AEW: Punk at the United Center has to happen to avoid fan backlash

All Elite Wrestling made a lot of noise in the wrestling industry in the last couple of years. It’s impressive because they started this company about two and a half years ago. Now AEW is the talk of the wrestling business.

They started the company on Jan. 1, 2019, with the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Cody Rhodes, Britt Baker, MJF, Pac, and Chris Jericho as the core of the roster. These are the guys that you will build your roster around. They quickly expanded the roster with Jon Moxley, the late great Brodie Lee, Matt Hardy, Lance Archer, Brian Cage, Eddie Kingston, FTR, Sting, Miro, Christian Cage, Andrade El Idolo, and Malakai Black.

Now there are rumors of Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan in WWE) and CM Punk potentially signing with AEW. Danielson could debut as soon as the Sept. 22 edition of AEW Dynamite which will be at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.

And Punk could debut at AEW Rampage: The First Dance. The event will be at the United Center in Punk’s hometown Chicago, Illinois. In fact, the majority of wrestling fans are expecting him to make his wrestling return in seven years. But what if he does not debut on Aug. 20? Then the fans will riot. The fans will riot because they were expecting Punk to show up and he wasn’t there.

How believable are the rumors of Punk to AEW?

I know some people will say that the fans shouldn’t believe in the rumors. There were rumors of Punk joining AEW a couple of years ago. If he wasn’t going to join a couple of years ago, why would he join now?

To that, I just want to say all those Punk rumors from a couple of years ago were mostly fan speculations. Yes, Punk and AEW, had talks but that’s it. Everything else until the past couple of weeks was fan speculations.

Once the news from Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp came out that Punk is talking to AEW about wrestling there, that intrigued a lot of wrestling fans. Unlike the other times, it looked like the talks were serious. It’s also interesting that All Out as well as the Sept. 1 edition of Dynamite will be in Chicago.

But what made a lot of fans like myself convinced that he’s either signed with AEW already or is going to sign soon is the announcement of AEW Rampage: The First Dance at the United Center. The United Center can hold up to 20,000 people in its arena.

Why are they doing a show in Chicago on Aug. 20 when they are doing two shows in September with one being a PPV show? Especially when the Aug. 20 show is in an arena that will hold double the number of people than the Now Center which is where All Out will take.

They are in an arena for a show that’s usually one hour long.  They are not going to do a show that is one hour long at the United Center unless they have something big planned. That plan is Punk debuting on AEW.

There are also hints that he might join AEW on their own tv show. Darby Allin said that he wants to face the best at Rampage: The First Dance. Despite Allin stating that he was calling out Sammy Guevara, we all know he meant Punk. Another example was the easter eggs during the Elite Squad segment from the recent Dynamite episode.

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What happens if he isn’t signed with AEW?

So, if they don’t deliver on Punk coming to AEW, fans will be upset. And they should be upset. No one in AEW is denying it, they are only encouraging the rumor. Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, and Paul Wright said that they love the idea of Punk and Danielson in AEW. They are dropping hints on TV left and right.

They are pretty much telling us that he’s coming to AEW without telling us that he’s coming. So, fans have a right to be upset when no one from AEW is denying while also encouraging the rumors than Punk not showing up. There is also a chance that he shows up on the other two Chicago shows instead which would be fine. But if he doesn’t on the other shows then they will get more hate.

Like many fans, I believe in the rumors of Punk joining AEW because many facts are backing up the rumor. But if he does not show up at Rampage: The First Dance or either the Sept. 1 edition of Dynamite or All-Out, then they have to be ready for some backlash from their fans.