RAMPAGE was quite the exciting night, especially that main event bout between Private Party and the MxM Collection, but now it's time for all Colliders to unite when COLLISION takes to the airwaves this Saturday afternoon! It's quite a jam-packed night of action, and the AEW faithful are not going to want to miss a minute! We've got a wild 8-Man uniting Darby Allin with FTR and ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe as they take on The Beast Mortos and Undisputed Kingdom on the heels of Mortos pinning Mark on DYNAMITE. Plus Thunder Rosa is out for revenge against Taya Valkyrie, AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm will be in action, and three of AEW's best will lock up with a future Continental Championship bout on the line!
But that's not all; we also know that “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher will lock horns with “The Machine” Brian Cage ahead of Fletcher's DYNAMITE bout with MJF, and that Místico will be back in an AEW ring this evening to team with Hologram as the CMLL World Historic Middleweight Champion looks towards a September 13th match-up with Chris Jericho at their 91st-anniversary show; the action is going to be red-hot in Arlington as we continue on the path to ALL IN: LONDON 2024!
The bouts get underway a bit earlier this Saturday as COLLISION kicks off at at 5pm ET/4pm CT on TNT, so be sure to visit the official AEW YouTube channel to catch up on highlights from DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, previous episodes of COLLISION, and more! Then join us on Wednesday in Winston-Salem, NC at the LVJM Coliseum for DYNAMITE featuring AEW American Champion MJF versus “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher, Bryan Danielson versus Jeff Jarrett with special guest Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat on-hand, and Bryan Keith facing Katsuyori Shibata!
EIGHT-MAN GRUDGE MATCH...
ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Darby Allin, & FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)
vs.
The Beast Mortos & The Undisputed Kingdom (ROH World Tag Champions Matt Taven & Mike Bennett and Roderick Strong)
Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, with Orange Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii as his Conglomeration allies, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe had his shoulders put to the mat by The Beast Mortos. After the string of matches from Blood & Guts to his DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 World Title fight with Roderick Strong to fight on last week's COLLISION, it had been a hard week leading up to The Beast Mortos' pinfall on “Chicken”, but that's not to take anything away from what The Beast Mortos brings to the table.
He's fast, strong, and as intimidating a presence as you'll find in professional wrestling, and tonight he's got the support of the full Undisputed Kingdom at this side while Mark is joined by the very interesting trio of Darby Allin and FTR. The bond between Briscoe, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler dates back to the epic battles Mark and late-brother Jay had with FTR over the ROH World Tag Titles throughout 2022 while Darby is certainly the odd man out in this quartet as his only connection is the blood he spilled with Mark during Blood & Guts ten days ago. That being said, they are four of the top athletes in wrestling today, and after all a conglomeration is simply a number of random pieces being brought together.
Will we see The Beast Mortos repeat himself tonight on COLLISION, perhaps score another fall on Mark Briscoe and get himself into contention for Mark's ROH World Title? Or will this be Briscoe evening the score with this wild quartet of individuals gelling together to be greater than the sum of their parts? Of course there's that matter of The Acclaimed claiming they'll be in the house looking for FTR...
SINGLES MATCH...
“La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa vs. “La Wera Loca” Taya Valkyrie
Thunder Rosa thought she had the Lumberjack Match with Deonna Purrazzo won two weeks ago, but an old rivalry reared its head to cost Rosa the fight when Taya Valkyrie lent a helping...hand...to the occasion. See Taya and Thunder Rosa have a history dating back to 2016 when they fought over AAA's Reina de Reinas Championship then held by Taya, and though Valkyrie won that fight, it was just the start of a rivalry that has endured for eight years now, with matches across the independent landscape in America, and even over to Stardom in Japan!
Now they come back together once again, their first singles match in AEW and their first since January 2022, as Thunder Rosa looks to even the score for Taya's actions in that Lumberjack fight! Ultimately for the former AEW Women's World Champion this is all about getting back to Deonna Purrazzo, but Taya Valkyrie aims to stop that wish from ever coming true!
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher vs. “The Machine” Brian Cage
Kyle Fletcher has a date with AEW International Champion MJF this coming Wednesday on DYNAMITE, though it's surprising MJF is willing to fight twice in a week after successfully defending his title against Templario during CMLL's SUPER VIERNES event last night in Arena Mexico. While it's clear Don Callis is not happy about “The Protostar” repeatedly getting involved in Will Ospreay's affair now that Ospreay has walked away from The Don Callis Family, Fletcher is not going to sit back and watch his best friend be assaulted, but that choice has now brought him into a fight with Brian Cage. As seen in the video clip embedded above, “The Machine” felt the focus was on the wrong man last night on RAMPAGE, and that interruption of Fletcher's interview has now brought these two men into a fight tonight on COLLISION!
It's no secret that Callis is a big fan of Brian Cage's work, he's praised the man on many occasions, but this is now a fight involving The DCF so he better have his focus on the man who is under his umbrella. A fight with Brian Cage is a tall mountain to climb, there are few individuals who exhibit the combination of speed and power that Cage does, but for Fletcher this is as much a fight about Wednesday as it is about tonight. He needs this victory under his belt before heading into the bout with Maxwell Jacob Friedman, but Cage would love nothing more than to spoil any momentum “The Protostar” hopes to build at his expense!
CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER MATCH...
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Tomohiro Ishii vs. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty
What an opportunity at hand for these three individuals tonight on COLLISION! Unseen on AEW TV since his “devastating” finger injury inside Blood & Guts, Kazuchika Okada has not defended his Continental Championship since a May 15th victory over Dax Harwood, but after this Three-Way bout, he will have a new top contender waiting in the wings! Claudio Castagnoli, Tomohiro Ishii, and newly-crowned ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty would all love an opportunity to step into the ring with “The Rainmaker”, but for each man that represents something very different, though for one in particular it's far more than just the championship title.
For Claudio it's an opportunity to become a contender after several frustrating near-misses since his World Championship match with Swerve Strickland. He came up short in the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 Casino Gauntlet, in the Owen Hart Foundation Men's Tournament, in the Global Glory Four Way, and in the Royal Rampage, so suffice it to say Castagnoli is done with being a runner-up, done with almost getting the shot, and he is adamant that tonight will be the night he finally earns a championship contendership against a man he's only faced in tag and trios competition thus far, splitting their two matches 1-1.
For ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty this is a huge chance to roll his momentum from that DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2024 victory over Claudio's BCC training partner Wheeler Yuta into a shot at another title, and a first-time ever bout with Kazuchika Okada. Moriarty has certainly leveled up his in-ring game since joining Shane Taylor Promotions, as well as gained that extra edge outside the ring in the forms of Shane Taylor and Anthony Ogogo, but will it be enough to survive this Three-Way when he's surrounded by two of the most physically powerful individuals in All Elite Wrestling?
Then there is Tomohiro Ishii, a man for whom a Continental Championship match represents something a great deal more personal than just a title fight. Ishii, as a member of GREAT BASH HEEL, was there fighting a young Kazuchika Okada, and their fights would continue as Ishii joined Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano to form CHAOS in 2009. They never fought in a singles match during that time period, and in early 2019 Okada left for an extended excursion in the United States that completely changed the direction of his career in New Japan Pro Wrestling. When he returned to NJPW in 2012 at WRESTLE KINGDOM VI, he challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi to a IWGP Heavyweight Title fight and revealed himself a member of CHAOS alongside, among many others, Tomohiro Ishii. From that point, until Okada departed NJPW for AEW earlier this year, the two were allied under the CHAOS banner, a dozen years of partnership and now Ishii has to look at what Okada has become alongside The Elite. It's been four years since the last time they went one-on-one during the 2020 G1 Climax Tournament; can Ishii get another crack at Okada, albeit under drastically different circumstances, with a win here?
There's a lot of tension around this #1 Contenders Three-Way bout; who will rise to the occasion and earn a shot at Kazuchika Okada and the Continental Championship?
TAG TEAM CONTEST....
World Historic Middleweight Champion Místico & Hologram
vs.
Premier Athletes (Ariya Daivari & Tony Nese)
On June 28th, ahead of his FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 trios match, FTW Champion Chris Jericho made a choice to travel to Mexico, drop in on CMLL's SUPER VIERNES event at Arena Mexico, and attack World Historic Middleweight Champion Místico. It was unprovoked, motivated by nothing more than ego as clearly indicated by Jericho's comments made after the attack, but ultimately he is getting what he wants, that being a match with Místico set for CMLL's September 13th 91st-anniversary Event taking place at Arena Mexico.
Ahead of that match, Místico is making his return to AEW tonight on COLLISION, his first bout since the FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024: ZERO HOUR clash with NJPW's LIJ representatives, and uniting with the newest sensation making an impact on All Elite Wrestling: Hologram! Since his debut on July 20th, Hologram has wowed the AEW faithful with his abilities inside (and above) the squared circle, but getting an opportunity to team with a talent like Místico is a whole other level of experience for the luchador.
There's no doubt Chris Jericho will have his eye on this tonight, scouting Místico for their clash next month, but will his ego let him see just what a talent Místico is? There's a reason he's been World Historic Middleweight Champion for an astounding 2,174 days and for Jericho's sake, he better recognize that before stepping back into Arena Mexico, and the Premier Athletes may be learning it first-hand tonight in this tag team contest!
THE ACCLAIMED HAVE ARRIVED IN ARLINGTON!
Anthony Bowens, Daddy Ass, and Max Caster did not like hearing their names on the tongues of FTR prior to Blood & Guts, and certainly did not like being questioned by Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler about their motivations. Another thing they took exception to was FTR basically calling their shot for ALL IN: LONDON 2024 and focusing it on AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks, as if The Acclaimed weren't the rightful #1 Contenders after beating The EVPs in that Eliminator match several weeks ago. Ultimately both teams want nothing more than to regain the titles each lost, and to redeem them for what The Young Bucks have done (or perhaps failed to do is more appropriate) in this third reign of theirs. After all, it's been 104 days since the brothers Jackson defeated FTR in the Ladder Match at DYNASTY 2024 to win the World Tag Title Tournament and they've abused their powers to insure they've defended the title exactly zero times.
There also seems to be some residual resentment from FTR about how their December 2022 through January 2023 went; the started out that month holding the ROH, IWGP, and AAA World Tag Titles simultaneously, a tremendous feat by any measure, but when they faced The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Titles on the December 7th DYNAMITE, they were unsuccessful in bringing a fourth championship to their trophy case. That loss kicked-off a month-long slide for Cash and Dax as they lost the ROH World Tag Title in the unforgettable Double Dog Collar match to The Briscoes, lost the The Gunns eleven days after that on DYNAMITE, lost the AAA Tag Titles one week later, then finally the IWGP Tag Titles seven days later at WRESTLE KINDOM 17, and it all started with that loss to The Acclaimed.
So there's a lot going on here, and it may just come to a head tonight on COLLISION when The Acclaimed come looking for FTR in Arlington!
ALSO FEATURING:
-AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm in action w/ “The Glamour” Mariah May on commentary!!
-And More!!!
This evening COLLISION begins at the special start time of 5pm ET/4pm CT on TNT, so make a point to drop by AEW's official YouTube channel, as well as our assorted social media platforms, to catch up on highlights from DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, previous episodes of COLLISION, and more! Then join us on Wednesday in Winston-Salem, NC at the LVJM Coliseum for DYNAMITE featuring AEW American Champion MJF versus “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher, Bryan Danielson versus Jeff Jarrett with Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat at ringside, and Bryan Keith facing Katsuyori Shibata!
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