AEW’s Tony Schiavone recently discussed CM Punk’s AEW debut on Rampage during a recent episode of his “What Happened When” podcast. Below are a few notes from the show:
* In the lead-up to Punk’s debut on Rampage, Khan would never say Punk was actually going to be there by name. During the pre-show meeting on the Thursday before Rampage, Punk was referred to as a “special guest” when everyone was going over the format. Punk’s locker room also had “special guest” on the door, not his name
* The original plan was for Schiavone to introduce Punk before Punk made his entrance at the United Center. This was changed to Punk not being introduced and Schiavone interviewing him on Dynamite. Schiavone told Tony Khan that if he were to introduce Punk, they’d have to really discuss it because his introduction should be minimal. The format sheet that they went over the day before Rampage said “Tony Schiavone introduces special guest” so this was still the plan up until the last minute
* The only thing Punk was instructed on saying was to mention Darby Allin to set up their All Out match. Punk came up with the rest of the Rampage promo
* Schiavone was sitting next to Khan backstage during the Punk segment. When Punk made his entrance, everyone in the locker room gathered around the “go” position, including AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks, and everyone else as they all wanted to see what Punk did. AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker was beside herself over Punk mentioning her name
* After Rampage, around 11:30pm or midnight, a large group went to dinner. The group consisted of Punk and his entourage, Schiavone, Khan and his girlfriend, Baker, Rebel, Jeff Jones, and others. Schiavone got back to his hotel room around 2:30am and at that point he decided to stay up because he had to be up at 3:30 for a 5am flight. Schiavone said for the first time in many years, he didn’t go to sleep that night and it was all worth it
(H/T to Reddit’s Holofan4life)
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