The ‘Real World Championship’ will be on the line on Collision.
Headlining the August 5th episode of AEW Collision will be CM Punk defending the ‘real’ AEW World Championship against Ricky Starks. The special enforcer for the bout will be former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat.
Ahead of the matchup, Punk was interviewed by Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and he heaped praise onto his opponent for Saturday night. He feels Collision is the perfect fit for Starks and him being in this position is just recognizing how good Ricky is and giving him a shot.
It’s recognizing how good Ricky is and giving him a shot. That’s what Collision is at the end of the day — a lot of people that didn’t get the right chance on Dynamite, we do things a little different on Collision. It’s a perfect fit for a guy like Ricky, and so far, I think he’s stepped up to the plate and knocked everything out of the park.
Collision will be going head-to-head with WWE SummerSlam. Punk says they’re not competing with the Premium Live Event. He added that Collision has already been up against big UFC cards, they’ll be up against college football soon but all they’re focused on is competing with what was done the previous Saturday on TNT.
We are not competing with SummerSlam. We are going to go up against college football soon. We have already been up against monster UFC cards every single Saturday. We are not competing with them. We are competing with what we did last Saturday. I am competing with who I was yesterday as a human being and a pro wrestler, and we, as the Collision team, are competing with what we did last Saturday. That’s always going to be what we are striving to do, and I think that’s an important message for the fans to understand.
Earlier this year, Steamboat revealed that he was asked to join AEW, but he was not interested in being on the road.
