CM Punk Comments on His AEW Debut
Chicago-based radio station ESPN 1000’s Kap & J Hood Show held a recent interview with CM Punk. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts on his official AEW debut at this past Friday’s episode of AEW Rampage in his hometown of Chicago.
“I’ll take it back further, honestly. I was discussing this with a couple of my friends. That might have been the greatest moment, the greatest night of my career… Just the entire night couldn’t have gone more perfect. The way we set it up as the worst kept secret, man, selling out the United Center on the rumor that I was going to be there, never announced, never advertised. It shows the connection to the fanbase that AEW has, that they get it. They want to be involved, they want to be entertained, they want to go to shows and have a good time. So we didn’t feel the need to beat them over the head to get a TV rating. And don’t get me wrong, I know executives at TNT love their ratings, but to me pro wrestling has always been about moments and getting people to feel something. It was the perfect storm, the perfect night.”
Transcript h/t: ProWrestling.net
More on CM Punk Themed Ice Cream Bars at AEW Rampage’s Chicago Show
This past Friday’s episode of AEW Rampage in Chicago, Illinois featured CM Punk making his official debut in AEW. During his opening promo, Punk mentioned that every fan in attendance would receive a free ice cream bar on their way out of the venue after the show as a special gift from him.
Chicago-based ice cream company Pretty Cool Ice Cream recently revealed on Instagram that Punk footed the entire bill for the ice cream give-away at AEW’s Rampage show in the city and came up with the idea to do this two years ago.
The big moment- when @cmpunk thanks his fans for waiting, and to grab some ice cream on him. Were you there?!
Since we have been getting a lot of questions, yes the ice cream was on him- it wasn’t a publicity stunt dreamed up by promoters. He came to us on his own and asked us to help him do this 2 years ago, and finally the moment was right. Our small team worked tirelessly to hand make every bar, and CM Punk wrote the check for the entire bill himself.
That’s some real Chicago love right there, city of big shoulders, and big heart
More on This Past Friday’s AEW Rampage Ratings
As noted before, this past Friday’s episode of AEW Rampage drew 1,129,000 viewers and a 0.33 key demographic rating on TNT.
Wrestlenomics Brandon Thurston reported that AEW’s show managed to top WWE’s SmackDown show that night in the overall 18-34 key demographic group, Males 18-49 group, Females 18-34 group, and Males 35-49 group. Thurston reported that AEW fell short of tying SmackDown in the overall 18-49 key demographic group by around 46,000 viewers.
Thurston also reported that the first quarter hour of the show, which featured CM Punk’s official debut and promo segment, drew 842,000 key demographic viewers. This reportedly was only behind the quarter hours for the October 2, 2019 debut episode of AEW Dynamite for highest ever in AEW history.
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