The catalyst to AEW’s existence, the 2018 All In pay-per-view put on independently by Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks, drew eyes from all over the world. Several celebrities were in attendance and Stephen Amell, appearing on The CW’s Arrow at the time, wrestled Christopher Daniels. Perhaps the biggest name at the show was Grammy-award winning artist John Mayer.
At the time, The Elite were one of the biggest names in the wrestling world outside of WWE. Thus, when they rolled into Chicago for All In at the Now Arena, it was a sold-out, can’t-miss event. The event changed the course of professional wrestling forever, establishing AEW months later, which still stands as the biggest WWE rival. In the recent episode of his podcast, What Do You Want to Talk About? Rhodes and his wife, Brandi, discussed Mayer’s involvement with the show.
John Mayer Attended the Original All In Event
“I get an email at 3:00 a.m. from John Mayer’s manager. There’s a bachelor party, they want to attend All In, the original All In, which has been very, very sold out, like fire code sold out. At that point, I just thought it was a rib, a good wrestling rib,” Rhodes recalls (h/t: Fightful). “Then, at 9:00 a.m., when I left the hotel room, I was greeted by someone right at the door, saying to me, ‘Hey, did you deny John Mayer tickets?’ ‘I did not, is John Mayer really coming?’
Apparently, there was a bachelor party, it was a bachelor party, and we set him in the middle of the aisle. So as I am wrestling SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis, I looked into the aisle where you can clearly see where people walk, walk, walk, wait. Then there’s just John Mayer, who’s sitting right in the middle, so no one could walk by him. If there was a fire, it would have been a bad situation. That was a really fun get. He took photos afterwards.”
The Now Arena has become a hub for AEW, typically hosting the All Out pay-per-view every year. There’s a plaque outside the venue commemorating the original All In event, cementing them in the wrestling history books. This year, AEW is moving the event from Hoffman Estates to Toronto, Canada for the first time.
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