AEW President Tony Khan and his four EVP’s, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes, all flew to Chicago Sunday, taking Khan’s private jet. The news comes following rampant speculation that Daniel Bryan and Chicago native CM Punk will be joining AEW next month.
Sources told Haynes that Khan has been eyeing the United Center, home to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, for a potential AEW event later in the year. Haynes further revealed that its believed Khan and the EVP’s were at the United Center in order to film promos for a potential show. In 2019 AEW ran the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in the Chicago suburb Hoffman Estates at the NOW Arena, with Khan hoping to establish the show as an annual tradition for AEW.
AEW made two moves last week that point towards a potential United Center show. It was announced on last week’s AEW Dynamite that Tony Khan would have a major announcement for a new show this Wednesday at AEW Fight for the Fallen in North Carolina. It was also discovered that AEW had filed to trademark “The First Dance”, reported to be a play on The Last Dance documentary series that focused on the famous 1990’s Chicago Bulls squads and their star player Michael Jordan. Soon after, Punk himself took to Instagram to post the song “Sirius” by the Alan Parsons Project, the notable entrance song for the 90’s Bulls teams, leading to speculation “The First Dance” trademark related to him.
It is not yet known if there is any connection between the Punk rumors and Haynes’ report on the United Center. On today’s Wrestling Observer Radio however, Dave Meltzer stated that while he cannot confirm Punk has signed with AEW, there are signs that the deal is done and moves have been made within AEW that would only occur if Punk was joining the promotion.
