8 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (19 August)
7. Short But Effective
The Golden Vampire is CM PUNK!!!
Watch #AEWCollision Fight For The Fallen LIVE on TNT!@SamoaJoe| @CMPunk pic.twitter.com/MXiTXIhjox
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) August 20, 2023
While it's commonplace for Samoa Joe to squash some poor fool in matter of minutes on AEW Collision - or any AEW or ROH programming, for that point - here the King of Television found himself up against the Golden Vampire.
Anyone with any mild familiarity with CM Punk will have immediately recognised this purported enhancement talent as being the Straight-Edge Superstar, and any suspicions were fully realised once the Golden Vampire immediately attacked Joe and hit a running knee in the corner.
The Golden Vampire would indeed unmask as CM Punk after hitting a slightly awkward GTS on the Samoan Submission Machine, before the Chicagoan would officially accept Joe's challenge for a Real Worlds Title match at All In.
Having been positioned as the face of Collision, this was the most minimal presence that CM Punk has had on an episode yet. It was brief, it did what it needed to do, and now we formally have these two rivals locking up in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium.