AEW Saturday Collision is now official.
AEW announced today that Saturday Collision will premiere on Saturday, June 17 at 8pm ET via TNT. The show was unveiled by Kathleen Finch, Chairwoman & Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s US Networks Group, during their 2023 Upfronts presentation from The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The live, two-hour in-ring Collision show will air every Saturday night from 8-10pm on TNT. AEW touted the following wrestlers as the headliners: Miro, ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe, Thunder Rosa, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Andrade El Idolo. Others featured on promotional material seen below include AEW World Champion MJF, AEW World Trios Champions The House of Black, AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR, and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, which is in line with today’s report, seen below, that said champions will be featured on both shows despite the now-planned hard roster split.
AEW President, CEO, General Manager & Head of Creative Tony Khan commented on the new show.
“With the addition of ‘AEW: Collision’ on TNT, I’m extremely proud that a Turner network will be the home of Saturday night wrestling for the first time in more than two decades,” Khan said in today’s press release. “The debut of ‘Collision’ is significant across numerous sectors including television, wrestling, entertainment and sports, and reinforces AEW as the bold property we envisioned when we launched in 2019. ‘Collision’ will deliver live every Saturday night more of what fans and viewers tell us they want – athleticism, big personalities, exciting storylines and hard-hitting wrestling action, all of which have become synonymous with AEW.”
You can see the Collision logo above, which is inspired by WCW Nitro. While not confirmed by AEW as of this writing, the premiere is expected to air live from the United Center in Chicago. The first episode will reportedly be titled “The Second Coming,” which is related to the premiere episode of AEW Rampage on August 21, 2021, which was billed as “The First Dance” for CM Punk’s AEW debut. The Rampage premiere also took place at the United Center in Punk’s hometown.
While Punk’s return has not been announced as of this writing, you can click here for the latest on Punk and AEW, the AEW brand split, and more. For those who missed them, you can click here for a previous report on Collision plans, AEW brand split rumors, and more, or you can click here for a report on AEW possibly reigniting a historic pro wrestling feud for Collision.
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode will feature a follow-up to the Collision announcement, as promised last week by Khan, which you can see at this link.
Below is the full press release issued to us today, which includes comments from Jason Sarlanis, President of Linear & Streaming at Turner Networks, ID and HLN.
TNT LAUNCHES A SECOND NIGHT OF WRESTLING WITH “AEW: COLLISION” FEATURING HEADLINERS THUNDER ROSA, MIRO, SAMOA JOE, POWERHOUSE HOBBS AND ANDRADE EL IDOLO ON SATURDAY, JUNE 17
NEW YORK (May 17, 2023) – TNT launches a second night of professional wrestling with a new tentpole series, “AEW: Collision” on Saturday, June 17, it was announced today by Kathleen Finch, Chairman and Chief Content Officer, US Networks Group, Warner Bros. Discovery, during the company’s 2023 Upfront presentation at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This live, two-hour, in-ring show will air every Saturday night from 8-10 p.m. ET and feature more wrestlers, more stories and more action to super-serve fans. “AEW: Collision” will feature headliners including Miro, Samoa Joe, Thunder Rosa, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Andrade El Idolo.
In only four years following the launch of “AEW: Dynamite,” AEW’s footprint has more than doubled across TNT and TBS. Along with “AEW: Dynamite,” Friday night’s “AEW: Rampage,” the recent follow-doc “AEW: All Access,” and now “AEW: Collision,” TNT and TBS deliver the best matches and most entertaining moments in professional wrestling today. AEW has reached 23M total viewers so far this year across all of its shows on TBS and TNT.*
“We’re doubling-down on wrestling with ‘AEW: Collision,’ which gives fans two more hours every week,” said Jason Sarlanis, President, Turner Networks, ID and HLN, linear & streaming. “AEW’s roster of talent has expanded so quickly that we felt it needed another night to bring our audience the epic rivalries, unforgettable matches and stars they love to watch. Adding ‘Collision’ to our programming mix on TNT will allow us to satisfy the massive demand we’ve felt from our hardcore fanbase and be the ultimate complement to ‘AEW: Dynamite’ on TBS.”
“With the addition of ‘AEW: Collision’ on TNT, I’m extremely proud that a Turner network will be the home of Saturday night wrestling for the first time in more than two decades,” said Tony Khan, CEO, GM and Head of Creative of AEW. “The debut of ‘Collision’ is significant across numerous sectors including television, wrestling, entertainment and sports, and reinforces AEW as the bold property we envisioned when we launched in 2019. ‘Collision’ will deliver live every Saturday night more of what fans and viewers tell us they want – athleticism, big personalities, exciting storylines and hard-hitting wrestling action, all of which have become synonymous with AEW.”
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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