The seven-year wait is over: CM Punk will finally return to a wrestling ring Sunday at All Elite Wrestling's All Out pay-per-view. AEW All Out 2021 Live Stream: How to Watch on B/R, PPV Schedule and Early Preview. Punk's one-on-one dream match against Darby Allin heads up a stacked card for the fledgling wrestling company, which is in the midst of its strongest mainstream run of attention over the last month.
The AEW debut of Punk, which had been teased but not confirmed for several weeks before he finally made his arrival earlier this month, led to a massive ratings swell for Dynamite and the new Friday show, Rampage.
All Out is AEW's attempt to capitalize on that attention by getting you to shell out $50 of your hard-earned money for what's shaping up to be the most important pay-per-view in company history.
Here's a look at the card for Sunday's event.
AEW All Out PPV Information
When: Sunday, Sept. 5, at 8 p.m. ET (Buy-In preshow begins at 7 p.m. ET)
How to Watch: Bleacher Report (Available to purchase now on web, our mobile apps, and supported Roku devices. More connected platforms will be available this week.)
Purchasing is not currently supported on Amazon Fire TV devices. In order to stream AEW on your Amazon Fire, please first purchase the event on bleacherreport. Once purchased, you can return to Fire TV to view the All Out event.
AEW All Out 2021 Card
AEW Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Christian Cage
Prediction: Omega
AEW Women's Championship: Britt Baker D.M.D. vs. Kris Statlander
Prediction: Baker
AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (c) vs. Lucha Bros (in a steel cage)
Prediction: Lucha Bros
AEW TNT Championship: Miro (c) vs. Eddie Kingston
Prediction: Miro
CM Punk vs. Darby Allin
Prediction: Punk
MJF vs. Chris Jericho (Jericho will put career on the line)
Prediction: MJF
Pac vs. Andrade El Idolo
Prediction: Andrade
Paul Wight vs. QT Marshall
Prediction: Wight
Jon Moxley vs. Satoshji Kojima
Prediction: Moxley
Women's Casino Battle Royale
Prediction: Thunder Rosa
All Out 2021 Preview
How Will CM Punk Look in His In-Ring Return?
If AEW had any concerns about how CM Punk's potential ring rust, it picked a perfect sparring partner in Darby Allin. There may be no one in wrestling right now period who is better at selling and more willing to go all out—pun not intended—to put his body on the line to make his opponent look incredible.
I mean, Darby got thrown down some stairs to put over Ethan Page. Now, Ethan Page is a fine wrestler and does some pretty solid mic work—he's also nowhere near the stratosphere of Punk.
Allin is going to throw caution to the wind to put Punk over, and the match will deliver even if the 42-year-old Phil Brooks doesn't quite go like he could a decade ago. I expect this to be among the shorter matches on the card, full of high-octane offense and Punk going over clean.
It'll just be interesting to see how much the adrenaline of returning impacts the in-ring product.
Will MJF Actually Retire Jericho?
This has been the logical conclusion of the MJF-Jericho storyline since the beginning, even if it took a little longer than most of us expected to get to this point.
While most career matches give away the ending—like, of course a wrestling company isn't going to retire one of its most noteworthy acts—this one feels different. It's worth noting that the build includes the caveat that Jericho's in-ring career is over only in AEW. He could theoretically continue working in New Japan Pro-Wrestling on a limited schedule while transitioning to the broadcast booth on Rampage.
From an AEW perspective, Jericho has done everything he's set out to do. He was the company's first champion as it was trying to make its mark, and now it's in a period of seemingly exponential growth.
The Inner Circle stable hasn't been seen all together on television in several weeks after being the most prominent part of programming for over a year, and the most "over" part of Jericho's act at this point is his theme song. People can sing along to Judas just fine when he comes out before the broadcasts for commentary.
There is a legitimate chance that Jericho wants to give the rub of "retiring" him to MJF, who is his heir apparent in every sense that possibly exists. Going 3-1 against Jericho but losing in the most important one-on-one match isn't satisfying from a booking perspective; going 4-0 and retiring a legend would cement MJF as one of AEW's true superstars and its second-biggest heel behind Kenny Omega.
Historical wrestling logic says Jericho wins, but the best story resides with the young king taking the throne. We'll see if AEW/Jericho is ready to pull the trigger.
Will Any Belt Change Hands?
It doesn't seem particularly likely looking at the card.
There's no way Christian Cage is going to unseat Omega as AEW champion. We can write that one down in Sharpie. They've been building Cage a ton for this match in order to make it seem plausible we'll see a title change, but the story here has always ended with Hangman Page being the one to take the belt from Omega.
Anything less would be insanely unsatisfying.
Baker-Statlander will be a great match, but Baker's still too soon in her championship reign to drop the title. She's by far the most over woman in that division and elevates everyone who gets in the ring with her; there are a lot more stories to tell for her with the belt around her waist.
Miro's vignettes might be the best thing currently going in AEW; his reign of terror with the TNT championship should go a long, long time until they're ready to put him in the AEW title picture. Kingston doesn't need a championship to stay over with the crowd, even if it would be nice to see him get a run at some point.
The most likely title change is in the tag team division, which might give us the match of the night with Young Bucks vs. Lucha Bros. Putting the Lucha Bros. in a steel cage is a recipe for absolute insanity in the best possible way. There will be at least one spot in this match that makes you want to drop-kick your television in excitement.
The Bucks have come to life as smarmy heels, but they've held the gold since last November. Let's put the belts on Lucha Bros. and see how many five-star matches they can put together in one reign.
AEW All Out 2021: Date, time, TV channel and live stream for CM Punk vs. Darby Allin
CM Punk makes his highly anticipated return to the ring on Sunday night.
Since he walked out of WWE in January 2014, pro wrestling fans wondered if CM Punk would ever return to the ring. At numerous wrestling shows, fans would chant his name and wanting their hero to return. However, it seemed the Chicago native put the wrestling business behind him as he started to do movies, write comic books, fight in the UFC, and become an MMA analyst.
People finally got their wish on August 20 from Punk's hometown on an episode of AEW Rampage when he had one of the biggest reactions in the history of the business that had the longest WWE champion in this generation in tears. During the segment, Punk announced he will be making his long-awaited return to the squared circle on Sunday when he takes on former TNT champion Darby Allin at AEW All Out from the NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill., right outside Chicago.
Other matches on the show include Kenny Omega defending the AEW Heavyweight title against Christian Cage, The Young Bucks putting the AEW Tag Team championships on the line against The Lucha Bros in a steel cage match. Also, Chris Jericho takes on MJF. If Jericho loses, then he can no longer wrestle in All Elite Wrestling. Top-to-bottom AEW All Out 2021 is a very deep show. But this show is all about the in-ring return of CM Punk after a seven-year hiatus.