Chicago’s CM Punk makes history at AEW Double Or Nothing
(CM Punk thumbnail photo above courtesy All Elite Wrestling)
By Mike Pankow
May 31, 2022
Las Vegas may as well be CM Punk’s second home.
The Chicago native, who took a seven-plus-year hiatus and returned to pro wrestling last summer, made history in Sin City as he won the AEW World Championship from the wildly popular Hangman Adam Page in the main event of Double Or Nothing this past Sunday in AEW’s largest money-making event to date.
Punk became the first wrestler ever to hold world championships in Ring of Honor, WWE and AEW with the victory in front of a packed house at T-Mobile to cap off a near-five-hour pay-per-view extravaganza. Punk was last world champion in WWE when his historic 434-day reign ended against the legendary Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson at the Jan. 2013 Royal Rumble in Phoenix.
Hangman Adam Page blasts CM Punk in the face with a forearm shot during their AEW Championship bout at “Double Or Nothing” on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Punk won the match and the title. (Photo courtesy All Elite Wrestling)
The crowd was mixed for Punk and Page, arguably the two most popular wrestlers in AEW, though Jon Moxley also elicits high pops on a regular basis. Each wrestler tried each other’s signature moves during the match with Page attempting Punk’s GTS while Punk, in kind, tried to use the Buckshot lariat.
The match didn’t quite reach epic territory, but it was a really good match with great psychology and storytelling. A tired Punk finally pulled out the victory after about 25 minutes with the GTS to a roar of approval. After the show went off the air, Punk soaked in the adulation of the fans and FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) came out to celebrate with the new world champion.
AEW President Tony Khan, a 2007 graduate of the University of Illinois, was giddy during the post-show media scrum about the success of his company since Punk came aboard in August 2021.
“I can tell you, no one wrestler has ever come in and made a bigger plus delta financial difference in the history of my company going into the third year anniversary, no one person has ever made a more positive impact,” Khan said. “We just did a record pay-per-view buy, every pay-per-view, he’s done a four pay-per-view cycle now, every one of them was the record. Whether it was All Out, where he was huge part of the draw with Darby (Allin), his debut was a huge thing with the First Dance (at the United Center), the biggest Rampage draw in the history of that show.”
Punk was elated to return to world championship status, but he said that AEW’s success isn’t a one-man show.
“This is the onward and upward trajectory that AEW has been on for three years,” Punk said. “You can say with the addition of me, we’re doing better, but I look at it as like, with the addition of Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole and all the talent that Tony brings in every day is a step forward. it doesn’t necessarily start with me being champion. To me, it’s a team effort. I like to say, if you want to go fast, you go alone. if you want to go far, you go together. This is very much a team effort and a team environment backstage. I couldn’t do this alone.”
Punk experienced another seminal moment in his career in Las Vegas, where back in June 2011, he delivered what became to be known as the “Pipebomb” promo to close out a WWE Raw event at the Thomas and Mack Center. The worked shoot soliloquy became memorable for ripping WWE, Vince McMahon, The Rock and Hulk Hogan and Punk even name dropped ROH, New Japan Pro Wrestling and Colt Cabana on WWE television.
AEW President Tony Khan proclaimed CM Punk as his company’s top box-office draw during a post-show media scrum Sunday night. (File photo by Mike Pankow/Windy City Slam)
Punk’s championship victory was the only match that featured a title changing hands as AEW Tag Team Champions Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus), AEW Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa and AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill all retained. Scorpio Sky’s TNT Championship was not at stake as he participated in a six-person tag team match with Ethan Page and UFC fighter Paige VanZant and they defeated Frankie Kazarian, Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti.
The real-life couple of Adam Cole and Dr. Britt Baker winning their respective Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Championship matches. Cole, the former NXT Champion, defeated Samoa Joe, while Baker defeated Ruby Soho. Dr. Martha Hart, the widow of the legendary Owen Hart, presented Cole and Baker with brand-new belts to commemorate their victories.
In a crazy Anarchy In The Arena match, the Jericho Appreciation Society defeated the team of Bryan Danielson, Moxley, Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz. There were brawls all over the arena, in the crowd and on a freight elevator with plenty of blood spilled and the ring sustaining damage as the top rope was dismantled. Jericho and Jake Hager double-teamed Danielson to get the victory for their team.
Another highlight of the show was the opening match between Wardlow and his former employer, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Controversy followed MJF all weekend when there were reports of him no-showing an AEW meet and greet and it appeared that he was booked for a flight leaving Las Vegas to skip out on Double or Nothing. MJF showed up and did the honors for the hulking Wardlow, who hit 10 powerbombs before pinning the brash Long Island native. During the AEW post-show media scrum, President Tony Khan declined to comment on MJF, who reportedly left the arena immediately following his match.
Listen to Ep. 121 of Windy City Slam Podcast, which includes an audio recap of AEW Double or Nothing: https://bit.ly/3PVdc7k.
Catch Windy City Slam editor Mike Pankow talking local and national pro wrestling every week with Chicago-area wrestling guests on Windy City Slam Podcast, part of the Broadcast Basement On-Demand Radio Network. Episodes drop early Tuesday morning wherever you download podcasts or at https://windycityslam.podbean.com/.
We are looking for guests to appear on future episodes of the Windy City Slam Podcast! Please contact Mike at mikepankow@windycityslam.com, message him on Facebook or DM him on Twitter.
