After Dynamite went off the air, AEW kept the cameras rolling and taped matches and segments for the June 20 episode of AEW Collision. The taping included a big Owen Hart Foundation tournament result, a new Forbidden Door title match, and Tommaso Ciampa stepping right into Chris Jericho’s face.
Before the Collision taping, Steven Borden picked up a win over Gino Medina in a dark match. One of the bigger results of the night saw Maya World defeat Athena to advance to the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. That win now puts her across from Mercedes Mone at Forbidden Door. Things did not end clean after the bell, because Mercedes and Athena attacked her after the match. Tommaso Ciampa and Chris Jericho had a face-to-face in-ring interview during the taping. Ciampa challenged Jericho to a match at Beach Break, and Jericho accepted, setting up another major singles match for AEW’s summer schedule.
AEW also announced that Shota Umino will challenge PAC for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. Kris Statlander closed out another important result by defeating Mina Shirakawa to advance to the Survival of the Fittest match for the TBS Title. Ahead of his expected return to WWE programming, Punk appeared for UFC Rivals, and fans immediately noticed that he looked absolutely jacked. There is no confirmed date for when the promo was filmed, but based on Punk’s current look, it appears to be recent. UFC Rivals is set to air back-to-back episodes on Sunday, June 21, at 8 p.m. ET. Punk will be featured on the panel alongside Miesha Tate, Michael Bisping, and Ken Shamrock. As for his WWE return, nothing has been officially announced yet. However, Dave Meltzer noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE’s current plan has Punk returning on SmackDown. The idea appears to be tied to roster balance, with Raw already stacked with names like Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, The Usos, Jacob Fatu, Oba Femi, Logan Paul and Bron Breakker.
