AEW Rampage 8/20: The First Dance
 

IT’S CLOBBERING TIME

CM PUNK
CM PUNK
CM PUNK
CUM PUNK

I feel like I've looked forward to this for months, so pumped brothers, I'm jacked, I'm stroked, I'm PUNKING UP.

Kiera Hogan very hot...

And Jade Cargill is fuckin money man.

Tony Khan and the social media team hyping up "the most anticipated announcement in the history of the company" seems to be panicking people....like they're gonna announce Punk's signing and his All Out match but he won't actually be there.

I find it very, very hard to believe that they'd book the fucking United Center and not have him in the building. If that happened the company would rightly deserve to be shat on.

Not saying he'll do anything physical. Hell he might not even cut a promo on screen (could see the show ending with a staredown, though I'd guess he addresses the crowd post-show and it ends up online)......but I can't imagine he's not appearing in the arena, in front of that crowd.

Yeah, that'd be monumentally retarded. That would turn me away from ever caring about any type of future "announcement" they would make moving forward.


I want to care about wrestling again, it's a big pastime of mine with a ton of memories. WWE is literally unwatchable with their camera cuts. AEW has been pretty fun so far while also making mistakes along the way. For a young company, they are in a good spot and I hope they keep it moving in the right direction.

Maybe they are setting up the ultimate troll. Hear me out. They have gotten a bunch of E-grief in the past for hyping up announcements and then they end up being a bit underwhelming. So imagine them hyping this up as the biggest announcement ever and then Tony comes out and says he has signed some random person or even something dumb like announcing a match for All Out, whatever it is it will have nothing to do with CM Punk. Tony then proceeds to smile and say thank you to the fans and acts like he's leaving. The place erupts in boos as the people think they've been duped.

Then Tony gets up to the entrance, suddenly stops, turns around and says "Oh yeah, one more thing" and Punks music hits.

I'd honestly appreciate the hell out of that.

Feel like the Chicago crowd will start rioting before he would get the chance to say PSYCHE!

I mean this is the Rampage preview on AEW's actual website. They've done everything but type the name "CM Punk".

Hilarious that anyone thinks he won't be there.

https://content.invisioncic.com/r229...637d876c58.png

I still think it would be absolutely hilarious if Shane McMahon came out. That would have to qualify as one of if not the biggest swerve in history, wouldn't it? I know it will never ever happen, ijs I think it would be insane and watching all the fall out would be amazing.

Woo! Less than 12 hours folks! So ready for this tonight!

Maaaaaan, didn't think of this until now. That would be a big HOLY SHIT moment but also a FUCK YOU moment.


Shane and the whole BITW gimmick was wanker than a wank pheasant wanking.

Take it a step farther and have Shane McMahon come out to the sound of Chicago imploding and then while he's gloating from the ramp CM Punk comes out and destroys him. You would get the biggest swerve, double swerve, boo and pop all in one go. It would be a God tier segment.

I love getting myself hyped up in my head over fictional scenarios I imaginated and stuff.

Screw the licensing, just have Punk come out to Shane's music with a huge ass "got ya" grin on his face.

Interested to see how they do their cut of Cult of Personality. I guess they could rip off the WWE static intro or something else "signature".

Bah Gawd, that would be some epic storytelling. Don't even stop the music or the entrance. Big fucking GTS on the ramp and keep going like nothing happened.

I'm ready for Jim Ross to go apeshit. This is the kind of moment you hire Jim Ross for.

"Who is that? What the hell is this?"

"CM Punk has finally appeared in MY ASS"

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tony Khan confirms <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CMPunk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CMPunk</a> will debut on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEWRampage?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEWRampage</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/BustedOpenRadio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BustedOpenRadio</a> <a href="https://t.co/p18mC0CnzL">pic.twitter.com/p18mC0CnzL</a></p>&mdash; Jono (@drjonosuave) <a href="https://twitter.com/drjonosuave/status/1428745967814250503?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

JR doesn't call Rampage but one of my biggest concerns is the 4 man announce booth not shutting the fuck up, specifically Jericho.

This is the kind of moment you let breathe for a bit before saying anything.

On one hand I think Punk needs to close the show because there's no way the emotional high can be topped and it means people tuning in just to see him aren't clicking off at 10:15 or whatever.

On the other hand, the potential for CM Punk chants to drown everything out might cause them to actually open the show with it. We'll see.

Damn. Didn’t even cross my mind that JR won’t be calling it.

Hey guys, did you hear? CM Punk's coming back to wrestling.

Probably should have swapped cards for last Friday's show.... maybe hook in some people via CM Punk and use that to really lock them in by having Christian win big.

They do have Jon Moxley, but he is facing some generic jobbers... that ain't gonna do squat to entice fans to stick around

Wow, spoiler alert.

Oh my! Is it? Could it be? It is!

I think it's a good card for tonight, potentially have some new eyeballs tuning in and you have got Jade Cargill and Jungle Boy on the show, two people who generally are well-received the first time people see them.

Daniel Garcia is a lil diamond in the rough too, he just needs some more mass on top.

Garcia might be a good wrestler maybe but def looks and seems way too generic... looks like an "enhancement guy" tbh

They should really change Jungle Boy's name officially to "Jungle" Jack Perry...... "Jungle Boy" is not going to attract any new fans ever. Not that "Jungle" Jack Perry will, but at the very least he won't make them laugh and think "wrestling is dumb".

Whooo!

Bring his ass out for this. This is a defining night/moment for the company. There is nobody that can call these sort of moments like Jim Ross. He goes apeshit for 30 seconds before letting the moment speak for itself. Think back to HHH's return in 02 at MSG.

Finally watched Christian's match from last week... crazy at how much better in shape Christian looks than Omega, how much better his offense looks, and just in general how much better he comes off. They should definitely give Christian the AEW world title on Sunday and watch the new boom period begin.

Was thinking the same thing the other day. Very surprising that they don't at least try to capitalize on his name. And Jungle Boy is such a strange name really. Maybe he doesn't want to use the name though because he wants to make a name for himself? Some people are like that and I don't really recall them mentioning who his dad was but I could have just missed it.

GO TEAM CHRISTIAN!

Think AEW in general has a problem with letting their rasslers have too much freedom, should definitely rename people every now and then as well as change their gimmicks from what they did on the indies

It doesn't seem to have become a big issue yet though. At some point they are going to start having people butt heads over creative differences though.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pic from inside the arena.<br><br>The United Center is gonna come unglued tonight!��������<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AEWRampage?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AEWRampage</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CMPunk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CMPunk</a> <a href="https://t.co/XvA1uFtG8c">pic.twitter.com/XvA1uFtG8c</a></p>&mdash; ������������ (@WrestlingCovers) <a href="https://twitter.com/WrestlingCovers/status/1428793638239281154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

i wish they would put her in a tag team with her girlfriend, get womens tag happening in aew

Ya'll are getting fooled. This is (unretired) AJ Lee's debut and Punk will just be up in the suites clapping.

LOL, he said they were going to make "new fans". Lapsed fans sure, but wrestling hasnt made new fans since John Cena kids in like 2006.

Whoa! A Xero post!

Where?

Drebin is here. There is no CM Punk merch. He's had stuff made for special events before but he was wrestling at those so not totally shocked since this is supposed to be a "surprise".

Bet there's a Punk shirt at All Out that sells out lighting quick tho.

That can change. I think Darby has a shot at creating a fanbase like that. I do not think for a minute he can be John Cena successful but I think he could have a good sized fanbase and potentially some new kid fans. Similar to Sting for WCW, probably not even to that level of success but still successful.

I DDT'd a guy who looked like @the_real_dave_wadding just in case.

So what's first? Dark/Elevation matches? Are the people chanting for Punk already? Did you go to the show alone or with friends or significant other?

Too many questions. I'm logging off.

No punk chants yet. They just opened the doors 30 mins ago. Not alot of asses in the seats yet. Doubt this will be a sell out. UC is like 21k for a Bulls game.

Fun fact:

Drebin was here for SummerSlam 1994 which was the first ever event at the United Center.

Which will be a bigger moment : CM Punk debuting or Taker pinning Faker Taker.

Tatanka turning heel! What a sell out!

Time for 35 hours of AEW Dark squash matches.

forgot this didn't come on until 10pm

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Lol......massive pop for Evil Uno.

Crowd is hungry

Possibly, but then why hasn't it happened already? They have been around over 2 and a half years at this point, with a weekly TV show for 2 years.

AEW is doing exactly what WWE does, bring in a star from the past and pop a rating increase for a few weeks. Getting casual lasped fans to watch once in a while is good, but it never leads to sustained ratings.

At the end of the day, it will still just be all of us watching.

I am a fan of the live reports, thanks for posting Drebin

I can see a path where you are right. But the wrestling industry has changed so much throughout history. I think we've been stalled since WCW went down, nobody other than TNA had a real shot at making a footprint. AEW is working on that. WCW didn't top WWF for years. I guess like 5 years if you count since Turner bought JCP, but much longer if you consider JCP.

First CM Punk chant

lotta hype for this 1 hour show (2nd ep ever) has been the talk of the town for weeks and this thread is nearly 3 pages with an hour until show time. The three matches scheduled are hardly main event level. I hope it delivers!

From what they aired last week it seemed specifically like Darby All In was issuing a challenge to anyone who claims they’re the best in the world to show up tonight

AEW certainly running with a pretty weak card for this show. The Mox/Garcia match I have no doubts will deliver and be pretty great but the rest of it is a bit.... off.

Tony did say that the format for this show isn't going to be your typical Rampage, different than last week which will be the main format for most Rampage episodes. So I assume that means maybe starting with an angle that might play out through the show or something else entirely that I can't predict.

Brit Baker is a star.

John Silver is so small. I'm going to get Gertner a cameo from him.

Wonder if son of Chicago Colt “Boom Boom” Cabana will make an appearance tonight.

Oooo Dante Martin cool.

I see enough of him on One Hour Tee billboards

Even my wife is excited for this show. She keeps randomly playing Cult of Personality on our home theater.

JUST OVER 30 MINUTES TILL CLOBBERING TIME BAY BAY

Y2J like Rampage countdown

I missed CM Punk's entire WWE career, but even I'm excited about this shit.

You're going to get a jerk off meme from OC. Cringey but the crowd likes it I guess.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO T-15 minutes. Bout to roll up a fatty and pop open some brews and turn this into a party bay bay.

Cool. No Jericho in the booth. Jim Ross.

Hahahaha, no matter what wrestling show is on TNT, it's always The Accountant on TNT beforehand

Nice!

Bringing out Tony Khan. Ok.......

Oh boy......bringing us something very special.

Give Khan shit.....he loves the business and it feels like he wants to give the fans what *he thinks* they want.

Just saw some clips on Twitter. That place is jam fucking packed. Gonna be one of the greatest pops of all the times.

Oh shit....Bulls intro music

Roof could explode

Live crowd with Jungle Boy's theme should be fun

Anna Kendrick ripping up a painting before Rampage

Franky D, you lucky lucky bastard!

It’s a Jackson Pollock.

Ben Affleck stoically driving a truck across a bridge.

Vintage Affleck

Here we gooooo

I'm about to CM CUM

Here we go baby WOOOOOOOOO

Ok everybody shut up I’m watching my story

https://i.ibb.co/x2F3KCb/BF6106-EC-0...-CB9-A2507.jpg

JUST A T-SHIRT COMPANY

love that song at the end tho

they let jr out

Fuck yeah!

OH SHIT RIGHT OF THE BAT

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO