Entertainment
AEW Rampage: CM Punk returns to wrestling seven year after leaving WWE and challenges Darby Allin
He’s back (Picture: AEW)
CM Punk made his long-awaited wrestling comeback at AEW Rampage on Friday night.
The WWE legend, who left Vince McMahon’s company in 2014 and spent much of the last seven years insisting he was done with the business, made a sensational return in his hometown of Chicago and looked overwhelmed as he soaked in an all-time great reaction from the crowd.
Punk was at his best on the mic, dropping pipebombs all over the show and he said he had to leave WWE to get better after being there made him sick, before revealing he’s here to stay.
He soon turned his attention to Darby Allin and Sting up in the rafters, revealing he’ll be facing the rising star at All Out back next month back in Chicago.
The Voice of the Voiceless’ AEW debut has been one of the worst kept secrets in wrestling, but the anticipation reached fever pitch among fans with everyone waiting for the moment to finally arrive.
The man himself more than played his part as he built up the hype with plenty of teases, including one just 24 hours before Rampage got underway.
On Thursday night, he shared a caption-less picture of Batman to his Instagram Story and eagle eyed comic book fans – like the former world champ himself – were quick to pick up on a significant detail.
The image of the Caped Crusader is taken from the Dark Knight Returns comic, in a brilliant move.
Punk had been subtly – or maybe not so subtly – feeding the speculation with hints along the way, and he dropped another bombshell on Instagram this week when he shared an image which simply read: ’05 11 21′
Almost instantly, people were trying to figure out the puzzle with some connecting the dots and reaching a couple of conclusions.
This is a brilliant tease from the master (Picture: @cmpunk)
Now, 2005 marked the year of the first Summer of Punk, when he won the Ring of Honor World Championship only to sign with WWE and threaten to take the gold with him.
Six years later, fans were treated to another Summer of Punk which kickstarted with his infamous pipebomb promo and went onto beat John Cena for the WWE title in his hometown of Chicago at Money In The Bank.
He re-signed with WWE that night, and adding another bow to the theory.
Fans noticed a pattern emerging, with the ’21’ suggesting a third Summer of Punk was on the way along with another new contract, with all signs pointing to AEW.
The legendary star, who had insisted he was busy promoting new drama Heels in Chicago tonight, teased fans a lot recently, as he also provided some MMA commentary last weekend and dropped some in-jokes about a wrestling return and even described something as ‘all elite’.
This also all comes as he was snapped wearing a pin badge of a Chicago Bulls basketball jersey with Punk and XX on it.
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XX was always on Punk’s taped wrists during his career – referencing his Straight Edge lifestyle – and there’s also the possible coincidence that Friday is the 20th of the month.
It all seems to be aligned, and he recently admitted he had talks with Tony Khan when AEW launched two years ago.
Finally, it came to fruition and the wrestling world has been turned upside down.
*AEW Rampage airs Friday night at 3am on Fite TV.
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