Former WWE Star Simon Dean Calls AEW All In This Generation's ECW Barely Legal

While appearing on SiriusXM's "Busted Open Radio" show, Mike Bucci, who performed in WWE as Simon Dean and was a part of the Blue World Order in ECW, provided his thoughts on All Elite Wrestling's historic All In pay-per-view at Wembley Stadium.

"I truly think what AEW pulled off yesterday [Sunday], and if you're looking for a soundbite, this could be it. I think this could be this generation's [ECW] Barely Legal," Bucci said. "And what I mean by that, to see what ECW did in April of 1997, 26 years ago, which is still talked about to this day, it was a watershed moment. It was something that was never supposed to happen. It was a group of people that got together — misfits, whatever you want to call us — and people had a vision. They had an attitude. They got together. They created something. And it was never supposed to occur, and it did."

ECW's Barely Legal event in 1997 was the promotion's inaugural pay-per-view. Paul Heyman's organization faced a significant challenge heading into that show: finding a PPV provider. Request TV ultimately opted to carry the broadcast, provided that ECW agreed to various terms, such as no excessive bleeding. Barely Legal was headlined by the late Terry Funk defeating Raven to become the ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

During the same interview with "Busted Open," Bucci wondered if everyone really took in what AEW accomplished on Sunday in London, England. He believes that people could be talking about All In for years to come. The 51-year-old said that AEW went into a market they thought might not be possible to run, to a degree, and pulled it off on "a scale that had not been seen before."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit SiriusXM's "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.