After months of speculation and rumors, AEW has officially announced the launch of its second two-hour show, AEW Collision. The new show was announced during the Warner Bros. Discovery 2023 Upfront presentation. With its launch, it created a great buzz in the wrestling world. It also cleared the air on CM Punk’s return to AEW.
AEW Collision will air on Saturdays, with the premiere episode on June 17th on TNT. The company hasn’t announced the venue of the episode yet. But rumors have been surfacing for months that AEW will be going to Chicago for the first episode of the new show. It is obvious that fans started questioning the status of the hometown hero, CM Punk, for AEW Collision.
Recent reports shed light on the status of CM Punk’s appearance on AEW programming. Conor Casey from ComicBook.com reported that “CM Punk is not affiliated with TNT’s AEW Collision.”. This might be because the network is also playing along to keep the return of CM Punk a secret ahead of the new show.
But it’s still unclear where things stand between Punk and The Elite in terms of settling things after the brawl at AEW backstage. Some sources also state that it was Punk who suggested not associating his name with the announcement of Collision. The former WWE superstar could be secretly planning to return to the new show.
Collision will air on June 17th, and the first episode will air from Chicago. AEW selected the United Center for the return of the Second City Saint and the show will be titled “The Second Coming.” It will be interesting to see what Tony Khan has in mind for Collision and CM Punk with just one month left for the premiere.
Related: “He’s a huge draw” – Legendary referee believes AEW needs to bring back CM Punk right away
Reasons behind CM Punk’s absence from AEW Collision
It was previously reported that CM Punk was included in the internal list of Collision’s roster that was in the company promotional material. The list of stars that AEW initially featured on the show was CM Punk, Thunder Rosa, Miro, and many others. But the company later dropped Punk’s name from the list as the final material went out for promotion.
The reports from PWInsider stated that AEW and CM Punk could not reach a common point. Punk wanted Ace Steel to return to AEW Backstage along with him when he returns. But, the management in AEW did not want Steel to be present there during the shows looking at past experiences. Steel has been away from the company since the fallout from the backstage fights that took place after All Out 2022.
This was the show when CM Punk last appeared on AEW Programming. Because of this disagreement, AEW removed CM Punk’s name from the announcements of the new show, Collision. Fans are now eagerly looking forward to getting any possible news regarding CM Punk and AEW mending fences and working together again.
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