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

2. Addressing The Elephant In The Room

AEW Collision CM Punk
AEW

If Collision was a WWE show, one of two things would've happened during the main event. Either the commentary team would've spouted lines about Bizarro Land, or the negative reaction to CM Punk would've been completely ignored by those calling the action.

What AEW did, though, was have Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness address the elephant in the room.

To be fair, AEW has never shied away from listening to its audience, and this was yet another example of this. In WWE, the company has its own narrative it forever wants to deliver, which in turn means they at times will blindly ignore the response of their crowds if said fans aren't reacting in the desired way. Thankfully, AEW is a very different beast when it comes to this topic.

AEW would've looked utterly foolish if it didn't acknowledge that CM Punk received a hugely split opinion from those at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena. Likewise, Punk himself did a great job in playing into the boos and negative sentiment being rained down upon him by certain sections of the Scotiabank crowd.

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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 dayjob, 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.