8 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (19 August)

7. Short But Effective

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.

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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.