Why CM Punk Just Lost In AEW For First Time

Anybody that didn't believe the CM Punk return strategy AEW assembled in 2021 wasn't one of the finest in wrestling history was proven objectively and subjectively wrong when he returned on the August 20th edition of Rampage.

You can use numbers to prove anything...so why not do that for just a second? Subtitled "The First Dance" in a nod to the Chicago Bulls' United Center home base it was set to emanate from, there had been enough impeccably curated teases to assure every paying punter that they were going to see local hero and wrestling iconoclast CM Punk appear on a nationally televised live wrestling show for the first time in seven years. 15,316 of them, in fact. They joined the 1,129,000 watching live (Rampage's highest viewership to date) with a 0.53 in the coveted 18-49 category (Rampage's highest demo to date) and even more folk crashing ProWrestlingTees as they ordered what quickly became the website's hottest selling shirt ever.

But you can use numbers to prove anything...or you can use noise to make the point instead. One of the loudest sustained reactions in forever greeted the 'Voice Of The Voiceless' and only ever quietened to give the man the time and space he needed to speak. It was all so deliriously caveat-free too; this wasn't an indie curio with a masked mystery man hitting a Go2Sleep, a signing at a store with nothing new to autograph, or a Fox-promoted recap show that permitted the odd cobra-like bite at WWE's expense as long as he'd been de-venomised first.

This was CM Punk going all the way live, and ironically enough getting raw. He wove the joy of the moment into the pain of the past in a promo that immediately proved his storytelling fire was still burning brightly. The last legend bullied out of the business he loved by a brainfart of a monopoly was back, and instantly unstoppable.

Then, just six months and 12 matches later and back in his hometown, he lost.

CONT'D...