Tony Khan says CM Punk is ‘very important’ to AEW, ‘been a big draw’

Tony Khan believes his company has an “amazing opportunity” with a new Saturday night show about to launch on TNT. 

The AEW president was interviewed by Sports Illustrated and spoke about the multiple big events he has planned for the summer, including the debut episode of Collision featuring CM Punk’s return. 

“We haven’t seen CM Punk in a long time, since All Out last September,” says Khan. “He looked great in his last match. To the fans, he’s very important. He’s very important to the company, too. He’s been a big draw for us and historically throughout his career, and the launch of the new show happens to line up with the schedule on his rehab of his triceps injury.”

Khan also spoke about Warner Bros Discovery approaching AEW about developing more content, specifically a show on Saturday nights. 

He continued:

“We have an amazing opportunity with AEW on Saturday nights on TNT, starting June 17, and it was truly the brainchild of [Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and president] David Zaslav. He asked about more AEW, specifically Saturday nights, on TNT. When it was pitched to us by TNT, I was so excited. It’s so exciting the timing [of Punk’s return from injury] coincides with the launch of Collision.”

According to @WrestleTix, as of June 4, 8000 tickets have been distributed for the June 17 show in Chicago, 994 of which were distributed following Punk being announced for the show. The Dynamite scheduled for June 21 from Chicago’s Wintrust Arena has under 5000 tickets out. 

Our own Dave Meltzer addressed ticket sales for Collision last Friday in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. 

Meltzer wrote:

The announcement of Punk has not helped the other cities as much, as 6/24 in Toronto is only at 1,762, 6/29 in Hamilton, ONT, is at 730, 7/8 in Regina, SK, is at 1,325, 7/15 in Calgary is at 3,293 and 7/22 in Newark, NJ, is at 3,947. Newark is the New York metro area and that fan base has likely been aware of Punk for a couple of weeks. He absolutely means something in Chicago but by next week we’ll have a pretty good gauges to see what his name means in other places.

However, TSN’s Steve Argintaru argues other factors are impacting ticket sales in Toronto and Hamilton. 

No announcement has been made regarding if TSN, which airs Dynamite in Canada, will also air episodes of Collision. AEW Rampage is only broadcast on the TSN App and not on regular television. 

Just under 13,000 tickets have been distributed for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II on June 25 from Toronto’s ScotiaBank Arena. The show takes place the night after the second episode of Collision from the same venue. Khan says last year’s event was a challenge with several wrestlers being unavailable for the show but believes this year’s event has the potential to be the best show either company has ever produced.  

Khan said: 

“Last year’s Forbidden Door was a challenging time with a number of injuries and travel obstacles, and we were able to come together to put together the best event of the year in wrestling,” says Khan. “This year’s Forbidden Door will be the best event either company has ever participated in.”