Report: WWE Expected To Retaliate Over AEW Collision
WWE will fight against AEW Collision
May 11, 2023
All Elite Wrestling look to have secured their future and the promotion are reportedly set to debut a new Saturday night show - Collision - from June 17 and the new series will air on TNT in the United States from 8 pm ET until 10 pm ET. CM Punk is reportedly scheduled to be the star of the new show, although he is currently planned to make appearances on Dynamite at points too.
When AEW Collision is officially announced, WWE will retaliate in some way, according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.
"What WWE's next move will be in retaliation will always be interesting, because there will be one. I just don't know what it is. I don't see WWE going and adding a Saturday night show. [AEW] will go against WWE pay-per-views many times a year. I would not be surprised to see NXT pay-per-views move to Saturdays," Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.
WWE and AEW have had a mixed relationship since All Elite Wrestling was founded in 2019. WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite initially went head-to-head on Wednesday nights for 18 months until WWE opted to move NXT to Tuesday nights after regularly losing in the ratings war to Tony Khan's promotion. Relations between the two companies then became less frosty, with Chris Jericho even appearing on Broken Skull Sessions, but that all changed once Triple H became WWE Chief Content Officer in July 2022.
WWE then allegedly reached out to AEW talent over returning to the company, otherwise known as contract tampering. WWE then scheduled an NXT premium live event for the same day as AEW All Out and have done something similar this year, with NXT Battleground set to go head-to-head with AEW Double or Nothing on May 28.
Tony Khan said earlier this year that WWE and AEW "hate each other."