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.
Follow Sportskeeda for the latest WWE news, rumors and all other wrestling news.
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?
#5 DH Smith stars
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.