AEW Monitoring Collision’s WWE Competition, Possible Schedule Changes – As noted, AEW’s weekly Collision will temporarily move from its usual Saturday night slot to Thursday, April 17, for a special Spring BreakThru edition. The show will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern time, marking a notable shift in AEW’s programming schedule.
This change comes as AEW looks to avoid head-to-head competition with WWE’s WrestleMania 41 Night One, which is set for Saturday, April 19. Rather than airing Collision on tape delay or at risk of losing viewership to WWE’s biggest event of the year, AEW opted for a live Thursday broadcast.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that AEW is closely monitoring its scheduling strategy and may continue shifting Collision episodes to different nights when major WWE events fall on Saturdays. One potential upcoming adjustment could occur during Memorial Day weekend, as Collision might move to Thursday to avoid direct competition with Saturday Night’s Main Event on NBC.
Bryan Alvarez first confirmed the schedule change, stating, “I do know that Thursday, April 17, it appears that the Spring BreakThru episode of Collision will be airing live Thursday, April 17, at eight Eastern, and so they are not going to be taping it Thursday and airing it on Saturday, airing it live on Thursday.”
Meltzer added, “I think the same thing is going to happen. I don’t know that this is a fact, but the week of Memorial Day weekend, I think that they are going to run, instead of going head to head with Saturday Night’s Main Event. I think that they’re going to run on Thursday. I know that they’re doing Detroit on Wednesday and Thursday. And the interesting thing here now, I have not been told that, but I was told that they are monitoring the situations when it comes to Saturdays with WWE major shows, in particular Saturday Night’s Main Event, because TBS doesn’t want to go against a wrestling show on NBC, understandably so, or TNT doesn’t. And perhaps pay-per-views as well. Obviously, they don’t want to go against WrestleMania.”
Looking ahead, there is speculation that AEW could permanently shift Collision to Thursday nights in the future. With 2024 marking the final year of TNT’s NBA television rights deal, AEW may have more flexibility in scheduling changes after this year. If the network sees value in moving Collision away from Saturday nights—especially when WWE’s schedule creates direct competition—this could become a more frequent adjustment or even a long-term shift.
AEW Monitoring Collision’s WWE Competition, Possible Schedule Changes
