6 Things AEW Got Right About CM Punk's Debut

1. Perfect Execution

CM Punk AEW
AEW.com

Go ahead, we dare you: Find fault with CM Punk’s return to the wrestling ring. Find any issue with his AEW debut.

Punk’s appearance was handled top to bottom perfectly: from the build to the actual debut. Fans were whipped into a frenzy and then got exactly what they wanted. They got a purely joyful moment to just enjoy – not an overbooked mess that knocked someone else down a peg at Punk’s expense.

From the first strains of “Cult of Personality,” there was a wall of deafening cheers and chants for four minutes straight, up until Rampage cut to commercial. The cheers continued throughout his entire promo, with the entire segment lasting about 12 minutes. You can’t manufacture that kind of reaction.

Everyone has seen the video of the fan in tears, and if you’re mocking him, you’re what’s wrong with wrestling fans. That guy’s sheer emotion is the perfect representation of what happens when professional wrestling is done right. And CM Punk’s AEW debut was damn done right.

Now, let’s see what the future holds.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.