CM Punk in AEW: Part 1 – The AEW Rampage Debut | Column

This was previously part of a book I had written and released on CM Punk’s first year in All Elite Wrestling, covering August 2021 until May 2022. I’ll be uploading it here sporadically, adapted for easier reading online, so please feel free to check it out!

CM Punk would officially arrive in All Elite Wrestling on the second-ever AEW Rampage show from Chicago, Illinois to one of the biggest crowd reactions in the history of American pro wrestling.

Punk would immediately adhere himself even more to the fanbase by showing that he had been following the product for quite some time, by simply saying: “You guys really know how to make a kid feel like Britt Baker in Pittsburgh,” which was quite the opening line for someone with the spotlight on them, putting over another talent right from the off.

The former WWE star would then go on to address why he left WWE, without outwardly saying the company’s name:

“If at all through my journey, if any of my personal choices or decisions related to my life made you disappointed or let down, let me say, I understand that, if you all try to understand that I was never going to get healthy, spiritually, mentally, physically or emotionally staying in the same place that got me sick in the first place.” 

Punk would then sit down in his famous Indian-style pose to continue his promo, speaking about his time in Ring of Honor and how he ‘left’ professional wrestling when he left that company way back in 2005:

“August 13, 2005, I left professional wrestling. August 20, 2021, I’m back. And I’m back for you. I’m not gonna lie, I’m back for me too. I’m back because there’s a hell of a lot of talent that I wish I was surrounded by ten years ago and I said, hell, they’re there now, where are you? Here I am. I’m back because I want to work with that young talent who had the same passion I had before it was stamped out.”

CM Punk AEW debut on Rampage

It was a monumental opening statement from a performer who had been gone for so many years, and the ramifications of his debut for AEW would be felt for some time in the ratings, PPV buys, merchandise and even beyond that (in good ways and bad).

The appearance of Punk on only the second episode of AEW Rampage, an appearance that was not once actually outwardly mentioned by All Elite Wrestling or Tony Khan, but was heavily implied, drew an absolutely massive rating for the Friday night show.

To put it into perspective, the first episode of the show was back on August 13th 2021 and drew a viewership of around 740,000 with a 0.30 in the 18-49 demographic. Punk’s debut on the show, which again was not actually confirmed by the company at all, managed to draw the August 20th 2021 episode of the show an average of 1,129,000 viewers and 0.53 in the 18-49 demographic, an incredible +379,000 viewers tuning in expecting to see the Second City Saint return to pro wrestling.

As confirmed by our own Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at the time, the quarter-hour ratings were incredible for the opening of the show, with Punk drawing 1,341,000 viewers, an 0.65 in 18-49 and 0.42 in 18-34. His quarter did a huge 1.70 in 18-49 in Chicago itself, and the show overall did a 1.30 in Chicago in the 18-49 demo.

It wasn’t just the television ratings that saw a huge bump due to the impending arrival of the Second City Saint, as PWInsider revealed that the release of Punk’s new shirt, which appeared online shortly after he debuted, actually crashed both the AEW Shop and Pro Wrestling Tees websites.

AEW’s digital presence also saw a massive boost, with the video of Punk’s AEW debut amassing around 4.6 million views in around 12 hours after it went live. As of writing, the video is sitting on around 21 million lifetime views.

Metrics for CM Punk’s AEW Debut

Google metrics for the time were also a massive tell of how well the word was spread, with over 500,000 searches for CM Punk and Rampage, which at the time, more than doubled anything in the history of AEW to that point. ESPN also reportedly claimed to Tony Khan that their traffic for the social media post of the entrance clip was the largest number for a video since May 2021, beating out the NBA Championships, the Olympics and the UFC’s massive Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 3 fight.

The success of the event, again which did not have any explicit mention of CM Punk actually showing up, was not lost on Tony Khan, who would thank and praise the fans in attendance after the cameras stopped rolling:

“This means the world to me that you all trust us. You all bought a ticket without a single thing being announced on this show. This show sold out before we announced one thing because of your trust in us because you believed in AEW! Thank you! Thank you! Please keep trusting us. Please keep trusting us because I promise you this is all just the beginning. Thank you very much.”

AEW Rampage Ratings the week after

The following week’s show would drop back down to an average of 720,000 viewers and a 0.34 rating in the 18-49 demographic, and only a video package, which Cageside Seats described at the time as having “exactly enough new footage of Punk to “count” for his AEW appearance streak” being shown for the new signee.

AEW Dynamite Rating August 25 2021

The August 25th 2021 episode of AEW Dynamite, the flagship programme for the brand, told a completely different story. Dynamite that week kept up the incredible momentum of Punk’s debut on Rampage by drawing an average of 1,172,000 viewers and a 0.48 in the 18-49 demographic. The appearance of Punk on the main show was heavily promoted by the company, and it made a hell of a difference to the viewership that night.

The 1,172,000 number was another huge win for Tony Khan and co, drawing an extra +197,000 viewers from the week before, and definitively showing that Punk was here as a legitimate ratings draw and someone that they could rely on.

All of this was leading to Punk’s debut match for the company, which would be taking place on the ALL OUT PPV event from Chicago against Darby Allin.

CM Punk’s First Few Weeks in Numbers

Just to illustrate how much of a difference to viewership the initial return of CM Punk to pro wrestling did for AEW initially, I’ve put together these two graphs showing the week before (two weeks after in the case of Rampage) and after he debuted:

AEW Rampage Ratings – August 13 2021 to September 3rd 2021

AEW Dynamite Ratings – August 18th 2021 to September 1st 2021

Jake Skudder

Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator for NationalWorld. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012. His work has also been featured on Wrestling Headlines, Wrestlingnewsco, HotNewHipHop and The Hard Times.

Previously, he worked as the Editor in Chief of 24Wrestling, building the site profile with a view to selling the domain, which was accomplished in 2019. Jake was previously the Editor in Chief for FightFans, a combat sports and pro wrestling site that was launched in January 2021 and broke into millions of pageviews within the first two years. He previously worked for Snack Media and their GiveMeSport site, creating Evergreen and Trending content that would deliver pageviews via Google as the UFC and MMA SEO Lead. Jake managed to take an area of GiveMeSport that had zero traction on Organic and push it to audiences across the globe. Jake also has a record of long-term video and written interview content with the likes of the Professional Fighters League, ONE and Cage Warriors, working directly with the brands to promote bouts, fighters and special events.

He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling, as PR Head and Head of Media across the social channels of the company.

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