AEW Rampage: The First Dance was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

produced by

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

(AEW). It was held on August 20, 2021, at the

United Center The United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and was broadcast on

TNT Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

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 Jonathan David Good (born December 7, 1985) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Jon Moxley and is the current AEW World Championship, AEW World Champion in his ...

defeated Daniel Garcia. With over 15,000 attendees, The First Dance was AEW's largest attended event since AEW's inception in 2019. The event saw the highly anticipated debut of

CM Punk Phillip Jack Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by his ring name CM Punk, is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw (WWE brand), Raw brand. Regarded as ...

in AEW, who had been retired from professional wrestling following an acrimonious departure from

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

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.

Production

Background

'' Rampage'' is

's (AEW) second weekly television program that began airing on August 13, 2021 on

. During Fight for the Fallen on July 28, AEW President and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Tony Khan Antony Rafiq Khan (born October 10, 1982) is an American businessman, sports executive, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the founder, co-owner, president, CEO, executive producer, and head booker of All Elite Wrestling ...

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

. 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.

Storylines

The First Dance featured

professional wrestling matches Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "Glossary of professional wrestling terms#Gimmick, gimmick matches" in the Glossary of professional wrestling terms, jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick m ...

that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed

heroes Heroes or Héroes may refer to: * Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good Film * ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama * ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film Gaming * ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...

villains A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly television programs, ''

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

'' and ''Rampage'', the supplementary online streaming shows, ''

Dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

'' and ''

Elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

'', and

The Young Bucks The Young Bucks are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Matthew Massie and Nicholas Massie, who perform under the ring names Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson. , they are signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), whe ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

series ''

Being The Elite The Elite is a villainous professional wrestling stable appearing in the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The group consists of co-leaders The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson), Kazuchika Okad ...

''.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event opened with the entire arena chanting for

. "

Cult of Personality A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader,Cas Mudde, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create ...

", 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 Samuel Ratsch (born January 7, 1993), better known by the ring name Darby Allin, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is a former two-time AEW TNT Championship, AEW TNT Champion and a former AEW Wo ...

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. In the first match on the card, Jurassic Express ( Jungle Boy and

Luchasaurus Austin Matelson (born March 10, 1985), better known by his ring name Luchasaurus, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Killswitch. He is a member of The Patriarch ...

) faced Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) in an

AEW World Tag Team Championship The AEW World Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It is a standard tag team championship, being contested by teams of two wr ...

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. Following this,

Jade Cargill Jade Cargill (born June 3, 1992) is an American professional wrestler. she is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand. She is a former two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion. She is also known for her career in All Elit ...

faced

Kiera Hogan Kiera Hogan (born September 16, 1994) is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She is best known for her time in Impact Wrestling, where she is a former two-time Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champion (with Tasha Ste ...

. Cargill performed "Jaded" on Hogan to quickly win the match.

Main event

In the main event,

(accompanied by

Eddie Kingston Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by the ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler. , he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is out of in-ring action because of a leg injury, but continues to mak ...

) 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 Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), also known as transmembrane protein 173 (TMEM173) and MPYS/MITA/ERIS is a regulator protein that in humans is encoded by the STING1 gene. STING plays an important role in innate immunity. STING induces typ ...

came to his aid and helped clear the ring of the three as the show went off the air. 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. 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." Josh Nason of the ''

Wrestling Observer Newsletter The ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON'') is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Founded in print in 1982 by Dave Meltzer, the ''Wrestling Observer'' website merged with Bryan Alvarez's ''Figure Four Wee ...

'' called CM Punk's debut "one of the most emotional moments in pro wrestling history". Sports journalist

Dave Meltzer David Allen Meltzer (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist, author, and historian who reports on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Since 1983, he has been the publisher and editor of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter' ...

wrote that the debut of Punk "drew one of the most amazing audience reactions to a pro wrestler in U.S. history." Former wrestling manager

Jim Cornette James Mark Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author, sports historian, and podcaster who previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, photographer, promoter, tra ...

praised the debut as "perfect". In just under a day, Punk's new t-shirt design would break sales records for website

Pro Wrestling Tees Pro Wrestling Tees is a website and store for professional wrestlers to sell their merchandise and is the largest website of its kind. The site regularly organizes meet ups for wrestlers and their fans around wrestling events. The company provides ...

, and the amount of

internet traffic Internet traffic is the flow of data within the entire Internet, or in certain network links of its constituent networks. Common traffic measurements are total volume, in units of multiples of the byte, or as transmission rates in bytes per cert ...

caused the website to briefly crash. Tony Khan stated that over 100,000 CM Punk shirts had been sold by mid-September. The clip of CM Punk's debut peaked at #1 on

's trending feed, while the clip of his promo peaked at #2.

Television ratings

The First Dance averaged 1,129,000 television viewers on

, with a 0.53 rating in the 18–49 demo rating.

Results

References

External links

* {{All Elite Wrestling events, The First Dance 2020s American television specials 2021 in Chicago 2021 American television episodes 2021 in professional wrestling August 2021 in the United States Events at United Center Professional wrestling shows in the Chicago metropolitan area

First Dance The first dance is an element in a number of traditions, being an opening of a certain dance function: ball, prom, wedding, etc. Balls In the context of balls, the term "first dance" has two meanings. At various formal balls the first dance wa ...