Immediately following “The First Dance”, CM Punk and AEW President Tony Khan held a Q&A with members of the media.
Punk’s return to professional wrestling after a 7 ½ year hiatus successfully sold out the United Center in Chicago that delivered an all-time memorable moment of television.
The return dominated social media as AEW paid homage to Michael Jordan’s comeback with the Chicago Bulls with a press release simply stating, “I’m back”.
AEW has released two clips from Rampage featuring Punk’s return that has each topped two million views as of Saturday morning.
During the media call, Khan confirmed this was not a “part-time” or “short-term” deal with Punk repeatedly stating he is here to give back and cited several talents he is excited to work with including Brian Pillman Jr., Powerhouse Hobbs, Rick Starks, and Jungle Boy among them. He added that he has never worked with Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega, or The Young Bucks.
Khan and Punk added that they had been speaking for about a year and a half and it didn’t make sense for Punk to return without fans. Punk said there were several “happy accidents” along the way.
Punk will wrestle his first match with AEW against Darby Allin at the “All Out” pay-per-view at the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois on Sunday, September 5th. Based on the buzz surrounding his return and it is his first match since 2014, expectations should be high that this will be AEW’s most successful pay-per-view in its two-year history.
Punk is scheduled to make his first Dynamite appearance this Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the UWM Panther Arena.
He noted his return was the “worst kept secret” and that was by design.
Punk will also continue his commentary duties for the Cage Fury Fighting Championships (CFFC) promotion, which holds their next event on Thursday, September 16th in Tampa, Florida.
WrestleTix reported that the final count at the United Center was 14,376 out in the market. On the broadcast, the number they gave out was 15,316, which was likely the total number in the building including those in private boxes, etc. It is AEW’s largest attendance to date, although will be broken on September 22nd when they run Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The television viewership figures should be available Monday afternoon.
