AEW Collision Preview for April 12, 2025

The aftermath of DYNASTY 2025 is still rippling across the landscape of All Elite Wrestling as EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, collectively The Young Bucks, returned to AEW's flagship program this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE. We also witnessed Kenny Omega confront his former Elite brethren, Kazuchika Okada reestablish himself alongside The Young Bucks, Swerve Strickland stand in opposition to The EVPs, and so much more! The Opps' Samoa Joe and HOOK took down two-thirds of the World Trios Champions Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta, though HOOK certainly paid the price for that victory after the fact. MJF continued his desperate quest to join The Hurt Syndicate, we watched Kris Statlander advance in the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament, and heard words from new TNT Champion Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong about their future! 

Tonight the excitement travels to New England and the MassMutual Arena in Springfield, MA for an all-new live COLLISION! We've got three matches in the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournaments on tap with the final two Women's Quarterfinals pitting ROH Women's World Champion Athena against Harley Cameron and former ROH Women's TV Champion Billie Starkz facing former AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter and in the third Men's Quarterfinal it will be former AEW World Trios Champion Brody King taking on former AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita! In addition to those huge match-ups we will also see the return of Anthony Bowens to COLLISION as he faces Blake Christian, and we will hear from 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions FTR regarding their heinous assault on “The Rated R Superstar” Cope at DYNASTY 2025!

COLLISION is coming at you live on TNT, as well as streaming on MAX, beginning at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT, not to mention around the world via AEW PLUS! Before the show kicks off, make a point to drop in on the official AEW YouTube channel to catch-up on highlights from the most recent episodes of DYNAMITE and COLLISION, DYNASTY 2025, and all the other top-tier content from AEW! 

After the Saturday night fights conclude, All Elite Wrestling is eastbound on the Mass. Pike for two events from the MGM Music Hall at Fenway! It's SPRING BREAK THRU on April 16th and 17th as we continue down the winding road to DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2025 in Glendale, AZ!

2025 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Quarterfinal...

ROH Women’s World Champion Athena vs. Harley Cameron

***WINNER FACES MERCEDES MONÉ***

ROH Women's World Champion Athena has been utterly dominant for 855 days since defeating Mercedes Martinez for the title at FINAL BATTLE 2022. For an in-depth look at what she's accomplished during that time, check out this Timeline at the official ROH YouTube channel. Suffice to say “The Fallen Goddess” is 64-0 in singles competition in ROH-related contests, and 70-2 overall with those losses coming in tag team competition. 

As if those numbers weren't impressive enough, it should be noted that it was Billie Starkz who lost those matches for their team, meaning no one in ROH has put Athena's shoulders to the mat, made her submit, or even beaten her by count out during these last 855 days. She's successfully defended her ROH Women's World Title 28 times against 24 different women, turned away 30 Proving Ground challenges from 28 different potential challengers, and won four Eliminator contests from four different competitors. At WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 Momo Watanabe was the first person to pin Athena since Willow Nightingale on the 7/14/23 RAMPAGE, coincidentally in an Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Semifinal bout, and that took the use of a baseball bat for Watanabe to score the fall!

Finally, Athena's lone World Championship reign is the longest in ROH history, and only the combined 13 World Tag Title reigns of The Briscoes exceed her record. This all feeds into Athena referring to herself as “The Forever ROH Champion”, “The American Joshi”, as well as “The Minion Overlord”, and this dominance is one of the things that sets her apart from every woman in ROH and AEW, especially from a competitor such as Harley Cameron.

No disrespect towards Harley, but in terms of their careers, she and Athena couldn't possibly be on more disparate ends of the wrestling spectrum. Athena has been doing this for almost 18 years while Harley just passed her three year anniversary on February 5th. In stark contrast to Athena's record, Harley has won just seven matches in her whole AEW career, and four of those happened in 2025 as she's taken a huge leap forward with her skills over the last several months. Harley even had the guts to step up and challenge TBS Champion Mercedes Moné to a title fight at GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA. Though Harley gave it everything she had, ultimately she ended up as another victory in The CEO's 19-0 singles win column. There's no denying Harley has the in-ring talent to become a champion in the very near future, and clearly she has a willingness to test herself against the highest echelon of competitors in order to someday get where those women are, but is she ready to take that step yet? 

We will find out tonight when she goes one-on-one with Athena in this Quarterfinal bout of the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament! Harley already got a taste of what being punched in the mouth by the ROH Women's World Champion is like on last week's COLLISION in their tag team match. Can she avoid tasting it once again? As the only woman in the entire field who has never held a championship, Harley Cameron is certainly the dark horse, underdog candidate to win the tournament, much less this Quarterfinal fight right here, but her wrath is highly unpredictable and may just lead Harley to a Semifinal rematch with the TBS Champion!

2025 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Quarterfinal...

Former ROH Women's World TV Champion Billie Starkz vs. 

Former AEW Women's World Champion Jamie Hayter

***WINNER FACES KRIS STATLANDER***

Two weeks ago Billie Starkz stepped up last minute to face Jamie Hayter, filling the void created by Queen Aminata's injury, and unfortunately for the young former ROH Women's World TV Champion it did not go her way. Starkz gave it everything she had, even managing to counter that nasty Hayterade lariat Jamie throws, but eventually the former AEW Women's World Champion caught Billie with a springboard variation on the move to put her down for the count. It was a valiant effort from Starkz, but as that edition of COLLISION came to a close, it was “The Fallen Goddess” Athena who stood in the spotlight with Hayter and not Billie Starkz.

It was a moment very indicative of the dynamic between Athena and Billie throughout her...minionhood...but tonight it's about Billie and Billie alone. It's not about Athena, it's not about M.I.T, and it's not about the heartbreaking losses Billie endured at Athena's hands at FINAL BATTLE 2023 and 2024. Nor is it about the loss Athena handed Billie in 2023 that started her down this entire M.I.T. path in the first place, a loss that took place at the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023: ZERO HOUR in the Quarterfinals of that year's Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. This night, and possibly this entire tournament, could be about Billie Starkz continuing to breakaway from what has defined her ROH career but doing so requires surviving another fight with Jamie Hayter. 

Hayter last participated in The Owen in the inaugural 2022 edition of the tournament, first defeating Skye Blue to qualify, then falling to Toni Storm in the Quarterfinals. Hayter missed both the 2023 and 2024 tournaments due to injury so this year's tourney holds extra meaning, especially given that its World Championship implications would lead Hayter back to the championship she lost at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023 largely because of those injuries. It's a title she hasn't had a chance to reclaim since returning to the AEW stage at ALL IN: LONDON 2024, and tonight could be the beginning of the road to a title bout at ALL IN: TEXAS on July 12th.

To the winner of this contest comes a fight with Kris Statlander in the Semifinals; a 2021 Jericho Cruise rematch for Jamie Hayter but a first-timer for Billie Starkz if it comes to pass. Which woman will take the next step towards The Owen Finals at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2025? 

2025 Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Quarterfinal...

Former AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. 

Former AEW World Trios Champion Brody King

***WINNER FACES WILL OSPREAY***

Thus far in the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament we've seen 2-Time International Champion Will Ospreay and former ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher advance to the Semifinals. That leaves four individuals left to compete for the remaining spots, and tonight in Springfield the two biggest, baddest men in the field will clash in their first singles match!

Brody King and Konosuke Takeshita have stood across the ring from one another once before. On the February 5th edition of DYNAMITE Brody and fellow Hound of Hell Buddy Matthews took on Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher in tag team competition. That night it was The Don Callis Family which picked up the victory, specifically with Fletcher pinning Brody King, but it should be noted that a little bit of a Kazuchika Okada distraction played a part in getting to that conclusion. 

Since that night the issues between Brody and The DCF have continued to build and the behemoth has stepped into the ring with any member of the Family willing to take on the fight. He fell to Fletcher in singles competition, but turned up the violence with Lance Archer last week in Peoria and scored a victory there. Tonight Brody King has his sights on adding the former AEW International Champion to his list of victims en route to running the table in The Owen, and tonight may be the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the wild schedule “The Alpha” is keeping. 

In the last three weeks Takeshita has gone from a fight with Mark Briscoe in St. Paul to a tag team bout in Peoria against Powerhouse Hobbs and Tomohiro Ishii to a NEVER Openweight Title bout against Ryohei Oiwa at SAKURA GENESIS 2025 in Tokyo to Baltimore for DYNAMITE to Chicago just last night for a NEVER Openweight title victory over the legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi at WINDY CITY RIOT 2025 before finally getting here to Springfield for this Quarterfinal fight in The Owen. Regardless of an athlete's conditioning, that kind of travel does a number on the body, especially with such a brief international excursion thrown in, and that could very well be the deciding factor tonight given how evenly matched these two monsters are otherwise!

One-On-One...

“The 5-Tool Player” Anthony Bowens vs. Blake Christian

He is “The 5-Tool Player”! He is “The Pride of Professional Wrestling”! He is Anthony Bowens and on Sunday night during the DYNASTY 2025: ZERO HOUR he returned to the AEW stage to answer former partner Max Caster's Open Challenge! Bowens handed Caster yet another defeat in just 40 seconds to put the final nail in the coffin of The Acclaimed, and now it's time for Bowens to move forward with his AEW career!

That journey, wherever it may take him, begins tonight on COLLISION when Anthony Bowens steps into the ring with Blake Christian for the first time! Blake comes into this carrying a seven-match win streak in Ring of Honor and ten days removed from a tremendous tag team showing on DYNAMITE against Will Ospreay and Kevin Knight. Christian raised a lot of eyebrows with how well he and partner Lee Johnson hung with Ospreay and Knight, and tonight he aims to raise a whole lot more with a victory over “The 5-Tool Player”! 

Can Blake Christian put a damper on Anthony Bowens' celebrated return to action, or will he be the first step in Bowens' journey towards a championship around his waist?

What Did FTR Do?

We knew things were volatile within the Rated FTR trio of Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, and “The Rated R Superstar” Cope but no one could've prepared themselves for what happened at DYNASTY 2025 after the unit failed to defeat The Death Riders for the AEW World Trios Championship. Watch the footage embedded above to see just what FTR did to their supposed ally and know that Cope was not in attendance at DYNAMITE this past Wednesday in Baltimore, nor were FTR.

That being said, tonight on COLLISION we will hear from Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler regarding their brutal assault on COPE. On Wednesday night Tony Schiavone expressed the disgust we all felt watching that unfold last Sunday; what sentiments will FTR express tonight to justify their actions?

ALSO FEATURING:

-Megan Bayne in action!

COLLISION is live this Saturday night starting at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT streaming on MAX, as well as on TNT, in addition to AEW PLUS for International fans! Tonight we will see a continuation of the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Tournament as Billie Starkz faces Jamie Hayter and ROH Women's World Champion Athena takes on Harley Cameron in the final two Women's bouts. We will also see Konosuke Takeshita take on Brody King in the Men's brackets, as well as “The 5-Tool Player” Anthony Bowens in action against Blake Christian! Prior to showtime be sure to check in on AEW's official YouTube channel to watch highlights from recent editions of DYNAMITE and COLLISION, as well as DYNASTY 2025, Close-Up with Kevin Knight, and so much more! 

After COLLISION follow AEW east to Boston for two tremendous nights in the MGM Music Hall at Fenway ! It's DYNAMITE: SPRING BREAK THRU on April 16th and COLLISION: SPRING BREAK THRU on April 17th as we looks towards DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2025 in Arizona on May 25th!