All Elite Wrestling will debut its new weekly program Collision on TNT on June 17, and several top stars have been featured in the promotional material including those who haven’t appeared on television in a while.
MJF, Samoa Joe, Thunder Rosa, Powerhouse Hobbs, Orange Cassidy, Andrade El Idolo, FTR, Miro, House Of Black, Scorpio Sky, Bryan Danielson, Hangman Page, and Jack Perry have all been featured in the promotional graphic.
On today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, it was reported that several of the aforementioned names were selected due to their positive working relationship with CM Punk.
Punk was previously rumored to make his AEW return on Collision but has not been featured yet. Dave Meltzer noted that Punk was indeed intended to be a part of yesterday’s Warner Bros. Discovery upfronts before something unexpected happened and disrupted those plans.
According to the report, Powerhouse Hobbs is set to be “one of the stars” of Collision. Hobbs and FTR were earmarked for the show due to their friendship with Punk. Samoa Joe was meant to be Punk’s first opponent following the latter’s AEW return.
In fact, Collision was very much intended to be “the CM Punk show” and the former AEW World Champion may have also asked for Andrade. It was noted that “everyone who has heat” or has problems with other talents were planned for Collision.
Both Andrade and Thunder Rosa are currently shelved due to injury. Rosa is dealing with back issues while Andrade recently underwent surgery to repair a torn pectoral that he suffered at All Out 2022 in September.