At long last, CM Punk has made his highly-anticipated return to professional wrestling, debuting for AEW on the August 20 episode of Rampage, subtitled ‘The First Dance’.The is the first time that CM Punk has appeared for a major wrestling promotion since his match at the Royal Rumble on January 27, 2014.While AEW never officially said that Punk would be debuting on the show, it was heavily teased and widely believed that Punk would be returning tonight.The show opened with CM Punk coming out to Cult of Personality, the iconic song he used during his time in WWE, with Punk addressing the crowd and later challenging Darby Allin to a match.CM Punk is going to be wrestling at All Out on September 5 against Allin, which many have speculated will be the main event of the show.Again, while unconfirmed, many people believe that AEW put off having Hangman Page challenge Kenny Omega for the AEW World Champion as they knew that Punk would be debuting and wrestling on the show.

This is undeniably a massive coup for AEW, with the promotion hoping to draw in several lapsed fans who turned away from wrestling due to the treatment of wrestlers like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.

AEW will be hoping for a huge bump in viewership for next week's episode of AEW Dynamite, which this week's show falling below the 1 million mark for the second consecutive week.

This is something that Tony Khan has even alluded to in a tweet yesterday, teasing that Punk's debut was "the most anticipated announcement in AEW history"

Speaking of Daniel Bryan, reports suggest that the former WWE Champion will also be debuting for AEW next month following the expiration of his WWE contract in May. Bryan is expected to debut on the big New York show on September 22.

You can watch every single episode of AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage in the US on TNT, or in many other international markets on FITE.