With minimal fuss and fanfare beyond dropping it earlier in the show to try and harness the buzz, Tony Khan used this week's big announcement to confirm that CM Punk would indeed be part of the debut edition of Collision.
It's been known news for weeks now obviously, but the need to say his name had increased over the last few weeks, not least to (hopefully) ensure the sale of all remaining tickets at the United Center and ideally boost some of the other figures for the Saturday show too.
After the Chicago destination drop drew one of the biggest pops of the week in Las Vegas, this latest news brought about a mixed response in San Diego. Expect this level of divisiveness for Punk going forward, which is probably exactly what AEW expected and will use. All roads at long last lead to June 17th and all the chaos that follows. Hopefully, Khan can park the "Huge Announcement" graphics for a while now too.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
