Last week, on AEW Dynamite, Tony Khan made it official, CM Punk is headed back to AEW, and he will be doing so as part of their new show, Collision. AEW’s latest TNT property will air Saturday nights at 8 pm EST and is also set to feature top talents like ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, Miro, Thunder Rosa, and Andrade El Idolo.
Tomorrow night on Dynamite, Khan will return with his latest Collision announcement, this time in regard to the main event of the debut episode. Many are expecting Punk to be involved in the match in some fashion, and recent reports have indicated that the opponent could be Joe or Bullet Club Gold leader, Jay White.
While Khan has enjoyed four weeks in the spotlight with his Collision announcements, he has, overall, remained coy when it comes to directly commenting on The Second City Savior, his status with the company, and his upcoming return. There’s good reason for that, of course, as the last time Punk was seen in AEW, he was ripping into management during a scathing post-All Out media scrum, before getting into a legitimate backstage altercation with The Elite.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Khan finally broke his silence on the former AEW and WWE World Champion’s return to the promotion.
“We haven’t seen CM Punk in a long time, since All Out last September,” he said. “He looked great in his last match. To the fans, he’s very important. He’s very important to the company, too. He’s been a big draw for us and historically throughout his career, and the launch of the new show happens to line up with the schedule on his rehab of his triceps injury.
“We have an amazing opportunity with AEW on Saturday nights on TNT, starting June 17, and it was truly the brainchild of [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and president] David Zaslav. He asked about more AEW, specifically Saturday nights, on TNT. When it was pitched to us by TNT, I was so excited. It’s so exciting the timing [of Punk’s return from injury] coincides with the launch of Collision.”