The initial reaction wrestling fans online had to Tony Khan’s announcement that AEW All Out is returning to the greater Chicago area this year was expressed by both Cagesiders who shared the news in The Feed today (July 6, 2026). Essentially, it’s “why does TK keeping running the same towns?”
In addition to that Sat., Sept. 26 event, the question can also be applied to today’s announcement of Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor PPV for Philadelphia on Fri., Aug. 21. As GM05 did:
All Out has been
held in Hoffman Estates, Illinois all but twice in AEW’s existence 2020’s pandemic era show and last year’s in Toronto. That includes 2022 edition that was followed by CM Punk’s media scrum pipe bomb and the Brawl Out fight that included Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Ace Steel.
But that’s not the reason we mentioned Punk when this announcement first hit in the Cageside “offices” (it’s not solely “for clicks”, either*). The logo for All Out 2026 is based on the Chicago flag, but for modern wrestling fans the blue bars and red stars are almost exclusively associated with Punk. And there have been whispers that Second City Saint may not be happy at WWE, and even speculation about the superstar who famously called AEW “not a real business” possibly returning there.
That speculation could all end tonight if Punk returns to WWE at Raw in Chicago (Rosemont, actually) as many believe he will. So might as well work the sickos up a bit before that happens.
What did you think when you heard All Out ‘26 was headed back to Chicagoland?
* Not because we’re above that. As Geno says, everything we post is bait for your click. It’s because it’s not good strategy. Yuo probably don’t keep up with Google news as closely as we do, but one look at your search results should tell you “clickbait” doesn’t work the way it used to.
