cumming · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of explaining the philosophy behind AEW and it's formation, but devolves into too much of a play by play of each show as it goes. You could probably lop off chunks of this to make it a more smooth and narrative driven read.

[Cilléin Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good stuff.

[Jeevan Dhaliwal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Micheal Sidgewick is the man

[Steven Streeter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thorough look at the establishment and first 18 months/2 years of the new wrestling promotion on the block - All Elite Wrestling. It looks at some of the landscape that led up to the establishment of AEW and then details the rise of the promotion to some time in 2021. As a new entity, there are not a lot of works out there, let alone one this thorough, so it is great to have this at such an early stage in the life of the promotion.

There were 4 things that I think need mentioning:
1) despite a comment in acknowledgements, there were a noticeable number of typos;
2) it felt sycophantic at times, with some negatives being mentioned only in passing (and that was all) and some so-so events pumped up to near-mythic quality;
3) it assumed you watched and knew about a lot of prior information; and
4) its time-line was a bit over the place. On these last 2 notes, a friend who does not watch AEW read it and found it confusing at times.

At least there were no obvious factual errors (like the next WhatCulture book I started today that says Royal Rumble '92 was at Wrestlemania XXIV).

So, yes, I feel it could have done with a better editing job and the tone could have been better managed. Hey, I'd put my hand up to work as their editor!

This book was between 3-1/2 and 4 stars so I went four because of the system here. Unfortunately, I think if you are not already a fan of AEW, some of the passages and assumed knowledge may go over your head, but as far as a good introduction to AEW go, this is a very good place to begin.

[Jean Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a terrific read, written by my favorite wrestling critic (who I listen to regularly on podcasts). I'll say that I was initially expecting something a bit more "high level," but instead he actually goes pretty down and dirty in the specific of matches that helped make AEW what it is today. Because of that, it's not something I would recommend for a casual fan of wrestling (or someone new to it), but if you're a fan of AEW like I am, this is an absolute treat, and makes for a great reminder of why you have become a fan.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sidgwick has written an incredibly in depth, fascinating look into the first two years of All Elite Wrestling and the industry landscape that led to its formation.
I did find his writing style just a tad bit dry in places (the Mega Fans WILL forgive him😁), but as an AEW fan I loved reliving its history through Sidgwick's exceptionally detailed narrative. His description of the Brodie Lee memorial episode of AEW Dynamite had me tearing up like I did the night it actually took place.
Highly recommended for fans of modern professional wrestling.

[Owen Tatlock · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an intriguing read, but it spends over half of the time on detailed backstory of the main players and glosses over or ignores some details of AEW’s first two years. The actual description of the first two years of Dynamite feels very abbreviated and as someone who watched it all from day one it also seemed rushed. It’s not a bad book, but seems it could have been two books that got mashed together.