AEW Mock Draft 2023: Fantasy Booking Round-by-Round Picks

All Elite Wrestling is headed toward new territory with the expected announcement of Collision, a brand-new, two-hour Saturday night show that will debut sometime this summer.

The introduction of the show would help provide an outlet for talent who have seen their television time limited and pushes stunted by the lack of opportunities on the company's flagship show, Dynamite.

With CM Punk expected back in a starring role for the show, and amid reports that there has been no progression in the hostilities between him and The Elite's Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks stemming from the backstage confrontation that occurred at last September's All Out pay-per-view, the expectation is that both sides will be kept apart.

Although a recent report from Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp no longer calls for a "hard roster split," it does create intrigue as to what a brand extension and two separate rosters may look like.

With that in mind, here is a fantasy booking look at what an AEW draft could be.

Round 1

Round 1 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Kenny Omega
  
• Collision selected CM Punk
  
• Dynamite selected The Young Bucks
  
• Collision selected Chris Jericho
  

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The first round of competition would understandably focus on the foundational pieces of Dynamite and Collision, with the most identifiable top stars going first.

The Elite makes up the flagship show, Dynamite, while CM Punk goes No. 1 to Collision and Chris Jericho follows. That gives the new Saturday show two top stars who fans recognize and instantly announces to any skeptics, following the rapid deterioration of Rampage, that Collision will be less of a B-show and more like a 1-A.

Best of all, it keeps Punk and The Elite away from each other and, hopefully, the locker room harmonious.

Round 2

Round 2 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Jon Moxley
  
• Collision selected MJF
  
• Dynamite selected Bryan Danielson
  
• Collision selected Darby Allin
  

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Moxley headlines Round 2, and there will likely be some arguing that is too low for a guy who immediately shifted the paradigm upon his arrival on the debut AEW show. But given the quality of stars drafted in that same spot, it is hardly a negative.

That's especially true considering the fact that the current AEW World Champion, MJF, is picked one spot after him.

Moxley stays put on Dynamite, away from Punk, with whom he took exception to recently.

The Salt of the Earth moves to Saturdays, where he can work with Punk and rekindle a rivalry that ranks among the current champion's best work in AEW. It also keeps him in Jericho's realm, which is a positive given how much Punk and The Ocho have influenced MJF's run in the company over the last two years.

Danielson follows his Blackpool Combat Club teammate, and Allin rounds things out as one of the young stars Punk worked with in AEW and praised afterward.

Round 3

Round 3 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Orange Cassidy
  
• Collision selected Sammy Guevara
  
• Dynamite selected Dr. Britt Baker DMD
  
• Collision selected Wardlow
  

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The current AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy was a difficult selection because he is a young star who is often misconstrued as a strictly comedic act, but he has shown attention to detail and psychology in a way one may not expect upon first glance.

He does the little things that would fit right in with Punk, Jericho and the guys already on the Collision brand, but Dynamite needed someone outside of The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club, so he gets the call at the top of Round 3.

Sammy Guevara follows Jericho to Collision, Dr. Britt Baker DMD becomes the first woman selected in the draft as part of Dynamite, and TNT champion Wardlow heads to Collision, where he looks to continue his reclamation push of sorts.

If the early rounds were about establishing star power, this was all about young depth that can star beyond the next couple of years.

Round 4

Round 4 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Adam Cole
• Collision selected Jade Cargill
• Dynamite selected "Hangman" Adam Page
  
• Collision selected FTR
  

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Elite friends the Adams (Cole and Page) are up next for Dynamite as they join Omega and the Bucks on Wednesday nights, keeping the foundational pieces who once gained traction with audiences via Being The Elite together.

Jade Cargill is the second woman off the board as the TBS champion heads to collision, where she will be indisputably the top female star. No more playing second-fiddle to the AEW World Women's Championship picture or being relegated to Rampage.

Round 4 wraps up with current tag team champions FTR, whose friendship with Punk is well-documented. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are a rare tandem who are capable of headlining any event on which they appear, thanks to the unbreakable bond they have formed with wrestling fans.

Putting them on the show with Punk creates another trio at the top of the show, not unlike Omega and the Bucks over on Dynamite. Should the air ever clear, and everyone can get along for a bit, a trios main event pitting The Elite vs. Punk and FTR would do big business.

Round 5

Round 5 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Jamie Hayter
• Collision selected "Absolute" Ricky Starks
• Dynamite selected Claudio Castagnoli
• Collision selected The Outcasts
  

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AEW World Women's Champion Hayter joins Baker on Dynamite, keeping that partnership alive and well for the foreseeable future while Starks makes the jump to Collision, where he will have the opportunity to finally enjoy an uninterrupted push.

Castagnoli united three-quarters of Blackpool Combat Club and brings the Ring of Honor World Championship along for the ride while The Outcasts arrive on Saturday nights as foils for Cargill.

This is another one of those roster-building rounds that puts the pieces in place for both immediate and long-term booking plans.

Round 6

Round 6 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry
• Collision selected The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass
  
• Dynamite selected "Switchblade" Jay White
• Collision selected Miro
  

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It is a testament to the roster depth of AEW as a whole that we are six rounds deep in this draft and we still have guys like Perry, White and Miro available.

The biggest steal of this round, though, may well be The Acclaimed.

While Max Caster and Anthony Bowens are not nearly as hot as they were last fall, they are still immensely over with fans and would provide electric opposition to FTR on Saturday nights.

Throw in the veteran presence of "Daddy Ass" Billy Gunn and you suddenly have a coach who can help with the continued development of younger stars and bring his years of experience to the locker room.

Round 7

Round 7 draft picks for AEW Dynamite and Collision:

• Dynamite selected Death Triangle
• Collision selected Thunder Rosa
• Dynamite selected Luchasaurus and Christian Cage
• Collision selected Sting
  

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The seventh and concluding round of the main draft features AEW OGs Pac and The Lucha Bros joining The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club on Wednesday nights while the Collision women's division gets another boost in the form of the returning Thunder Rosa.

Rosa, a former women's champion who has been sidelined because of a back injury, may be commentary bound right now, but when she is cleared for competition, she would be a major "get" for a brand that already has Cargill and The Outcasts ready to show out.

Luchasaurus is another AEW original who would likely be destined to stick to whatever brand good friend Jack Perry is on, so Dynamite it is for the dinosaur-masked big man. Christian Cage joining him would be, arguably, an even bigger pick for Dynamite in that he is a natural heel and doing some of the best work of his career from a character standpoint.

Though the in-ring career of "The Icon" may be dwindling, Sting is the final pick for a Collision brand that already selected Allin much earlier in the proceedings and would benefit from having the Hall of Famer pop up in key situations every now and then.

Remaining Picks and Wrap-Up

Even after seven rounds of picks, there are considerably talented individuals who have still not been selected.

Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker and Jake Hager would all be likely to join Jericho on Collision, thus keeping the Jericho Appreciation Society alive, while Brandon Cutler, Michael Nakazawa and The Dark Order would be expected to stay put on the Dynamite brand for reasons totally related to Being The Elite.

With Toni Storm joining her Outcast teammates on Saturdays, it would be safe to say Juice Robinson making the jump to that show would be a given, while Powerhouse Hobbs, another young star who benefited from working with Punk, would head there, too.

The House of Black feels like a team that would fit right at home with Collision, but as the AEW World Trios Champions, it would be only a matter of time before Omega and the Bucks challenge them for those titles, so off to Dynamite they go.

Punk once famously uttered, "send Hook," so to Collision the second-generation star heads. Ditto Danhausen, who has established a friendship with Punk that famously saw the former world champion gift him a "holy grail" issue of Spider-Man.

In all, a potential brand split of AEW would be akin to establishing locker rooms full of wrestlers who are either fans or can stand to work with each other. That does not seem like the most effective means to handling backstage drama and pettiness, nor does it feel like a real long-term solution to what amounts to hurt feelings and a seeming inability or, perhaps more accurately, unwillingness to conduct business professionally.

It would create some entertaining television and force fresh matchups, all the while encouraging Khan to continue acquiring talent, but for how long it would be sustainable given the root of the issue is the real question.