TV Party Tonight!: AEW Collision (17th June 2023)

Yes, the time has come: AEW is launching its brand new 2 hour TV show for Saturday nights, Collision, and marking it with CM Punk’s return to the promotion after his catastrophic backstage shoot fight with the Elite following All Out 2022.

These are both big deals for the promotion. After Rampage started strong, it feels like it slid into being a B-show for the promotion, but Collision seems intended as another A-show, with a running time equal to Dynamite‘s and dedicated tapings (whereas Rampage always had to piggyback off Dynamite tapings, leading to slightly tired-out crowds). CM Punk is still undoubtedly the wrestler in the AEW roster whose name causes the most excitement among fans, even post-Brawl Out, and his presence on early episodes of Rampage was likely a contributing factor to those strong early days.

Tony Khan has clearly had to move heaven and earth and navigate a backstage minefield in order to get Punk back in the fold – and word is that his ESPN interview hyping Collision has already got some feathers ruffled again. Further rustling of jimmies may take place tonight, because we’re told that not only will he wrestle, but he’ll also be cutting a promo. A lot is riding on this – the success or otherwise of Collision will no doubt have a big impact on whatever new TV deal AEW is able to land in the next year or two – so let’s see if AEW is able to put its year of troubles behind it and put its best foot forward tonight.