Will AEW Collision Be Different Than AEW Dynamite?
AEW Collision will premiere this Saturday on TNT, giving All Elite Wrestling its second two-hour weekly live show. Collision is far from AEW's first attempt at making additional programming on top of AEW Dynamite, whether it be YouTube exclusives (the now-defunct AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation), reality shows (Rhodes to the Top, AEW All Access) or the (typically pretaped) AEW Rampage on Friday nights. But while Rampage periodically finds critical success, it's never been able to have more of an identity than being a third hour of Dynamite with none of the advantages of a live show. In a new interview with POST Wrestling this week, Tony Khan emphasized that he wants Collision to have its own unique identity separate from the Wednesday night flagship show.
"I want to take some of the great things we've developed that are part of the working formula, but I also want to create a distinct show with a distinct identity, and I really believe we can do that with Collision and present a great wrestling show every Saturday night, starting this week," Khan said (h/t Fightful).
However, Khan also noted in an interview with Rasslin' that he doesn't plan on having a hard brand split between Collision and Dynamite. The card for this weekend's premiere is living proof of that as Wardlow, Toni Storm, Skye Blue, Ruby Soho and Willow Nightingale will all be on Collision after working this week's Dynamite.
"I am going to feature certain talent on certain shows, but I haven't drawn any hard lines or locked us into any kind of split of a roster," Khan said. "I think people are gonna be featured on certain shows, but I also think that gives us a great opportunity to showcase certain wrestlers on both Dynamite and Collision at certain times and certain stories that can cross the shows. I think the champions of AEW will be the champions on every show, and frankly, every promotion in the world. We're not shy about the AEW wrestlers going out and taking on the top stars, top competition from other companies."
"The roster we have is so strong, I believe we have so many great wrestlers, it's impossible to showcase them all in three hours of television," he added. "Now, it's a much better opportunity with five hours of television. Across five hours of television, we can really utilize the roster much more frequently and utilize our great wrestlers more than they've ever been used before, so I'm very excited."