5 things AEW did right on Rampage: The First Dance - Kenny Omega reacts to CM Punk debut; Two new stars made
Tonight, All Elite Wrestling aired their one-hour Friday night show, AEW Rampage, from the United Center in Chicago, IL. It was following up an episode of WWE SmackDown on Fox that's leading into tomorrow night's SummerSlam pay-per-view.
So what did AEW have up their sleeve for tonight's show? Well, have you ever heard of this guy called CM Punk?
That's right, the rumors, innuendo and pro wrestling's worst kept secret were all true, and Phil "CM Punk" Brooks made his triumphant return to professional wrestling (a term he made sure to emphasize significantly tonight) - a move we're sure nobody saw coming.
We're joking, of course - it was great to see Punk back in the ring and not just as part of a panel show on a secondary Fox Sports cable channel. The real question is - with everybody and their pet ferret expecting CM Punk to show up tonight, what was AEW going to fill the rest of the show with?
Well, we watched the show and we can say with certainty that AEW did a pretty good job with the rest of the 45 minutes after Punk made his grand entrance. And we're gonna list some of those things, as the headline suggests.
These are the 5 things AEW did right on tonight's episode of Rampage.
#5. Opening with CM Punk's AEW debut
This is was what everybody was chomping at the bit to see. Not just to see the former WWE Champion return, but to finally - finally - see if he was going to.
The crowd in Chicago wasn't going to sit through anything until that question was answered. So, AEW not only got it out of the way, but they did it in spectacular fashion.
Say what you want about Tony Khan, but one thing you can't call him is a tightwad. He not only opened the checkbook and wrote down enough zeroes to get Punk to come out of retirement, but he wrote another one to get the rights to Living Color's "Cult of Personality" to, once again, act as Punk's entrance theme.
As CM Punk came to the ring, he was clearly overwhelmed - in a good way - with emotion. Embracing the folks in his hometown crowd, he went on to cut one of his best ever (and that's saying something) promos. Punk made his presence known, as well and let the roster know he wasn't just coming back for a few events... he was back.
Wrapping things up by addressing both Sting and Darby Allin, who were watching all this unfold from the rafters (this is Sting, after all), Punk moved the narrative forward by challenging the former TNT Champion to a match at All Out.
So, what did AEW do to follow that up with?