What the AEW Show Cancellations Reportedly Mean for Ring of Honor, Future AEW Shows
AEW's weekly programming is getting a bit of an overhaul in the near future. After Fite TV indicated AEW Dark: Elevation was ending its three-year run last week, news broke on Wednesday via Andrew Zarian that AEW Dark would be ending "for the time being as well. Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp confirmed Dark's cancellation as well, while also noting, "Those that we spoke to indicated that almost all AEW programming would be appearing on (Warner Bros. Discovery) platforms moving forward."
While never reaching beyond YouTube, Dark and Dark: Elevation served a couple of purposes for the young promotion. Tapings of the latter would typically open Wednesday live shows ahead of AEW Dynamite going on the air, both gave less-experienced AEW wrestlers the chance to get more in-ring reps and it provided an opening for independent wrestlers to try out in front of AEW officials. That now will seemingly be moved to the Ring of Honor promotion.
"We're told that talent being looked at will still get opportunities, it will just more than likely be on the Ring of Honor brand. To the best of our knowledge, ROH broadcasts are not a part of this new, altered deal," Sapp added.
It's been widely reported for over a month that AEW is looking to launch a new weekly show, AEW Collision, on Saturday nights this summer and Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to announce that show at their upfronts presentation later this month. AEW's latest trademark filings from April 28 all but confirm the existence of AEW Collision.
The filing read — "Mark For: COLLISION trademark registration is intended to cover the categories of entertainment services in the nature of live wrestling performances; Entertainment services in the nature of production of wrestling programs and events; Entertainment services, namely, an ongoing multimedia program featuring wrestling distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; Entertainment services, namely, production and distribution of ongoing television programs in the field of wrestling."