Last week's edition of COLLISION saw CM Punk and Darby Allin fall to Ricky Starks and faux-TNT Champion Christian Cage in tag team action, while The House of Black once again turned back the AEW World Trios Championship challenge of The Acclaimed, leaving the future of Daddy Ass in question. Plus Skye Blue fell to Taya Valkyrie while the BC GOLD pair of Jay and Juice topped Action and Darius! This Saturday All Elite Wrestling returns to Hartford, CT and the XL Center and COLLISION is coming with The House of Black's Buddy Matthews facing Andrade El Idolo in a Ladder Match, FTR defending their AEW World Tag Championship against AEW World Champion MJF and Adam Cole, plus BC GOLD facing Action Andretti, Darius Martin, and El Hijo Del Vikingo in trios competition! In addition, we will here from CM Punk, Samoa Joe will be in action against Gravity, plus Kiera Hogan and Mercedes Martinez will make their COLLISION debuts with their first-time singles bout!
COLLISION begins at 8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT this Saturday on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for AEW's international fans, so be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel prior to Saturday night to catch highlights from this week's episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest edition of THE CONTROL CENTER, and more!
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)(c) vs. AEW World Champion Adam Cole & MJF
As winners of the Blind Eliminator Tag Team Tournament, the mismatched duo of MJF and AEW World Champion not only had to defeat the teams of Matt Menard & The Butcher, Big Bill & Brian Cage, and Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia, but also has to survive their own animosity with each other to make the whole thing work.
But somewhere along the way, looking at that wonderfully compiled video about their bromance, Adam Cole and MJF have actually bonded, perhaps even become friends, much to the chagrin of one Roderick Strong. Though Cole keeps saying to trust him, it's hard when he's cozied up to man who refers to himself as “The Devil”. Still, however weird this relationship has been, you can't argue it hasn't been successful, and against three very different combinations of opponents.
But none of them have been on the level of FTR in terms of tag team competition, in fact because of the nature of the Blind Eliminator Tournament, of the three teams only Garcia and Guevara had any prior experience as a duo, and even that was extremely limited. The fact that Cole and MJF contended with three teams who were as inexperienced working together as them may have helped contribute to their success in the tournament, but Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood are one of the most experienced teams in the whole of All Elite Wrestling, and just one of two teams able to claim 2-Time status as AEW World Tag Champions. Just in terms of their AEW career, FTR is number two on the all-time win list behind The Acclaimed, are tied with The Young Bucks for sixth place on the all-time number of matches list, and put together a 12 match win streak from 6/10/20-10/14/20 that ties them with Jurassic Express for fourth longest tag team win streak in AEW. Their first run as champs, though just 63 days, saw three successful defenses against SCU, TH2, and Best Friends while their second, just passing 115 days, has also seen three successful defenses, the latest being that epic 2/3 Falls contest with BC GOLD two weeks ago that went nearly one full hour. And to further contrast Dax and Cash from the rookie duo that are their foes come Saturday, since they first became a tag team nearly a decade ago, they've competed in well over 500 tag team matches together, and more than 600 matches total.
They are the definition of tag team wrestling, at least one facet of it, and take it quite seriously. Conversely, they view MJF and Cole as taking the idea of their tag team quite lightly, almost as if they're making a mockery of tag team wrestling, and that offends FTR nearly as much as the mere existence of MJF being back in their orbit does. After all, there's plenty of history between Max and FTR revolving around The Pinnacle, and obviously the Tag Champs have strong opinions about the World Champ stemming from that to further fuel them heading into Saturday night's clash.
So will it be the nascent team of AEW World Champion MJF and Adam Cole who find a way to upset the far more established AEW World Tag Team Championship duo of FTR? Or will Dax and Cash finally get that chance to slap the taste out of Max's that they've been waiting for since 2021 and put him in his place? Who will move on to face Big Bill and Brian Cage after their Battle Royale victory on RAMPAGE?
Do not miss out on this tag team clash going down this Saturday night on COLLISION, live from Hartford, CT, starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT!
LADDER MATCH FOR ANDRADE'S MASK...
Andrade El Idolo vs. The House of Black's Buddy Matthews
Since the launch of COLLISION, there has been an escalation of hostilities between Andrade El Idolo and The House of Black. It began with an epic, brutal clash between Andrade and Buddy Matthews, escalated with an attack on El Idolo following his victory, and has only grown nastier since June 17th. He beat Brody King by disqualification the next week when The House attacked once again, and Julia Hart actually stole the man's sacred mask.
They've also conspired to keep Andrade out of venues, and now are putting him into a situation to see just how far he'll go to get his mask back. Generally speaking, when one thinks of a Ladder Match, the prize is usually a championship, or in the case of the Face of the Revolution or Casino Ladder Match, at least an opportunity to challenge for a championship down the line. For the first time in All Elite Wrestling, the prize at the top of the ladder has nothing to do with a championship, but everything to do with pride, legacy, and heritage. The question is what lengths will Andrade go to in order to regain those things, and what lengths will Buddy and The House go to in order to desecrate those same things?
Andrade has a small history with Ladder Matches, competing in two thus far in his AEW career and two others in his pre-AEW career, having secured the win in just one of those prior to his entry into All Elite Wrestling. As for Buddy, he's been in three Ladder matches on record in his career prior to AEW, the last taking place on Halloween 2009, and he was victorious in two of those.
Based on their last fight, we know Buddy and Andrade will hold nothing back in regular match, but now that a ladder is involved, and with the mask factor in the mix as well, one can only imagine how far each competitor will go in order to be the one standing victorious atop the rungs! It's just unfortunate for Andrade that he also has to worry about the rest of The House of Black while Buddy has no such concerns...
TAG TEAM COMPETITION...
BULLET CLUB GOLD (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Juice Robinson) vs. Action Andretti, Darius Martin & El Hijo Del Vikingo
After Jay White and Juice Robinson's triumph over Action Andretti and Darius Martin last week on COLLISION, this week it will be be Juice and The Gunns entering into Trios competition against Action, Darius, and their third man, the AAA Mega Champion El Hijo Del Vikingo!
It's the first time Action and Darius have teamed up with the AAA Mega Champ, but also a first time outing for this BULLET CLUB GOLD trio! Last week Juice and Jay bounced back strong after their heartbreaking championship loss to FTR, can Juice continue that momentum this Saturday night with Austin and Colten at his side? Or will the wildly unpredictable aerial onslaught of their foes hand BC GOLD an “L” in at the XL Center?
SINGLES MATCH...
ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe vs. Gravity
Coming off a huge victory over Dalton Castle at ROH's DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2023 pay-per-view, ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe will lock horns with another man who scored a big win that night, the high-flying Luchador known as Gravity! Now last week fans witnessed what that man brings to the table when he battled “The Bastard” PAC in singles action, now he must step into the ring with another of the most terrifying men in professional wrestling when he stands across from Samoa Joe.
Now Joe is currently watching the ROH World Television Championship Eliminator Tournament that began this past Thursday during ROH ON HONOR CLUB(www.watchroh.com) to see who his next challenger will be, but he's still got time to remind COLLISION why he's the baddest man on the planet, and that Punk's victory over him in The Owen Hart Tournament was a fluke that will never happen again.
We know Joe's got a vulnerability to flash pinfalls like the one Punk snuck in, can the ultra-fast Gravity find his way to exploiting that weakness as well? Or will Gravity be brought crashing down to Earth courtesy of a Muscle Buster by the reigning ROH World Television Champion?
ONE-ON-ONE...
Kiera Hogan vs. Mercedes Martinez
Kiera Hogan has been out of action since the vicious Chicago Street Fight she went through with Athena over the ROH Women's World Championship several weeks ago. It was undoubtedly one of the best matches of the year to date, and can be viewed on Honor Club right now, but it absolutely left a mark on Kiera's, though she looks to rebound strong with her COLLISION debut this Saturday night.
Her opponent this week is another woman making her COLLISION debut, and after competing on a few shows in the United Kingdom this month, Mercedes Martinez is more than ready to return to AEW action and remind everyone in the Women's Division why she's called “The OG Badass”, and why she reigned atop the ROH Women's Divison as champion for 220 days before meeting Athena at FINAL BATTLE 2022!
Though they've a couple times over the course of their careers, this will be the first singles match ever between Kiera and Mercedes, as well as their first meeting since July 20, 2018. Who will leave the strongest impression on with their COLLISION debut this Saturday night?
AEW debuts at the XL Center in Hartford, CT with an all-new COLLISION! FTR faces Adam Cole and AEW World Champion MJF with their AEW World Tag Team Championship at stake, BULLET CLUB GOLD faces Vikingo, Andretti, & Martin in trios action, and The House of Black's Buddy Matthew's faces Andrade El Idolo in a Ladder Match where the latter's mask hangs in the balance!
The night begins at 8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for AEW's international fans, so make a point to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from this week's episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMAPGE, as well as the latest edition of CONTROL CENTER, and so much more!