AEW Rampage: The First Dance was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

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 ent ...

produced by

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

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

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

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and was broadcast on

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

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 and actor. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Jon Moxley. He also makes appearances for New Japan Pro-Wr ...

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 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

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 central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

Tony Khan Antony Rafiq Khan (born October 10, 1982) is an American businessman, promoter, and sports executive. He is known for his involvement in American football, professional wrestling and soccer. He is best known as the founder and co-owner of All E ...

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

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. 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 "concept" or "gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

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" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

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

Dark Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...

'' and ''

Elevation The elevation of a geographic 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 surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

'', and

The Young Bucks The Young Bucks are an American professional wrestling tag team and promoters, consisting of brothers Matthew and Nicholas Massie, who are known by their ring names Matt and Nick Jackson, respectively. They are signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

series ''

Being The Elite The Elite is a professional wrestling stable currently appearing in U.S. based Professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). As of December 2022, the line-up has consisted of Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) ...

''.

Event

Preliminary matches

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 Samuel Ratsch (born January 7, 1993), better known by the ring name Darby Allin, is an American professional wrestler signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a former and longest-reigning AEW TNT Champion. He is also known for his appe ...

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) is an American professional wrestler and television personality currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Luchasaurus, where he is a former AEW World Tag Team Cha ...

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

AEW World Tag Team Championship The AEW World Tag Team Championship is a 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 wrestlers ...

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 All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where she is the inaugural and current AEW TBS Champion. Her ongoing reign is the longest reign of any AEW championship at + day ...

faced

Kiera Hogan Kiera Hogan (born September 16, 1994) is an American professional wrestler currently working for 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 (wi ...

. 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 his ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Kingston started his wrestling career in 2002, and has wrestled for numerou ...

) 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. 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 W ...

'' 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 who reports on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Since 1983, he has been the publisher and editor of the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (''WON''). He has als ...

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 "Jim" Cornette (born September 17, 1961) is an American author and podcaster who has previously worked in the professional wrestling industry as an agent, booker, color commentator, manager, promoter, trainer, and occasional prof ...

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, 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 2020s in Chicago 2021 American television episodes 2021 in Illinois 2021 in professional wrestling August 2021 events in the United States Events in Chicago Professional wrestling in the Chicago metropolitan area