We’ve talked a lot about a lot of different elements of CM Punk’s return to pro wrestling at “The Last Dance” last Friday (Aug. 20) on AEW Rampage in Chicago.
One that I took for granted was just how well it played out on screen. Fans don’t usually comment on how a wrestling television show is produced and directed unless we don’t what shows up on our set or device (e.g. you’ll see some version of “Kevin Dunn is a menace” whenever a clip from a Raw match featuring 10 cuts per of second goes viral).
The presentation of Punk’s entrance at the United Center didn’t catch any flak. Why would it? The cameras captured the emotion in the building pretty perfectly, showing it on the faces of the fans in the building - including crying guy - and from the man himself. It was about as good a depiction of what it must have been like to be in the crowd as I can imagine, with the benefit of seeing close-up what Punk was experiencing.
AEW’s given us a look at how that particular sausage was made in the second half of their latest “Road To” video. It’s not something I’d want to see a lot of... the split screens and audio direction can be as jarring as a WWE camera whipping back and forth with every one of Sheamus’ Ten Beats of Bodhrán. But for a special occasion like Punk’s debut, I found it to be a fascinating watch.
This should be queued up to the work of the directors, production team & camera people, but if not, it starts at the 5:47 mark.
Also cool to watch the guys in the booth marking out just like many of us were.
Hats off for a great job, Team AEW on TNT. Hope y’all got an ice cream bar.