Tonight All Elite Wrestling returns to the Esports Stadium in Arlington for an all-new COLLISION as part of our PATH TO ALL-IN: SUMMER SERIES! The fans in DFW have been great to AEW and in return they've gotten to experience the best professional wrestling on the planet for the last several weeks, and that continues tonight when former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa faces “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo in a Texas Bullrope Match! Plus, AEW World Trios Champion Christian Cage has appointed himself Special Guest Referee for tonight's #1 Contender Match between Bang Bang Gang and House of Black with the winner meeting The Patriarchy for a championship match at ALL IN: LONDON 2024! Darby Allin will team with Hologram to face Premier Athletes, RUSH must fight his friend Preston Vance, FTR is in tag team action against The Outrunners, and AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland had laid out an Open Challenge Eliminator Match!
The night begins Saturday when COLLISION returns to its traditional 8pm ET/7pm CT time slot on TNT, so head over to the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION before the show begins! Then join us on Sunday at the Esports Stadium for ROH ON HONOR CLUB action and then this Wednesday in Norfolk, VA for DYNAMITE including AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland versus The BCC's Wheeler Yuta and AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada going face-to-face with #1 Contender Claudio Castagnoli!
TEXAS BULLROPE MATCH...
Thunder Rosa vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Deonna Purrazzo and Thunder Rosa have been at each other's throats for months now, ever since both failed to dethrone AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm and turned their wrath on one another. It started with Thunder defeating Deonna during the April 27th edition of RAMPAGE, only to be attacked by “The Virtuosa” after the match, and its been all downhill for “La Mera Mera” ever since. Deonna escaped their FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024: ZERO HOUR rematch with a shady victory, scored another win over Rosa in their No Disqualification clash during the COLLISION: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY show after cracking her in the skull with a ringside photographer's camera, and then conspired with Taya Valkyrie to hand Rosa another loss in their Lumberjack battle.
Suffice to say that “The Virtuosa” has been ahead of Thunder Rosa at every turn since their first bout, and continues to find a way to keep that advantage no matter how the situation has unfolded. It's left Rosa angry, frustrated, even in tears, but it has never broken her spirit or sapped her will to fight. If anything, how Deonna Purrazzo has gotten her victories has actually bolstered Rosa's desire to fight and it's why we are about to experience just the second Bullrope Match in AEW's history! The first took place three years ago between Dustin Rhodes and Nick Comoroto, but as far as Women's Wrestling there's never been one in AEW before, and it is certainly one of the rarer stipulations set for the division across the wrestling landscape. Yet it feels apropos that Thunder Rosa is bringing it to Arlington, TX to try and finally put this vicious rivalry with Deonna Purrazzo to rest! With the two women tethered to one another via bullrope, there will be no escape, just great potential for violence and pain, a situation we've seen Rosa thrive in several times before and after that No DQ match, know Deonna Purrazzo is capable of thriving in as well!
WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER MATCH...
Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Juice Robinson)
vs.
House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, & Malakai Black)
The situation within the AEW Trios division has been chaotic as of late; after the Bang Bang Gang of Jay White and The Gunns unified it the ROH World Six-Man Title, it felt like there was a bit of balance brought but then White got hurt. In his absence, the BBG tried to just slide Juice Robinson into Jay White's spot as champion, but All Elite Wrestling/Ring of Honor officials learned that lesson when MJF was allowed to do the same with the ROH World Tag Titles in Adam Cole's absence, and thus forced Bang Bang Gang to vacate the titles.
The thing is, prior to that hammer being brought down, The BBG were defeated by House of Black on the June 15th COLLISION, naturally putting them in place as the top contenders for the titles despite Buddy Matthews sustaining an injury during the course of the match. Unfortunately for The House, a very spiteful individual by the name of Christian Cage also had his eyes on the trios prize...
With Buddy Matthews out of action thanks to The Patriarchy, and the titles vacant, AEW Interim EVP Christopher Daniels declared a match would take place between Christian Cage's ilk and the remaining Bang Bang Gang members to determine new AEW World Trios Champions, thus severing the ROH World Six-Man Title from the lineage, leaving those vacant until BATTLE OF THE BELTS XI when Dustin Rhodes and The Von Erichs defeated The Undisputed Kingdom to fill the void. Unfortunately for all, the void of the AEW World Trios Titles would end up filled by Christian Cage, Nick Wayne, and Killswitch in no small part due to the involvement of Mother Wayne.
The return of Buddy Matthews to the AEW stage has led to this #1 Contenders Match between two trios who each have plenty of reason to want their hands around the throat of Christian Cage, but who also have plenty of reason to throw down with each other! Will it be former champions House of Black who return to ALL IN: LONDON, the site of where their first title reign ended, in hopes of regaining what they lost one year ago? Or will it be Juice Robinson and The Gunns who get that golden opportunity at Wembley Stadium? Tune in Saturday night to find out!
OPEN CHALLENGE ELIMINATOR MATCH...
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. ???
Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, after Bryan Danielson defeated Jeff Jarrett, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland took it upon himself to come to the ring, get in the face of “The American Dragon” and dismissively tell the Blackpool Combat Club member that he was going to fight Wheeler Yuta this coming Wednesday in Norfolk. To say Swerve was dismissive of Yuta's presence in the ring at that very moment would be an understatement; as he laid down the match Swerve never took his eyes off Bryan to so much as glance at the 3-Time ROH Pure Champion, not even when he passed the microphone off to Wheeler.
It was utter disrespect, a psychological game for Swerve, but Yuta showed last night on RAMPAGE that he's unfazed by mind games and instead brought his A-game to the table in a victory over Rocky Romero. Clearly Swerve saw something last night that got him a little worried about his DYNAMITE bout with Yuta because as soon as that match ended, it was announced that Swerve was coming to Arlington and bringing an Eliminator Match Open Challenge with him for COLLISION! That means whoever answers the call could earn themselves a future AEW World Title fight possibly against Swerve prior to ALL IN: LONDON 2024, or possibly against the winner of Swerve/Danielson following AEW's return to Wembley!
It's a tremendous opportunity for one man to skyrocket into contention; who will step up to the plate and call their shot against the man standing at the top of All Elite Wrestling?
TAG TEAM CONTEST...
Darby Allin & Hologram vs. Premier Athletes (Josh Woods & Tony Nese)
As he heads towards his ALL IN: LONDON 2024 fight with TNT Champion Jack Perry, Darby Allin continues to be one of the busiest competitors in All Elite Wrestling! He took part in the main event of last week's COLLISION, fought The Butcher last night on RAMPAGE, and tonight is set for tag team alongside Saturday night's hottest new competitor: Hologram!
With victories over Gringo Loco and The Beast Mortos in his first two weeks of AEW action, Hologram followed those up by teaming with CMLL's World Historic Middleweight Champion Mistico to vanquish the Premier Athletes duo of Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese. Suffice to say that loss has not sat well with the Premier Athletes, nor their legal counsel “Smart” Mark Sterling:
That's why tonight on COLLISION, Sterling is directing another combination of his trio into battle as former ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods joins Tony Nese to fight Hologram and his new ally, Darby Allin! Even though he just walked through hell last night against Butch, the 2-Time TNT Champion is ready to keep rolling through anyone in his way en route to Wembley Stadium, even lending a hand to a man who's facing quite uneven odds on the battle field. If the full strength of the Premier Athletes are on-hand, that's four men to Hologram's one, and Darby Allin isn't one to let those kind of odds fly. It's still potentially two-on-four, but with a man like Darby as his partner, that's all Hologram needs to make this a fair fight!
THE FRIEND OR THE FAMILY...
“El Toro Blanco” RUSH vs. Preston Vance
It has been seven months since we last saw Preston Vance in action, a BATTLE OF THE BELTS IX loss to then-AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, but much has changed about his situation since that last fight. At that time of that title challenge, Vance was still competing as a member of RUSH's La Faccion Ingobernable, though “El Toro Blanco” was recovering from an injury sustained during the Continental Classic.
Without RUSH in the picture, Vance sort of faded away but when the 2-Time ROH World Champion returned to the AEW stage, he did so without any of his LFI compatriots at his side, and has ultimately ended up standing with The Don Callis Family after a “send the house” recruitment by Callis himself. Since joining The DCF, RUSH has won two of his last three matches, but only one of those (the first) was actually fought at the side of a fellow Callis Family member. The other two were fought at the side of Roderick Strong and The Beast Mortos with “El Toro Blanco” unfortunately taking the fall for his team this past Wednesday on DYNAMITE.
During his absence, Vance has been vocal on social media about this entire situation, his loyalty to LFI, his desire to be back at the side of RUSH, and wondering what his friend is doing with Don Callis. RUSH clearly sees an association with Callis as beneficial to his career, to pushing him back to the top of his game, but is that the case when Don is willfully pitting friend-against-friend? Callis has made his feelings clear about friendship versus business with the Ospreay/Fletcher situation, and now he's doing the same here by demanding RUSH put Preston in the hospital tonight. Will the loyalty engendered as members of LFI prove stronger than any ties RUSH has to The DCF? We shall see tonight in Arlington...
TAG TEAM CONTEST...
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
After the conclusion of last week's COLLISION, it is clear that FTR and The Acclaimed are destined for a collision of their own. ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe may have been able to quell the violence for a moment, but the fact of the matter is that Anthony Bowens and Max Caster allowed Billy Gunn to pull them away from the handshake offered up by Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood. With both teams sights set on The Young Bucks, and more importantly redeeming the AEW World Tag Titles, there will have to be a resolution to this impending conflict. The Acclaimed may be owed a championship match by virtue of an Eliminator win over the brothers Jackson, but that doesn't mean FTR isn't going to fight tooth and nail to get their own championship match sooner rather than later.
For now though, FTR is going to have to set aside any issues with The Acclaimed just to focus on tonight and their tag team bout with The Outrunners. Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd have been grinding it out on AEW and ROH programming for months, and though they've garnered the love of the fans, they've yet to score the kind of victory they need to make an impact on the tag division. Pulling that off over Cash and Dax, 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions in addition to their multitude of other title reigns, would immediately skyrocket the profile of “The Youngest Men Alive”.
Can FTR focus on the business at hand tonight, or will their issues with The Acclaimed serve as enough distraction for The Outrunners to the biggest upset in AEW since Action Andretti beat Chris Jericho?
ALSO FEATURING:
-Hikaru Shida in action!
-And more!!!
COLLISION returns to its traditional time of 8pm ET/7pm CT tonight on TNT with Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo fighting in a Texas Bullrope Match as well as House of Black facing Bang Bang Gang in a #1 Contender bout for the AEW World Trios Titles held by The Patriarchy, FTR versus Outrunners, Hikaru Shida in action, and an Open Challenge AEW World Title Eliminator Match! To get caught up on the week's action so fare, visit the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from this week's episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE prior to showtime! Then stay with All Elite Wrestling in Arlington for two rounds of ROH ON HONOR CLUB action on Sunday, before we head to Norfolk, VA for Wednesday's DYNAMITE featuring AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland taking on Blackpool Combat Club member Wheeler Yuta while his fellow BCC member Claudio Castagnoli meets AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada face-to-face!
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