AEW The First Dance

AEW Rampage: The First Dance
Promotional poster
PromotionAll Elite Wrestling
DateAugust 20, 2021
CityChicago, Illinois
VenueUnited Center
Attendance15,316[1]
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AEW Rampage: The First Dance was a professional wrestling television special produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It was held on August 20, 2021, at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, and was broadcast on TNT as a special episode of AEW's weekly television program, Rampage; the second episode of the series overall, having premiered the previous week on August 13. Three matches were contested at the event, and in the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Daniel Garcia.

With over 15,000 attendees, The First Dance was AEW's largest attended event since the company's inception in 2019. The event saw the highly anticipated debut of CM Punk in AEW, who had been retired from professional wrestling following an acrimonious departure from WWE in January 2014. As it had been heavily speculated that Punk would be debuting at the event, tickets were sold out within minutes of going on sale.[2]

Production

Background

Rampage is All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) second weekly television program that began airing on August 13, 2021 on TNT.[3] During Fight for the Fallen on July 28, AEW President and Chief Executive Officer Tony Khan announced that the August 20 episode of Rampage, the show's second episode, would be a special episode titled "The First Dance" and would be held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.[4] It was the first televised wrestling event in the United Center since 2000. Presale tickets went online on July 30 before they were available to the general public on August 2. Tickets sold out in four minutes. The venue has a capacity of 23,000, which made it AEW's largest attended event since the company's inception in 2019.[5][6]

Storylines

The First Dance featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[7] Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly television programs, Dynamite and Rampage, the supplementary online streaming shows, Dark and Elevation, and The Young Bucks' YouTube series Being The Elite.

Event

Other on-screen personnel
Role Name
Commentators Excalibur
Jim Ross
Taz
Mark Henry
Ring announcer Justin Roberts
Referees Aubrey Edwards
Bryce Remsburg
Rick Knox
Interviewer Mark Henry

Preliminary matches

CM Punk at Rampage: The First Dance in August 2021

The event opened with the entire arena chanting for CM Punk. "Cult of Personality", Punk's theme music, began playing and Punk made his way to the ring to a massive ovation. Punk took a microphone and spoke about his return, and challenged Darby Allin to a match at All Out, a match that had been teased by Allin a month beforehand at Fight for the Fallen when The First Dance was originally announced.[8][9]

In the first match on the card, Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) faced Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) in an AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator tournament semi-finals match. Jungle Boy pinned Quen after performing his tag team finisher with Luchasaurus to win the match and advance in the tournament.[9]

Following this, Jade Cargill faced Kiera Hogan. Cargill performed "Jaded" on Hogan to quickly win the match.[9]

Main event

In the main event, Jon Moxley (accompanied by Eddie Kingston) faced Daniel Garcia (accompanied by 2.0 (Jeff Parker and Matt Lee)). Moxley defeated Garcia after forcing him to submit to the "Bulldog Choke". After the match, Moxley was attacked by 2.0 and Garcia, but Kingston, Darby Allin, and Sting came to his aid and helped clear the ring of the three as the show went off the air.[9] As the show went off-air, Darby Allin officially accepted CM Punk’s challenge for All Out.

Reception

The First Dance received universally positive reviews, with the debut of CM Punk being singled out by many critics as one of the most important and significant moments in AEW's history.[10][11][12] Patrick Moynahan of Pro Wrestling Torch described the show as "amazing" and stated that after only two weeks of being on air, Rampage had already become "must-watch TV."[13] Josh Nason of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter called CM Punk's debut "one of the most emotional moments in pro wrestling history".[14] Sports journalist Dave Meltzer wrote that the debut of Punk "drew one of the most amazing audience reactions to a pro wrestler in U.S. history."[15] Former wrestling manager Jim Cornette praised the debut as "perfect".[16][17] In just under a day, Punk's new t-shirt design would break sales records for website Pro Wrestling Tees, and the amount of internet traffic caused the website to briefly crash.[18] Tony Khan stated that over 100,000 CM Punk shirts had been sold by mid-September.[19]

The clip of CM Punk's debut peaked at #1 on YouTube's trending feed, while the clip of his promo peaked at #2.[20]

Television ratings

The First Dance averaged 1,129,000 television viewers on TNT, with a 0.53 rating in the 18–49 demo rating.[21]

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes[9]
1Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) (with Marko Stunt) defeated Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) (with Matt Hardy)Tag team match
AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament Semifinal[22]		10:05
2Jade Cargill (with Mark Sterling) defeated Kiera HoganSingles match[22]1:01
3Jon Moxley (with Eddie Kingston) defeated Daniel Garcia (with Jeff Parker and Matt Lee) by submissionSingles match[22]4:04

See also

References

  1. ^ Collins, Joseph (August 20, 2021). "AEW Rampage live results: The First Dance". F4WOnline. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  2. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (August 20, 2021). "CM Punk Returns To Wrestling On 8/20 AEW Rampage The First Dance, Faces Darby Allin At AEW All Out". Fightful. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  3. ^ Staszewski, Joseph (May 19, 2021). "AEW Dynamite moving to TBS in 2022, new show revealed". New York Post. Archived from the original on May 19, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  4. ^ Defelice, Robert (July 28, 2021). "AEW Announces AEW Rampage: The First Dance Set For 8/20 From The United Center In Chicago". Fightful. Retrieved July 31, 2021.
  5. ^ Nason, Josh (August 2, 2021). "AEW sells out remaining United Center tickets in four minutes". F4WOnline. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  6. ^ Lee, Joseph (August 2, 2021). "AEW Rampage Sells Out the United Center In Chicago". 411mania. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  7. ^ Grabianowski, Ed (January 13, 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
  8. ^ Powell, Jason (July 28, 2021). "7/28 AEW Dynamite results: Powell's live review of Fight For The Fallen with "The Painmaker" Chris Jericho vs. Nick Gage in a No DQ match, Adam Page and Dark Order vs. The Elite in an elimination match, FTR vs. Santana and Ortiz, Lance Archer vs. Hikuleo for the IWPG U.S. Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 28, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e McGuire, Colin (August 20, 2021). "8/20 AEW Rampage results: McGuire's live review CM Punk's expected return to pro wrestling, Private Party vs. Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy in an AEW Tag Title Eliminator tournament match, Jon Moxley vs. Daniel Garcia, Jade Cargill vs. Kiera Hogan". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  10. ^ Barrasso, Justin (August 20, 2021). "Former WWE Superstar CM Punk Debuts With AEW". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  11. ^ Raimondi, Marc (August 20, 2021). "CM Punk makes pro-wrestling return, signs with All Elite Wrestling". ESPN. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  12. ^ Brookhouse, Brent (August 20, 2021). "AEW Rampage results: Live recap, grades as CM Punk officially debuts with the promotion". CBSSports.com. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  13. ^ Moynahan, Patrick (August 20, 2021). "8/20 AEW RAMPAGE TV REPORT: Moynahan's coverage of Punk's planned debut, Moxley vs. Garcia, Jade vs. Hogan, Jurassic Express vs. Private Party". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  14. ^ Nason, Josh (August 20, 2021). "CM Punk debuts on AEW Rampage, taking on Darby Allin at All Out". F4WOnline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  15. ^ Meltzer, Dave (August 22, 2021). "Stars Shine As WWE and AEW Ramp Up Competition". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  16. ^ Cornette, Jim (August 21, 2021). "Cult of Personality". Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru (Podcast). Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  17. ^ Beltran, William (August 22, 2021). "Jim Cornette: "CM Punk's AEW debut was perfect"". Súper Luchas. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  18. ^ Thomas, Jeremy (August 22, 2021). "CM Punk Sets New Sales Record For Pro Wrestling Tees". 411Mania.com. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  19. ^ Pollard, Andrew (September 19, 2021). "Tony Khan Reveals AEW Have Sold Over 100k CM Punk T-Shirts". WhatCulture. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
  20. ^ Upton, Felix (August 21, 2021). "CM Punk's AEW Debut Dominates YouTube With Top Trending Videos". Ringside News. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  21. ^ Metcalf, Mitch (August 23, 2021). "UPDATED: SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 150 Friday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 8.20.2021". ShowBuzz Daily. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  22. ^ a b c Lambert, Jeremy (August 18, 2021). "Jon Moxley, Jade Cargill, And Jurassic Express In Action On 8/20 AEW Rampage The First Dance". Fightful. Retrieved August 18, 2021.