As we’ve been reporting here on eWn, AEW Collision will be premiering on June 17 on the TNT Network.
While AEW President Tony Khan announced five upcoming TV taping locations for the new show on last week’s episode of Dynamite, he failed to mention the venue and location for the debut episode on June 17th. That announcement will be coming next week instead.
While the original plan was to hold the taping at the United Center in Chicago, IL, it’s all going to depend on whether the company can agree to terms with CM Punk on a return. If a deal can’t be reached, there is talk of having the first episode of the show airing elsewhere. The company would likely run a smaller venue and it may not be in the Chicago market. This is due to some concern that the fans would “hijack” the show as they’d expect CM Punk to show up whether he’s advertised or not.
For those wondering, Punk and AEW have both been in contact since he was pulled from the Collision announcement. Those talks are ongoing and the hope is that something will be worked out soon.
In other news, there is talk within AEW that the International Championship was “leveled up” from the All-Atlantic name because Tony Khan wants it to be regularly defended on Collision. With that being said, the title is not expected to be exclusive to the Collision show.
