It all started with a tweet exactly one year ago. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter responded to a fan asking if Ring of Honor could sell 10,000 tickets to a show and the journalist responded "not any time soon." With that, a challenge was put out and Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks happily accepted the challenge. The trio even decided to do it without the help of ROH as their idea evolved into a self-funded event with the goal of selling 10,000 tickets.
Once the location of the Sears Centre in Illinois and the date of September 1, 2018 were set, the tickets were put on sale on May 13. Fans across the country gobbled up the tickets to not only show their support for independent wrestling, but also, perhaps, to stick it to Meltzer. But even though the show sold out in fewer than 30 minutes, all three of the promoters of the event were shocked at the response and it exceeded even their wildest expectations.
"I projected low," Cody said on E&C's Pod of Awesomeness. "I though 4,000 for the first month, and after that we'd roll matches out and we'd push our sponsors. We have a budget for advertising, and we didn't touch that budget, so now we can buy some fireworks or something."
Forget 4,000 in a month, the trio got 4,000 tickets sold in the first 10 minutes. Matt of The Young Bucks was also shocked at the immediate response from fans.
"I knew we would do good, and I always thought we would do 10 [thousand], but I thought we would have to get walk-ups," Matt said to ESPN. "I thought we would get five or six [thousand] in the first couple days, and then maybe after a week it would get a couple more hundred. Then I thought there would be a giant walk-up, and then hopefully we'd get to 10 [thousand]."
Part of the reason why the tickets went so quickly was the reasonable prices they were listed at. Tickets were priced from $28 to $153 as Nick Jackson declared that they are not doing this for the money.
"We're not trying to get rich," said Nick. "The three of us said, 'Hey, if we break even on this, then I think we can say it was a success.' We're hoping to at least break even."
With the sellout, they should do much better than break even. The three of them are still planning out the show as only one match has been announced as of yet. But they are all on the same page and any match on the card needs approval from all three membets.
"I've got about four cards," Cody said. "It's one of the more arduous elements of this. Matt and Nick and I agreed that nothing happens unless there's a thumbs-up from all three."