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I'm a mark, whatever, I'm still crying a little bit. Fuck it, my favorite wrestler is back and I'm just so fucking happy right now.

I'm at the hospital with my wife where they're inducing her. This was scheduled for today last Friday. My joke that I would wind up missing this show wasn't exactly a joke. Nothing has happened yet though and we got here at 7am. I watched on my phone with my earbuds in.

I LOVE pro wrestling you guys. I forget that sometimes. On the same night CM Punk returns, a guy who I saw wrestle in front of 200 people in Greektown was just in the main event in the United Center vs Jon Moxley. I LOVE pro wrestling

god I can only get so erect right now

Sooooo Bucks/JE in a cage, Miro/Kingston, Andrade/PAC, Christian/Omega and Punk/Darby? In front of that crowd? Goodness.

We here at the office went apeshit but we held it together until the cut to crying dude in the audience and then we just fucking wept. Welcome home, Punk.

Spent his career trying to weasel his way into this job and fucked it up before he even started by being an incurable asshole.

First night in AEW and Tony Khan managed to get a local business to make CM Punk branded ice cream bars.

It's amazing how much you can nail simply by going "Maybe we should give one of the best mic workers of all time a microphone in front of a crowd begging for him to be there" Perfect hour of television honestly. Just perfect. Punks my guy. He's been my guy since 2004. He's my guy in 2021. Let's go.

Feels weird when professional wrestling simply just delivers what everyone assumed was going to happen. That was fun. And I'm hyped for Punk and Malakai sitting across each other.

Really empty. CM PUNK doesn't draw.

AEW really ain't fucking around with this signing.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about pro wrestling. Thank you, AEW. Thank you for giving me that moment with my 12 year old son...he was five when his favorite walked away. He returned tonight.

and don't forget... in a few short weeks..

SO FUCKING GOOD. Why have I held on to my love of pro wrestling through the years? For nights like this. I know y'all feel the same. I'm so excited for us all for what's to come! Buckle up, it's gonna be a fun ride!!!

I don't think I can remember Punk ever... really smiling before. He looked so happy. And the line about not getting well til he got out of the place that made him sick is actually a truism we all need to remember.

I cannot concentrate on anything today.

definitely enjoyed (and wished I'd come up with) the running twitter joke last night about it being "CM Punk Eve, so remember to leave out Pepsi and cookies"

I like the dedication of even fake walking for the pic.

what a wonderful moment. One of the all time best entrances ever that will always be remembered. Loved when he just dove into the crowd on the ramp. Really great to see Punk come off so visibly genuinely happy. Excellent promo and the line about getting out of where he got sick was perfect. Punk here full time is incredible. AEW is so on fire, with so much exciting happenings going on. Love to see it. So much to enjoy for us fans. Tag opener was good stuff with the awesome ending of Kassidy's sell of the tornado DDT and then the Jurassic Express killer double team finish. Sad to see Kiera squashed in 1 minute even though it was inevitable, but I hope she ends up doing more in AEW. Moxley/Garcia was a good short bout. Moxley's entrance another great one. Perfect 1 hour show with the moment of the year. Looking forward to this next chapter

I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said. When it's done right, pro wrestling is so much fucking fun. What a time to be a fan.

It happened a little earlier for me, when they showed that fan in the front row just losing his mind. "Oh my god, oh my god, he's here" or whatever. I'm not even like a CM Punk superfan. I mean, I like him okay. But this whole thing is just so cathartic.

I can't believe it's real. I'm just so glad they had him go out first because no way could the fans contain themselves throughout if he closed the show. I'm trying to think of what to say but fuck it. I'm so goddamn happy and this is one of those nights that we'll never, ever forget. Hold onto your butts, we're in for a wild ride.

I’m glad they didn’t get cute with it. Just put the guy that they all came to see out there and let him talk.

i love how Mox still feels like a huge deal even after takin a couple L's. Part of that is the entrance/theme song. Part of it is no 50/50 booking crap. Part of it are his promos. AEW has some little minor flaws at times but for the most part they just fucking get it..

It’s one of the reasons the crowds never shit on the show, because AEW has continuously delivered and created good will with them. I think the only time I ever heard any crowd backlash was the deathmatch explosion fiasco, but even that they all joked about it and moved on. AEW loves it’s fans and the fans love AEW, what a crazy concept. PWG fans have always been the same too where they go along with everything because they know the company will never fuck them over.

Looking around the internet, it says a lot that so many people were convinced that tonight's announcement was going to be anything less than it was. The last twenty years of mainstream US professional wrestling must have been exceedingly depressing to have anybody convinced that Punk wasn't gonna show or that he wasn't really gonna commit to the part. And it has been. I know there's been breaks in the clouds but I don't really think we realize what the "monopoly years" have done to the psyche of the average wrestling fan. People in their late-twenties and younger grew up knowing nothing BUT a pro-wrestling scene dominated by a single corporate entity and the well-intentioned failures that couldn't break through. We're out of the woods. I don't know if I even realize the implications of it all. But, oh my God, we're really there.

Wrestling gives you a happy face when the show you’re watching doesn't let the fanbase down.

You don't get moments like that in wrestling very often. A moment where it all comes together and millions of people around the world get to feel the same, good thing, and it's big and dramatic and important and honest. I feel no need analyze or contextualize or fantasize about events to come, CM Punk stood inside a wrestling ring and said what he had to say. He's back where he belongs and everything is better for it. We're fortunate.

Massive pop. Probably the loudest i've heard in a decade. Great promo.. great scene... and a nice touch to have Darby and Sting lookin on from the rafters. Everything about it was perfect.

did any of us in our wildest dreams think AEW would be this far along.. this quickly? Amazing rise..

(Stolen from twitter)

It took WWE like eight years and a fucking heel turn to make people care about Roman Reigns as a main eventer, I don't even know why we're having this conversation.

I believe the kids would say that Dictionary.com chose violence today

"Deep Dish" Adam Scherr just might be the best new name in wrestlng.

Him coming out to cult of personality and mocking the fact that the fans fell for it would be epic levels of heat. I would want to see CM Punk vs MJF more than MJF and Sammy, or punk-allin. I say pull the trigger on that match and that would be worth the price of admission alone at All Out. "You think you're better than the Best in the World?"

“And that’s when I took it personal.” ~ M. Jordan

Clearly the unfinished business Punk alluded to.

Don't forget about Wight vs QT ?

You know being the bitter and jaded person I am, a part of me thought this was all one big trolling effort especially by Punk on social media. I'm so glad I was wrong. God, that was something special indeed.

My favourite part of CM Punk's promo.

It's clobberin' time!

Not bad for a T-shirt company. By the way when was the last time a weekly ONE hour wrestling show had this much hype?

One man did (that pic kills me every time)

If everything is niche, then nothing is niche.

Middle fingers and being a lone wolf is not really exclusively copied by a Jon Moxley though. That's more of the alt/anti-authority/rebellion culture you got in the wake of like Raven in ECW or some of the other characters in ECW in the mid to late 90s. Austin just made it wildly popular because he put a extremely creative spin on it by making it more a Southern rebel thing. Go back to like late 96 to maybe midway through 97, when Austin was still trying to find his character and ending every sentence awkwardly with "son". I think the watershed moment for Steve was at IYH: Ground Zero when he stunned JR. When he goes, "LETMETELLYABOUT.." in the mic like he's coming out of a goddam school intercom (also helps Louisville Gardens is a small venue with terrible acoustics) and it's KICK-WHAM-STUNNER, you wanna replay the shit 100 times. A 100 times minimum. That's energy you cannot replicate, and I think most guys aren't foolish to even try to do that. If anything, Mox is basically All American Onita.

I was fine in the morning but when coming back on from lunch it's been the same with me. The closer it gets the more the anticipation intensifies. Also I know Natural tends to do this but want so spare a thought for @Craig H. Congrats in advance to him for having another little one but I feel for him having to not do Rampage as a result. But his priorities are in the right place. I don't know if he'd be interested or have a chance but there's always the other Chicago shows leading up to All Out.