The first DYNAMITE of the MAX Era was quite the impactful night as the landscape of 2025 began to take shape! “Switchblade” Jay White defeated Roderick Strong and Swerve Strickland to earn the #1 spot in next week's World Title Contenders Casino Gauntlet match, albeit with a little assistance from Ricochet as it pertained to Swerve. We also witnessed the return of “The Rated R Superstar” Cope to action as he and FTR defeated The Death Riders of Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta in trios competition, as well as the return of Julia Hart to active competition with a vile victory over Jamie Hayter! Adam Page bested Orange Cassidy, the dissension between The Acclaimed reached a fever pitch when Anthony Bowens walked out on Max Caster during the match with The Hurt Syndicate, and so much more went down during FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN 2024!
That momentum continues tonight with COLLISION, streaming for the first time on MAX, and emanating from the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, NC! We've got two championship matches on tap with Daniel Garcia defending the TNT Title against Mark Briscoe and AEW World Tag Champions Private Party facing Action Andretti and Lio Rush for their championship! Plus, Toni Storm faces Vendetta's Deonna Purrazzo, Jeff Jarrett heads into action ahead of participating in the Casino Gauntlet Match next week, and Rated FTR fights The Learning Tree in trios competition!
COLLISION gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, as well as streaming on MAX for the very first time! The AEW faithful can get prepared for the action by visiting AEW's official YouTube channel to catch highlights from DYNAMITE, WORLDS END 2024 previous editions of COLLISION, the final RAMPAGE, and so much more! Then join us next Wednesday night on TBS & MAX for DYNAMITE, live from the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN, featuring the return of Kenny Omega and the return of the Casino Gauntlet Match!
TNT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Daniel Garcia(c) vs. Mark Briscoe
Daniel Garcia went straight from defeating Jack Perry for the TNT Championship at FULL GEAR 2024 to competing in the Blue League of the 2024 Continental Classic and kicking off his tournament run with a draw against eventual C2 winner Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada. Garcia ultimately went 2-2-1 in the Blue League, closing out his experience with seven points, but knowing that he lost bouts to two separate individuals is a bit haunting, especially when he's the reigning TNT Champion.
One of those losses came at the hands of former ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, and as a result we've got this title fight stemming from the challenge issued by “Chicken” during the WORLDS END 2024: ZERO HOUR! It's been just about a month since their C2 contest on COLLISION, a night that neither man has forgotten about, but will we see the same result as we did in Columbus, OH? Can Mark Briscoe capture his first AEW championship or will Daniel Garcia get his TNT Title reign off to a proper start now that the Continental Classic is in the rear view?
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Action Andretti & Lio Rush
Action Andretti and Lio Rush secured their spot as the top contenders to the AEW World Tag Titles with a victory over Top Flight at COLLISION: WINTER IS COMING 2024. The victory may have come as a result of Leila Grey inadvertently getting taken out by Lio diving onto Dante Martin, but “The Man of The Hour” and Action Andretti didn't hesitate too long before taking advantage of the situation at the expense of their...allies. Since that victory, Lio and Action have been on bit of a roll, adding a tag team victory at RAMPAGE: HOLIDAY BASH 2024 to their resume, as well as an eight-man win alongside The Murder Machines during WORLDS END 2024: ZERO HOUR and a tag win over ROH Legend Homicide and Rocky Romero just this past Thursday during ROH ON HONOR CLUB.
They are coming into tonight's COLLISION and their World Tag Team Championship clash with Private Party red hot and primed to take their position at the top of the division. However it's not going to be an easy fight, Private Party have worked too hard for too long to just let the titles slip away in their second defense since beating The Young Bucks at FRIGHT NIGHT DYNAMITE 2024. Zay and Quen already survived the simultaneous challenge of three teams at FULL GEAR 2024, proving they're capable of overcoming the greatest of odds, but will the momentum Lio Rush and Action Andretti have built prove Private Party's undoing?
ONE-ON-ONE...
Toni Storm vs. “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo
So this is another baffling scenario in which Toni Storm, a 3-Time AEW Women's World Champion who has been competing in All Elite Wrestling since March 30, 2022, has seemingly blocked out another part of her past. It's not disturbing just because “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo is one of the women who challenged her for the title during the most recent reign (specifically at REVOLUTION 2024), but also because theirs is a history dating back long before either woman entered into the auspices of AEW.
It's not just that Toni has forgotten, or perhaps blocked out, their professional interactions but that she's also seemingly lost any recollection of their deep personal connection, as fractured as that may have become last year. The records books show Toni Storm with a 4-0 advantage over Purrazzo in their one-on-one encounters over the last eight years while “The Virtuosa” holds three tag team victories, including one on DYNAMITE in March of last year, but does any of that matter when one of the competitors seemingly has no recall of the bouts? Is it possible to have an advantage over an opponent that you don't remember fighting in the past?
Deonna has her guard up, she doesn't trust that this all isn't some game being played by a woman she once considered her closest friend, and she's not going to let whatever is going on with Toni Storm stop her from bringing the fight to the former champion. Will the fight ignite the fires of memory for Toni, or is that past lost in the sands of time?
TRIOS BATTLE...
Rated FTR (Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, & Cope) vs. The Learning Tree (ROH World Champion Chris Jericho, Big Bill, & Bryan Keith)
It has been 14 years, 3 months, and 15 days since the last time “The Rated R Superstar” Cope and “The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho shared a ring together. Theirs is a history that dates back to 1999 and has seen them united as allies, fighting as enemies, and even reign as Tag Team Champions together. They've been inside cages together, climbed ladders together, seemingly done it all together over the course of the 11 years from their first encounter to their last, and it seemed as if their story was over when Cope was forced to retire in 2011 and Chris Jericho helped launch All Elite Wrestling in 2019. Then a small miracle occurred; Cope worked impossibly hard to get back to fighting shape, to get himself medically cleared, and in 2020 was able to return to the squared circle as an active competitor.
Eventually his story brought him to All Elite Wrestling at WRESTLEDREAM 2023, and though he spent the months prior to his shattered tibia engaged in battles on many fronts, including winning the TNT Championship on two occasions, none of those battles intersected with his former championship partner. That changes tonight when, following a confrontation with Jericho's “branches” Bryan Keith and Big Bill, Cope unites with FTR once again to take on the ROH World Champion, “Bad Apple”, and “The Redwood” in trios competition! Now Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood are quite familiar with Jericho and his ilk; they went to war with Jericho and his Inner Circle inside both Blood & Guts and Stadium Stampede back in 2021, they also beat Big Bill and Bryan Keith in tag team action on the October 16th DYNAMITE last year. As for Cope, while he's quite familiar with what Jericho brings to the table, he's never stepped into the ring with either branch of The Learning Tree prior to tonight's trios fight, but thankfully he's got FTR to give him a quick education on what makes Bryan Keith and Big Bill such a dangerous combination.
Will Rated FTR be as successful in this second trios outing as they were in their fight with The Death Riders this past Wednesday night? The Learning Tree is 2-1 in trios action to date, will they move up to 3-1 to kick off the new year? Don't miss out on the first COLLISION simulcast on MAX to witness how this huge match plays out in Charlotte!
“THE LAST OUTLAW”!
We all entered into DYNAMITE: FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN 2025 unsure of what “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett would have to say about the future of his wrestling career. Even his closest friends, Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt, were in the dark as to just what the multi-time World Champion was going to tell the world when he walked out to the ring on Wednesday night. His wife Karen was likely the only person who had the slightest inkling what Jeff was going to say, so it came as a shock when Double J not only did not retire, but told the world he was sighting his sights on the AEW World Championship! After signing his name on the dotted line to one final contract as an in-ring competitor, Jeff Jarrett is coming for the World Title no matter who's wearing it to the ring and that's why he's put his name in the hat for the Casino Gauntlet going down next week on DYNAMITE! To get prepared for that unpredictable fight where, quite frankly, there's no guarantee Jeff will even get to the ring, “The Last Outlaw” will be in action tonight on COLLISION!
COLLISION begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, as well as streaming on MAX for the very first time, and what a loaded debut on MAX it will be! TNT Champion Daniel Garcia defends his title against former ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Private Party puts their AEW World Tag Titles on the line against Action Andretti & Lio Rush, “The Last Outlaw” Jeff Jarrett will be in action ahead of the Casino Gauntlet, and Toni Storm faces Deonna Purrazzo for the...first...time. AEW fans can get themselves ready for the excitement with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, WORLDS END 2024 previous editions of COLLISION, the final RAMPAGE, and so much more! Then follow us to the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, TN for an all-new DYNAMITE featuring the DYNAMITE return of Kenny Omega as well as the return of the Casino Gauntlet Match for a shot at Jon Moxley's AEW World Championship at DYNAMITE: MAXIMUM CARNAGE on January 15th!