AEW Star Believes Roster Split Creates ‘Healthy Competition’

AEW

The landscape of All Elite Wrestling is set to change next month, with the official announcement of AEW Collision.

The new Saturday night show is set to launch on June 17, and will reportedly feature a ‘harder’ brand split than first initially thought.

The promotional artwork for Collision features several top AEW stars who are speculated to be the top stars of the brand, including FTR, Samoa Joe, Miro and Andrade.

AEW’s Matt Hardy spoke about Collision on his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, where he said the move is great news for the company as it helps find a space for more talent on the roster.

He said:

“I mean, it’s great news for AEW, obviously, because it’s going to equate to a bigger income and bigger television rights, which is going to help out the company and going to help the company grow.

“Also, the company has such a large roster. It’s hard to put everyone on Dynamite and Rampage, so these extra two hours are going to help all the talent find a place on the television show. I think that’s one of the biggest benefits of it by far.”

Hardy continued on, noting how he believes the split will help create healthy competition within AEW itself, as well as increase general excitement around the shows.

He said:

“My gut feeling tells me it’s going to add to the excitement, because I think it’s going to be two pretty different rosters. The shows are going to look differently. So I think we could get to a deal where the shows are going to almost compete against one another.

“I think there’s times where when Raw and SmackDown seem very different, and you’re like, “Oh s**t, SmackDown is better than Raw,’ or ‘Raw is better than SmackDown.’ I think that kind of motivates everyone to work a little harder and be a little better. I think that goes from the in-ring wrestlers to the people behind creative and the people booking the show and whatnot. So hopefully, we have that effect from Dynamite and Collision.”

Matt recently took part in the ‘Firm Deletion’ on AEW Rampage, with him and Jeff set to speak on tomorrow night’s episode of AEW Rampage.

Here are the results from the May 17 episode of AEW Dynamite:

Christian Cage and Luchasaurus attacked TNT Champion Wardlow with a ladder, setting up Cage vs Wardlow in a ladder match at Double Or Nothing

Darby Allin & Orange Cassidy def. Big Bill & Lee Moriarty

Sammy Guevara def. Exodus Prime

Karen Jarrett appeared and helped Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt attack FTR

Toni Storm & Ruby Soho def. Hikaru Shida & Britt Baker

The 21-man Blackjack Battle Royal at Double Or Nothing for Orange Cassidy’s International Championship was announced

Tony Khan announced upcoming dates and locations for AEW Collision, but said the location of the premiere would be revealed next week

Roderick Strong def. Chris Jericho in a Falls Count Anywhere match thanks to help from Adam Cole

Jack Perry def. Rush

Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara ran out to help Perry when he was being attacked by Le Faccion Ingobernables

Jay White def. Ricky Starks via DQ when Starks used a steel chair that had been introduced by White’s partner Juice Robinson

Don Callis came to address turning on Kenny Omega, which turned into a big brawl between the Blackpool Combat Club and The Elite, including Adam Page returning and rejoining The Elite and setting up an Anarchy in the Arena match for Double Or Nothing

transcription via Fightful

If you want to stay fully updated on all the latest wrestling news, click the red bell in the bottom right of your screen to receive notifications from WrestleTalk.com straight to your device!

• Collision
• Brand Split
• Matt Hardy
• AEW

Share this article with friends