AEW ‘Collision’ Roanoke update: Three title matches on Saturday night show

AEW has announced three matches for its “Collision” live TV broadcast event emanating from the Berglund Center in Roanoke on Saturday night.

What they’re giving us, honestly, not bad for the card of the promotion’s “B” show.

• ROH World Championship: Bandido (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata
• AEW TBS Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs. Harley Cameron
• AEW National Championship: Mark Davis (c) vs. Mike Bailey

We’re only two weeks out from the next AEW pay-per-view, “Redemption,” which is scheduled for Sunday, July 26, broadcasting out of the Bell Centre in Montreal.

At this stage, all we know about that show is that Thekla will defend her AEW world title against former TBS champ Willow Nightingale, who won the title shot in a gauntlet match on last night’s “Dynamite.”

All eyes seem to be on the big PPV event of the summer, “All In,” scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 30, coming from Wembley Stadium in London.

The main event there has Will Ospreay challenging the new AEW world champ, Kenny Omega, who won the belt in the main event of last night’s “Dynamite.”

Injecting Omega, now a two-time AEW champ, into the mix has to be a move to try to boost lagging ticket sales for “All In,” which still hasn’t gotten to the 30,000 mark – WrestleTix, in a Wednesday update, had sales at 28,107, against a setup for 37,182 seats.

For context there, the 2023 “All In” at Wembley drew 72,265 paid, and the 2024 London show drew 46,476.

I bring all of that up to speculate about what story angles for both “Redemption” and “All In” that we may see advanced at our Roanoke show this weekend.

One thing I’m keeping an eye on: a possible return from “Hangman” Adam Page, a Virginia Tech alum and an alum of the training school run by wrestling legend Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant in Shawsville, which is 30 miles down the road from the Berglund Center.

Page has been off TV since dropping the AEW world title to MJF at the March 15 “Revolution” PPV.

It might make more sense to bring Page back on a “Dynamite,” just because “Dynamite” generally gets in the range of 250,000 to 300,000 more TV viewers each week, but then, having his return be a nod to the hometown fans can make sense, too.