10 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Collision (June 24)

CM Punk and Jay White again butt heads in another stellar outing for AEW Collision.

by Andrew Pollard
AEW Collision CM Punk Jay White
AEW

After a hugely impressive debut last week, AEW Collision is back for its second outing. Once again complete with CM Punk centre-stage, this sophomore offering had plenty of promise on paper, but how much did it deliver the goods in practice?

Much like last week, Punk found himself in the main event here, teaming with FTR and Ricky Starks to battle Jay White, Juice Robinson and the Gunns. Elsewhere, Christian Cage presented himself as the TNT Champion, Andrade El Idolo's burgeoning war with House of Black nicely ticked on, Tetsuya Naito was revealed as Sting and Darby Allin's partner for Forbidden Door, the Owen Hart Cup continued to shape up, and there was some slight character developments for Miro, Powerhouse Hobbs and the long-missed Scorpio Sky.

So, which elements of Collision knocked it out of the park, and which parts just ultimately fell flat? For the most part, it was another successful night for AEW's Saturday show, with Forbidden Door looming large on the imminent horizon. Still, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Collision, for there were a few missteps amongst the string of positives to come out of this episode.

Saturday night's alright for fighting, indeed...

Advertisement
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.