OMG he is such a Mark. Let us not forget the last time he hyped something up this much and gave us fucking sparklers.

And say what you want about them signing Punk, but calling it a new era, come on. A new era is giving us WWE's 2012 headliner?

Do I think Punk will be there tomorrow night? Yes

But I don't think he'll be there for what everyone thinks he'll be there for. Why do I have this sneaky suspicion that Punk showing up is only to disrupt any buzz WWE "might" have for Summerslam and he'll really only be there to promote this movie thing he apparently is in!?!

I loved watching Punk work in the past, but him working a match in AEW would not be as big as if he was to go back to WWE.

Regardless. It’s big. Gonna be fun. We’re talking. Enjoy it.

Or don’t.. wtf do I care I guess? Talking to myself.

If AEW didn’t sign Punk or he doesn’t show up tomorrow they might as well close up shop. It would kill any interest that’s been built up the last month. And it would murder all the goodwill they’ve built up with their fans. Punk is going to be there tomorrow.

WWE has really damaged us :'(

He’s signed. There’s been too many coincidences, sly inside jokes and references from both AEW talent and Punk himself for this not to be slam dunk. I’m more curious to see how they book it. I’m praying they don’t take the air out of the place by faking a debut to have a heel come out because that would lessen the pop when Punk actually does come out.

I also hope it’s not something like his music hitting, he gets to the stage, looks around and leaves. If he says “I’m back” and leaves that’d be Ok but dammit I wanna hear him promo.

I keep thinking back to the Rocks return and how they just let him have the room. Very little commentary. Just the big return soaking in and feeding off the energy of the crowd while cutting a promo.

I'm baffled at how many people I see on twitter who think Punk won't be there...it's been pretty blatantly obvious Punk would be on Rampage for weeks...

It was obvious the minute they announced outta the blue they were running Chicago on the second ever episode despite having already booked an entire week’s worth of programming in the same city 2 weeks later. At that point it should’ve been more than obvious.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy CM Punk day, my friends.<br><br>There will be some Negative Nancys but remember you’re allowed to like things. �� <a href="https://t.co/m2CIBPQJZf">pic.twitter.com/m2CIBPQJZf</a></p>&mdash; Simon Miller (@SimonMiller316) <a href="https://twitter.com/SimonMiller316/status/1428632792276119553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

To be fair, it is definitely learned behavior. Wrestling does have a long history of over promising and under delivering. Or sometimes just flat out misleading and lying to people.

"Wouldn't you know who won the pony, my little boy Blue!"

When these rumors started, what did I say?

"I'll Believe it when I see it."

I don't think Punk not showing up will do any long term damage. If you can sell these marks on "Long Term Storytelling" while treating the alleged "Chosen One" like a mopey idiot, have him associate with losers, and then beat him more or less like a jobber, and they STILL think he's the "Chosen One?" Punk not showing up won't be a problem.

K…

Punk not showing would be incredibly harmful.

I fully expect 80% of tonight's crowd to be adorned in various Punk shirts. If you are going to purposely tease it out for weeks (everything from Darby's best in the world quote, to Tony Khan's cute answers when asked, to Omega's Chick Magnet shirt on Wednesday) then put on a show in front of 15k at the United Center and don't deliver.....don't bother coming back for those three shows in a couple of weeks unless you want the ring constantly covered in beer and piss thrown from the crowd.

That wouldn't be fun post-mania crowd smarking out, it would be a public execution of the entire brand.

I really really hope they learned their lesson from over promising and delivering Christian and don't do the same tonight. The crowd will eat them alive. Not even Danielson could save it.

I don't think they're that stupid and expect Punk to be there. V looking forward to the hot crowd, a sweet promo and possibly what his first angle is going to be.

HYPE AS FUCK




but not for smackdown.....

While I kinda love the idea of a swerve for the sake of a bigger story long-term, I think the only way they could actually POSSIBLY pull it off without pissing people off too much is MJF doing the thing where he trolls the crowd, announces Punk isn’t there, just riles them up to riot-levels and then “Flight of the Valkyries” hits.

Have a great time tonight @ Drebin!

Am I the only tpww poster who will be reporting LIVE FROM THE RAMPAGE tonight??

Hopefully I don't run into THAT MONSTER, Kenton Lane.

HAPPY 30,000TH POST FRANK DREBIN!!!!

What a way to celebrate!!

They'd have to get someone to either re-record an interpolation or license a recorded interpolation of the song from someone else. While the song itself is in the public domain, WWE owns the copyright on the sound recording of the song that he used in WWE. Not a huge deal in theory, and certainly doable, just not as quick and easy as it might seem.

Yeah I fully expect him to be there. AEW hinting at it as hard as they have and not delivering would be akin to ironically enough Punk's last WWE match, the 2014 Royal Rumble, when Daniel Bryan wasnt in it and they even booed Rey Mysterio of all people.

What though if Punk isnt there to wrestle? What if he is coming in on a Mark Henry/Big Show deal as a commentator who might wrestle once in a while. Would that be just as big of a letdown?

CM Punk returning is passé at this point. They should have gotten him earlier anyway. And now he’s an old failed MMA fighter who does bad films where they rib him by blasting ghost cum in his face. It’s got to be something else on top of that, and the only people big enough are Bryan and Lesnar. But I won’t care about them in AEW, because AEW fucking sucks.

Wrestling is dead. D-E-A-D. Bringing in guys who didn’t really draw big in their primes isn’t going to fix that. It’s fundamentally broken.

Fandom at all-time low. This fucking sucks.

Yeah, and you’re allowed to call a spade a spade too. This fucking sucks.

lol

Good to see that the Debbie Downers returned in the nick of time.

The Truth Tellers have returned

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just saw this. Can’t believe Jay wanted to do this vs get beat up by Seth in order to send Edge a message. <a href="https://t.co/ci8jRkSAyP">https://t.co/ci8jRkSAyP</a></p>&mdash; Brian Gewirtz (@bfg728) <a href="https://twitter.com/bfg728/status/1428830403226386432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Noids a gimmick at this point right? Like no one actually takes him seriously do they? Asking for a friend.

He ran away, #2 Sting Fan

Now that Punk is there, I am curious what they do with him.

When is Paul Levesque coming to AEW? Too right, comber.

The band Nonpoint says they love AEW

Brodie Lee’s TNT Title won was a year ago today :'(

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">AEW Rampage on TNT Friday was watched by 1,129,000 viewers total.<br>P18-49: 692,000 (0.53), higher than all but the debut episode of Dynamite in 2019.<br><br>WWE Smackdown on Fox Friday was watched by 2,102,000 viewers total.<br>P18-49: 738,000 (0.57)<br><br>��Read more: <a href="https://t.co/Z0rG5QbZu4">https://t.co/Z0rG5QbZu4</a> <a href="https://t.co/aCztYnSJvm">pic.twitter.com/aCztYnSJvm</a></p>&mdash; Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429895170053529608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That’s a good rating for them. Punk doesn’t move the needle so I don’t know what caused the bump but I hope they can build on it!

I feel like that's about the best the could've hoped for in a 10pm Friday night time slot. I'm hoping that this weeks Rampage has a stacked card because it being taped on Wednesday leads me to think we could fall even below the debut numbers.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The opening quarter-hour with the return of CM Punk was watched by 1,341,000 viewers on average and 842,000 in the demo (0.65).<a href="https://t.co/Z0rG5QbZu4">https://t.co/Z0rG5QbZu4</a></p>&mdash; Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrandonThurston/status/1429897212025319426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Chris Jericho the Demo-ted God now

I'm so confused. Didn't someone here claim that AEW would never get 1 million viewers? So strange that they've done it several times since then and even once with their new Friday night 10pm show.