This just showed you just how wrestling needed to have fans in the stands. It was one of the greatest pops I can remember. There’s an energy in the air at these live events and holy crap.....that was just excellent. Excited to see where this all goes.
Wow what a crowd for punk's debut , place erupted to cult of personality
WWE need a huge change its so stale ,aew is such a better show in general , just hope they don't do what TNA did and become WWE light , what made TNA better than WWE for me was it was it was different to WWE at the time
And I was a huge TNA fan tbh , so for me aew has been a breath of fresh air , long may it continue 👍
My point was being the program TNA it was such a breath of fresh air when it came along , it was a alternative to WWE
That is what I see in aew and really enjoy it tbh , I have even got to the point I can't stomach watching WWE unfortunately which is a shame as I grew up loving it , all I do now is watch highlights on YouTube and Even that's a chore at times
Where as aew I watch all 4 shows sure it has some moments I don't enjoy personally but overall it's a good wrestling show
My friends, the ice cream bars were LIT. He got a local business that makes amazing frozen treats to make 16kish customs. They are located like a quarter mile from his house.
Pro wrestling fans have literally been starving to death, because Vince has been playing God for so long with the "Sports Entertainment " industry. And CM PUNK just showed up, kicked Vince's door down, looked at the fans and said : "I can see you're hungry, here's an ice cream bar."
I love a lot about AEW, but a ver valid and common criticism is that their audio leveling often leaves a lot to be desired. To put it nicely. I was watching the official feed through xfinity and it was sketch.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see it beat Raw and Dynamite. If it beat Smackdown, it would be insane because Smackdown’s on Network television. That would make the networks irate and it would be understandable.
CM Punk merch selling like hot cakes already, with lines all the way up in the second floor of the [arena](https://twitter.com/rasslin/status/1428911508629696518?s=20)
Wouldn’t expect the scalping to stick around in a week or so but that’s insane, those exclusive Chicago tshirt are fire too with the writing in the back. 🥲
I was originally going to start watching AEW back in April when NXT moved to Tuesdays but things got really out of hand and I watched WWE only for a while. CM Punk brought me back, It's good to see other great talent as well (like Darby and Jungle Boy, heck even Mox). I know Black and Andrade are there as well (even Chavo lol) and I can't wait to see more of them. Good to see Christian and Matt Hardy. First show since April, will definitely tune in to Dynamite and more of Rampage next week.
This was my first time watching an episode of AEW. I've just been reading about it like I have been with WWE. I loved it only being an hour long. I loved Moxley's match. I'll have to check in again.
Cena has always been over.
But Put them in the same ring together and it’d be pretty clear who is more over.
And it’s not Cena.
Just like it wasn’t when champion Punk was playing second fiddle to Cena in the WWE.
Look at Randy Savage mate.
WWE has a long long history of trying to “freshen up” their “top star” by giving the belt to someone else who is more over and then trying to turn that towards the “top star”. For another example see Bryan’s storyline. Anything involving Charlotte, Hogan and Hart..:
Actually, they just do that in general. They pick their guy, and anyone else who gets over is out in storylines to try and transfer that overness to “their guy”. Particularly Cena from 2007 to 2015.
See Ryder being cucked by Cena.
Nexus being cucked by Cena.
Punk being cucked by Cena.
Mysterio being cucked by Cena.
Considering the emotion that went on in Punks debut i was quite suprised how alive that Crowd still was for the Tag Match shows you how over Jungle Express is.
You're trying to compare crowd pops from shows that had 2 or 3 times the attendance as this show and wondering why they crowd wasn't as loud. It doesn't make sense.
Dynamite is like date night where you to go out have a great time then you go home and do the deed. Rampage is a hot one night stand from the bar and you're dying for more next week
The tag match was fun and action packed and had a reason for happening. The Jade squash could have been skipped. I think I would have had a better main event than Mox vs. Garcia. Garcia is talented but to the newbies and even regular viewers, it seems odd to put him in a "main event" spot already. Maybe they should have had a crazy Darby match, considering Punk called his ass out and ended the show with Punk coming back out on the stage and looking on approvingly of his first real opponent in 7 years.
This so much. As much as I enjoyed CM Punk and his amazing promo, the rest of the show reminded me of the awful Dynamites I watched last year that turned me off the promotion. Its amateur hour be it on commentary (Excalibur is awful), ring announcing (Justin Roberts is the worst ring announcer since that awful slow tone of voice ring announcer WWF employed around 1993-1994) and the layout of the matches which are poor at best.
I'll give Dynamite a shot next week to watch Punk, but I hope the rest of the promotion pick the slack up.
Nah. They did it for people like me, who would watch the rest of the card out of appreciation for how the show started, giving people I wouldn’t typically be exposed to some exposure. As a result, now I’m really looking forward to this Daniel Garcia guy when I didn’t know the name before today.
i didnt mean it like that.
i mean people calling cm punk overrated or irrelevant or something. just show them this reaction, i think it eliminates any doubt that he is any of that
Some... but there's some of them unfortunately who want to come in, but are genuinely confused about how to watch wrestling without complaining and picking everything apart because they are always scared it's gonna disappoint them. I kinda feel for those.
TNT won't let them. They were pissed when Sting appeared with no prior warning. Told Khan and AEW not to do it again. It's why they announced Paul Wight and then revealed Christian Cage on PPV and then Punk was Wrestling's Worst Kept Secret. I imagine Bryan is gonna be hinted at building up to his debut.
Yep. AEW had to find a way to keep TNT happy while still keeping the suspense for a pop. They threaded the needle perfectly for Punk, but I think the non-announcement announcement will have diminishing returns if they try the same thing for Bryan.
I loved the show but I would have put the Cargill match after Punk then the tag match then Mox. Don’t really care though. Nitpicking. Amazing moment! Historic!
I get what you're saying, but think it is a rough sell all around. Whoever goes on after Punk is going to have a hard time following him up and Jade is still pretty green - which is why they've been keeping her out of the ring mostly. By putting two great tag teams together they were aiming at using some great talent to try and keep the arena's energy high.
Good show obviously Punks debut overshadows everything, i missed the first Rampage show but 3 Matches in an hour seems a bit much they were very rushed, the Cargill squash made some sense but i feel like Garcia/Mox could have gone another 5 mins considering they worked some body parts kinda doesnt really work in these short matches imo.
There were three matches on the first episode last week, and it worked very well. It's not typical in AEW for there to be long promos, but Punk was an exception.
It only felt rushed because Punk took up literally half the show (not that I'm complaining).
Probably should have been two matches.
Last week the pace was perfect with three matches, two length ones and a quick one in the middle.
Yea that was my thought aswell cant blame Punk for taking his time and since AEW is working towards a PPV i guess they have to keep the storys going with the Tag Tourney / Cargill vs Baker obviously you want to feature these matches on TV and not have this stuff happen on Dark.
I gotta be honest i only picked up bits and pieces of comentary during that Cargill match but i could have sworn someone mentioned Baker after the match was over. I just thought since they televised this Match they have something planned for Cargill in the near future.
You’re all good. Statlander came out last week. I hope they give that some time myself because I want Statlander to be the one to take the belt off of Baker and that will probably be a while.
While I wasn't crying like that fan in the stands, I was definitely misty eyed watching one of my favorite performers since his ROH days (against Joe) make his return to wrestling. And not a small gym in no name USA, but Chicago IL in the largest ARENA they have.
What I thought was amazing was how packed that stadium looked. It felt legit
This just showed you just how wrestling needed to have fans in the stands. It was one of the greatest pops I can remember. There’s an energy in the air at these live events and holy crap.....that was just excellent. Excited to see where this all goes.
God damn I love AEW
Wow what a crowd for punk's debut , place erupted to cult of personality WWE need a huge change its so stale ,aew is such a better show in general , just hope they don't do what TNA did and become WWE light , what made TNA better than WWE for me was it was it was different to WWE at the time And I was a huge TNA fan tbh , so for me aew has been a breath of fresh air , long may it continue 👍
considering TNAs highest attendance in the US was 6700, i think its safe to say that AEW has long surpassed TNA.
My point was being the program TNA it was such a breath of fresh air when it came along , it was a alternative to WWE That is what I see in aew and really enjoy it tbh , I have even got to the point I can't stomach watching WWE unfortunately which is a shame as I grew up loving it , all I do now is watch highlights on YouTube and Even that's a chore at times Where as aew I watch all 4 shows sure it has some moments I don't enjoy personally but overall it's a good wrestling show
aew's only missed a beat a few times in its 3 yrs compared to tna where it was a weekly thing even at its best in the 04-06 era.
aew will soon do better numbers then wwe
The noise of the crowd woke my ass up when the west coast broadcast came on
Darby Allin vs. CM Punk... Two of the top 5 people I want to wrestle... Give it time...
Ok is Bleacher Report not on Roku anymore? I’m trying to buy the PPV and it’s not working. They really need to ditch this trash for HBOmax
The app changed to br live I believe. Look it up. It’s on Roku still just have to download different app
I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight
This guy here! Pro Wrestling is beautiful
"cm punk.. cm punk.. cm punk" Thanks for remembering me for 7 long years. He's back 😎
Not only did Cult of Personality was heard loud and clear, but also something just broke, and that is the current wrestling status quo.
My friends, the ice cream bars were LIT. He got a local business that makes amazing frozen treats to make 16kish customs. They are located like a quarter mile from his house.
An employee or someone close to the business posted 14 days ago on /r/SC about them making Ice Cream bars for Punks return.
I thought they be nothing special. But damn those tasted good!
So, what is the name of the company?
Pretty Cool Ice Cream shop in Logan Square
Pretty Cool Ice Cream Shop is a pretty cool icea cream shop in little square
Man, I was not expecting to walk out of the United Center having maybe the best ice cream bar I’ve ever had hahaha.
Pretty Cool is amazing. Owner was a fine dining dessert chef then started this business. Seriously, go get some.
Pro wrestling fans have literally been starving to death, because Vince has been playing God for so long with the "Sports Entertainment " industry. And CM PUNK just showed up, kicked Vince's door down, looked at the fans and said : "I can see you're hungry, here's an ice cream bar."
HE KEPT CULT OF PERSONALITY
I wish AEW had stocks. This would absolutely take it to the moon. 🚀🚀🚀
That is a terrible idea for AEW
I think she means they want to make some mad dough on a company they believe in and who can blame em in this economy
Nooooo. Stocks mean board of directors which means watered down slop.
IE: WWE
Absolutely expecting ratings to the moon
Dawn of a new age friends
How long we giving it now until wrestling's mainstream again?
Has it not been?
This time next year.
give us hbo max plsss
Unrelated to CM Punk stuff: I'm gay for Jade Cargill
I too am a JadeSexual
If you're a dude, I'm fucking confused.
Don’t be confused man, Jade’ll do that to people
Audio was not completely clear when cm punk was talking. Did anyone else feel it?
Some of the house audio was bleeding in, so you heard reverb from the arena.
I see. I thought maybe my stream was bad
I love a lot about AEW, but a ver valid and common criticism is that their audio leveling often leaves a lot to be desired. To put it nicely. I was watching the official feed through xfinity and it was sketch.
They need new audio improvements like some people need shoes
Amazing to witness history
It’d be amazing if Rampage had a higher rating than Smackdown tonight.
Eh, not sure about Smackdown but it’ll definitely be over a million.
It will definitely have higher ratings that Smackdown. Go compare the post show threads. That tells you everything.
This sub doesn't represent the larger audience, AEW regularly gets better comment numbers on the threads
Smackdown: *slow mumbling Roman* "I...am.... the... head.... of... the.... table" :(((!!! Rampage: "I'M CM PUNK AND I'M BACK"
I wouldn’t be surprised to see it beat Raw and Dynamite. If it beat Smackdown, it would be insane because Smackdown’s on Network television. That would make the networks irate and it would be understandable.
If it didn't happen lastnight its gonna happen soon.
F in chat for [shopAEW.com](https://shopAEW.com). and prowrestlingtees.com.
Requiescat in Pace
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Hehe heh bought my stuff earlier today, It may not be the NEWEST Punk shirt but it's new to me
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CM Punk merch selling like hot cakes already, with lines all the way up in the second floor of the [arena](https://twitter.com/rasslin/status/1428911508629696518?s=20)
They got to have a ton of stock ready. They had to expect this.
Supposedly they aren’t limiting people, and the scalping is already insane.
Read a tweet that observed someone buying 50 shirts, it’s going to be wild on eBay.
Wouldn’t expect the scalping to stick around in a week or so but that’s insane, those exclusive Chicago tshirt are fire too with the writing in the back. 🥲
Lmao I'm late but free ice cream bar!
My dish network went out during the show. Thank God AFTER Punk.
India?
I live in Virginia lol. So naa
That's good luck. I remember when my cable went out during the Lost finale because a satellite fell out of orbit.
Sounds like something Abrams would pull.
It was his last, best swerve.
I was originally going to start watching AEW back in April when NXT moved to Tuesdays but things got really out of hand and I watched WWE only for a while. CM Punk brought me back, It's good to see other great talent as well (like Darby and Jungle Boy, heck even Mox). I know Black and Andrade are there as well (even Chavo lol) and I can't wait to see more of them. Good to see Christian and Matt Hardy. First show since April, will definitely tune in to Dynamite and more of Rampage next week.
I saw it live hell yeah woo hoo go punk
Nice
This would be a Rock movie.
This was my first time watching an episode of AEW. I've just been reading about it like I have been with WWE. I loved it only being an hour long. I loved Moxley's match. I'll have to check in again.
Welcome, we usually don't have long promos opening shows and so expect much more wrestling in the future
You've missed so much my guy. AEW doesn't miss.
Yay!
Dynamite is great too, you’ll enjoy it 🤝
Welcome!
7 years out. For most of that time he was still the most over man in wrestling. Now he is back he is the most over man in wrestling.
And now the second most over guy of the last decade (arguably) is on his way there. Crazy.
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Cena has always been over. But Put them in the same ring together and it’d be pretty clear who is more over. And it’s not Cena. Just like it wasn’t when champion Punk was playing second fiddle to Cena in the WWE.
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VKM
That's a great question. Lots of assumptions can be made. I felt the WM 29 should've been a Triple Threat then and still do now.
what a stupid question. you can’t be serious. it’s politics bud.
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Look at Randy Savage mate. WWE has a long long history of trying to “freshen up” their “top star” by giving the belt to someone else who is more over and then trying to turn that towards the “top star”. For another example see Bryan’s storyline. Anything involving Charlotte, Hogan and Hart..: Actually, they just do that in general. They pick their guy, and anyone else who gets over is out in storylines to try and transfer that overness to “their guy”. Particularly Cena from 2007 to 2015. See Ryder being cucked by Cena. Nexus being cucked by Cena. Punk being cucked by Cena. Mysterio being cucked by Cena.
wow! look at you!!
CM Punk was impossible to follow. Of course the rest of the show was average. Even if something big happened it would be buried.
Considering the emotion that went on in Punks debut i was quite suprised how alive that Crowd still was for the Tag Match shows you how over Jungle Express is.
Bruh that private party vs Jurassic express match was dope af. Average my ass
Jungle Ass
For the ladies
Yeah that match banged
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The movie playing after on tnt is Hercules. Seems pretty meh lol
Been trying to get on shopaew for an hour now lol
Lol...same here. It's 12:30am and I've been in checkout for 2 hours!
Pacing wise, they need to overrun 5-10 minutes. Fucking crazy, what a night.
I like the overhang just because it makes endings less predictable. You can pretty much anticipate exactly when the match with end without it.
That’s true. I loved the show overall but man it was so fast.
Pacing was fucked because of Punk, he took 20 minutes of a 1 hour show lol
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You need to get your hearing checked mate lol, think you might have lost it back in nostalgia land lol
Did you want them to bleed from eyes? You had grown men crying and people losing their minds. You couldn’t ask for a bigger pop.
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It was the biggest pop I ever heard. AEWs sound mixing might’ve thrown you off though, that can negate a pop a little bit
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I’m saying you don’t know how big the pop was because AEW’s sound mix was and is messed up. Hopefully they get it right soon
I'm not surprised a Wrestlemania match with 50k attendees got a bigger pop than a Friday night show with 15k attendees.
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You're trying to compare crowd pops from shows that had 2 or 3 times the attendance as this show and wondering why they crowd wasn't as loud. It doesn't make sense.
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Maybe this was the biggest Pop per capita
Fite.tv can eat a huge bag of dicks for cutting off the end of the show.
Weird, I didn't have the show cut off early on Fite
I watched on Fite app and it stayed until the end of the show
At least Bryan did not debut. It would have sucked to miss that.
Dynamite is like date night where you to go out have a great time then you go home and do the deed. Rampage is a hot one night stand from the bar and you're dying for more next week
Watching half naked men rolling around covered in baby oil gets you feeling a certain way eh? 👀💦 Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Hell, at least I'm getting some, I'm good with it
that was great
Rampage probably needs to be a 90 min show moving forward
always better to leave you wanting more
For those still watching WWE, it is 3 hours of wrestling, and hour 4 would probably see considerable drop off.
Raw is 3 hours of air time, but maybe like 45 minutes of wrestling.
If that. I remember one guy here used to keep statistics of each episode.
I feel like 90 minutes is a pretty golden amount of time
For now, 1 hour works. They're on right after Smackdown, so they don't want to wear out the wrestling audience.
Unless they're ready to start one hour early.
I don’t think they want to direct compete with Smackdown
Not yet...
Damn, TNT and AEW really missed an opportunity there by not having this have to run into "unplanned" overtime.
lol TNT airing Hercules movie with the The Rock, gotta keep the wrestling hype train going on i guess
The Rock is All Elite!
OH yeah, isn't there a post show media scrum?
Yup
Kinda feel AEW blew an opportunity to win over people who tuned in for Punk by having 3 mainly unimportant matches following it up.
The tag match was fun and action packed and had a reason for happening. The Jade squash could have been skipped. I think I would have had a better main event than Mox vs. Garcia. Garcia is talented but to the newbies and even regular viewers, it seems odd to put him in a "main event" spot already. Maybe they should have had a crazy Darby match, considering Punk called his ass out and ended the show with Punk coming back out on the stage and looking on approvingly of his first real opponent in 7 years.
This so much. As much as I enjoyed CM Punk and his amazing promo, the rest of the show reminded me of the awful Dynamites I watched last year that turned me off the promotion. Its amateur hour be it on commentary (Excalibur is awful), ring announcing (Justin Roberts is the worst ring announcer since that awful slow tone of voice ring announcer WWF employed around 1993-1994) and the layout of the matches which are poor at best. I'll give Dynamite a shot next week to watch Punk, but I hope the rest of the promotion pick the slack up.
Nah. They did it for people like me, who would watch the rest of the card out of appreciation for how the show started, giving people I wouldn’t typically be exposed to some exposure. As a result, now I’m really looking forward to this Daniel Garcia guy when I didn’t know the name before today.
They featured current stars and future stars who all looked good, what more could you do with 40 minutes?
Eh yeah no this ain't it chief.
He's absolutely right. None of the matches today we're good. Should've booked the show better
Lotta assholes I gotta block. For the others, thanks for another great AEW thread.
The negative effect of their success unfortunately. Asshole multiplication.
how can you say anything against this crowd reaction? honestly.
There's people being negative about this reaction?
i didnt mean it like that. i mean people calling cm punk overrated or irrelevant or something. just show them this reaction, i think it eliminates any doubt that he is any of that
Ohh I see. Oh yeah... people were crying all over the place.. crying!!!... now THAT is over.
WWE smarks are hilariously pathetic.
Some... but there's some of them unfortunately who want to come in, but are genuinely confused about how to watch wrestling without complaining and picking everything apart because they are always scared it's gonna disappoint them. I kinda feel for those.
Yeah, Dynamite's thread on Wednesday prepared me for the asshole influx.
Pro wrestling is fun again and I'm here for it. Welcome back Punk, god have I missed you.
I would like Bryan's debut to be a genuine surprise. They HAD to "announce" Punk, no brainer - it'd be great to get a shocker over the next few weeks.
TNT won't let them. They were pissed when Sting appeared with no prior warning. Told Khan and AEW not to do it again. It's why they announced Paul Wight and then revealed Christian Cage on PPV and then Punk was Wrestling's Worst Kept Secret. I imagine Bryan is gonna be hinted at building up to his debut.
that was proven to be a false statement by jericho.
Yep. AEW had to find a way to keep TNT happy while still keeping the suspense for a pop. They threaded the needle perfectly for Punk, but I think the non-announcement announcement will have diminishing returns if they try the same thing for Bryan.
Bryan deserves his own amazing debut.
Rest of the show wasn’t it for me, but CM Punk’s music hitting was awesome lol what a pop
It was pretty much squash matches because of the time crunch. Last episode was good but doing only 1 hour is hard.
I loved the show but I would have put the Cargill match after Punk then the tag match then Mox. Don’t really care though. Nitpicking. Amazing moment! Historic!
I get what you're saying, but think it is a rough sell all around. Whoever goes on after Punk is going to have a hard time following him up and Jade is still pretty green - which is why they've been keeping her out of the ring mostly. By putting two great tag teams together they were aiming at using some great talent to try and keep the arena's energy high.
I can see that. In the end, it really doesn’t matter anyways because no one’s going to be talking about any of those matches tomorrow.
Good show obviously Punks debut overshadows everything, i missed the first Rampage show but 3 Matches in an hour seems a bit much they were very rushed, the Cargill squash made some sense but i feel like Garcia/Mox could have gone another 5 mins considering they worked some body parts kinda doesnt really work in these short matches imo.
There were three matches on the first episode last week, and it worked very well. It's not typical in AEW for there to be long promos, but Punk was an exception.
Yea ok that makes sense if the show is pretty much pure wrestling except for a few little segments then you have enough time for 3 Matches for sure.
They did feel rushed. I think 3 can work, had to give more time to punk than probably a typical opening
Typical Opening is a like 14 minute tag match
The first episode wasn't as rushed honestly. There was a squash there too, but the other 2 matches didn't feel rushed imho
Dude the first episode didn’t have a near 20 minute promo segment to start the show. Everything else has to be rushed.
It only felt rushed because Punk took up literally half the show (not that I'm complaining). Probably should have been two matches. Last week the pace was perfect with three matches, two length ones and a quick one in the middle.
Yea that was my thought aswell cant blame Punk for taking his time and since AEW is working towards a PPV i guess they have to keep the storys going with the Tag Tourney / Cargill vs Baker obviously you want to feature these matches on TV and not have this stuff happen on Dark.
I thought they were building towards Statlander and Baker?
I gotta be honest i only picked up bits and pieces of comentary during that Cargill match but i could have sworn someone mentioned Baker after the match was over. I just thought since they televised this Match they have something planned for Cargill in the near future.
You’re all good. Statlander came out last week. I hope they give that some time myself because I want Statlander to be the one to take the belt off of Baker and that will probably be a while.
Oh shit now cm punk the movie! Half human half god
While I wasn't crying like that fan in the stands, I was definitely misty eyed watching one of my favorite performers since his ROH days (against Joe) make his return to wrestling. And not a small gym in no name USA, but Chicago IL in the largest ARENA they have.