Last week marked the premiere of AEW COLLISION, and what an exciting two hours of action it was on TNT! After delivering some strong words to the AEW faithful, CM Punk united with FTR to defeat BULLET CLUB GOLD and ROH World TV Champion Samoa Joe in quite the unforgettable Trios bout, but that wasn't all! Andrade and Buddy Matthews had a helluva fight that El Idolo won, but the victory was rather pyrrhic thanks to the rest of The House of Black, and Skye Blue scored a huge win over Ruby Soho in their tag team battle.
This week, when COLLISION comes to Toronto for the last stop before FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023, the excitement is going to be just as high! CMFTR will become ABSOLUTE when they welcome Ricky Starks to their side in a battle with The Gunns and BULLET CLUB GOLD, while Willow Nightingale and Nyla Rose battle it out to advance in the Women's Owen Hart Memorial Foundation Tournament! Plus Hiroshi Tanahashi will be in action against Swerve Strickland, Andrade will battle another HoB member in Brody King, and we will find out who the third man will be joining Sting and Darby Allin this Sunday on pay-per-view!
COLLISION kicks off Saturday night at 8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT on TNT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for AEW's international fans, so don't forget to swing by the official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from this week's episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMAPGE, as well as the latest edition of ROAD TO, and much, much more!
EIGHT-MAN BATTLE...
AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood), CM Punk, & Ricky Starks
vs.
BULLET CLUB GOLD (Jay White & Juice Robinson) & The Gunns (Austin & Colten)
A week ago in the main event of the first COLLISION, CM Punk and FTR, affectionately dubbed CMFTR, were victorious over Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe in their main event trios battle. That celebration should've been the end of the situation, after all it's not as if there was bad blood between the six men (save some long-standing professional competition between Joe and Punk), but when BULLET CLUB GOLD helped The Gunns beat The Hardys, and then continued to assault Jeff and Matt after the match, it brought Ricky Starks out for the save.
Then things escalated...
For Starks it was retaliation for all the hell Juice and “King Switch” have given him over the last several months, but when FTR hit the ring to try to even the odds, that was about The Gunns and their shared history, and when CM Punk joined in, well that was as an ally to Cash and Dax, forcing The Gunns and BC GOLD to tuck tail and run.
Perhaps they though that would be the end of it, but unfortunately for Austin, Colten, Jay, and Juice, there is still a piper to pay this Saturday night on COLLISION! CMFTR will become ABSOLUTE CMFTR when Ricky Starks joins the fight against BULLET CLUB GOLD and The Gunns at the Scotiabank Arena. Will this second edition of COLLISION be as triumphant for Punk and his allies as it was last week? Or will his four opponents find a way to get their moment in the sun?
OWEN HART FOUNDATION WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL...
NJPW STRONG Women's Champion Willow Nightingale vs. Nyla Rose
The Owen Hart Foundation Tournament is upon us once again, kicking off last night on RAMPAGE when Skye Blue bested Anna Jay A.S. to advance to the Semi-Finals of the tourney! With three matches left in the Quarter-Finals and six competitors remaining, the next bout will go down Saturday night on COLLISION, and just as with Friday night's fracas, it will be a first-time ever singles match!
While Willow Nightingale and Nyla Rose have clashed in a handful of tags and trios here in All Elite Wrestling, they've yet to lock up in singles competition, but that all changes this Saturday night in Toronto. Now in their previous tag and trios encounters, it is actually Willow who holds the winning record, her teams winning three of four bouts, with the most recent going down on May 17th in Austin, TX.
Last year Willow Nightingale was knocked out of the tournament in the Qualifying Rounds while Nyla Rose was not a participant, so for both women this is a huge opportunity, but more than that, as the NJPW STRONG Women's Champion, Willow Nightingale is also defending her position as champion, not because the title is on the line, but if Nyla can best her in match here, why wouldn't she deserve a championship match? Furthermore, Willow is also twenty-four hours away from fighting Toni Storm at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 with the AEW Women's World Championship on the line! Suffice to say, there's a whole lot wrapped up in this fight for Willow, big picture stuff that goes beyond The Owen.
Willow isn't the only competitor fighting Saturday night who also has a bout going down on Sunday's pay-per-view, she's not the only one having to question just how much to give of herself and how much to hold in reserve. But that's the thing with competitors like Willow, as well as the others set for FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 competition, they aren't likely to ever hold anything back!
ONE-ON-ONE...
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Swerve Strickland
Wow; that may be the only word to encapsulate what this match on COLLISION will be for the fans in attendance and those watching around the world. Take New Japan's Ace, a multi-time champion and one of the individuals who carried the company on his back through hard times, and throw him in with one of the most talented wrestlers to come down the pipeline in the last twenty years, and this is a recipe for in-ring magic...as long as The Mogul Embassy doesn't elect to mar the proceedings.
Now in the context of the weekend in Toronto, there's a drastic difference in what each man is set to experience. For Swerve, this is the only fight of consequence he has to endure, an important one absolutely, but still the only one he has to worry about. But Tanahashi, not only does he have to contend with Swerve Strickland, he also has an AEW World Championship fight on his plate with MJF twenty-four hours after this bout.
So what's the right thing to do? Converse energy for the title bout, or let it all hang out on Saturday to get the win and send a message to Maxwell ahead of their game? It's an age old question for an athlete, how much of themselves to devote to a fight when they know there's a bigger one, a more consequential one, on the horizon. That's not to denigrate Swerve at all, he is a superb athlete just one who has taken to shortcuts, but this isn't a title fight. So what to do, what to do? If Swerve can pull one out here, it will be a watershed moment for his career, one that certainly sends a message to NJPW, as well as one that puts Tanahashi at a low point heading into his title fight. For Tanahashi, winning this is key heading into a title fight, no one wants to head into such a high stakes situation coming off a loss. It's going to be an exciting night come Saturday on COLLISION!
WILL THE HOUSE FOLD?
Brody King vs. Andrade El Idolo
Last week on the premiere episode of COLLISION, The House of Black's Buddy Matthews and the returning Andrade El Idolo had an absolute war, physically decimating one another to the point the doctors questioned stopping the match, but ultimately ending with Andrade defeating Matthews. Unfortunately the aftermath of the match didn't leave Andrade looking like much of a winner, as the other 2/3 of the AEW World Trios Champions appeared in the ring and decimated the victor.
But this Saturday night on COLLISION, Andrade has a chance to even the score just a bit, and possibly win two straight against The House of Black, because he will collide with the behemoth Brody King this Saturday in Toronto!
Andrade is no strangers to the numbers game in professional wrestling, after all he was the “A” in AHFO, as well as a founding father of La Faccion Ingobernable, so he knows this dance quite well. The question is whether or not he will come to COLLISION prepared for the inevitability of The House of Black, or if he will go it solo against the deadliest trio AEW has seen thus far?
THE THIRD MAN...
History is about to be made at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 for numerous reasons, not the least of them being the very first time that Sting and Chris Jericho will battle one another inside the squared circle! Despite spending time in WCW together, as well as their shared time here in All Elite Wrestling, they've never once locked horns, but that will all change this Sunday night when Le Suzuki Gods of Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki take on Darby Allin, Sting, and...a partner yet to be revealed!
Who will be the third man for Sting and Darby? What are their ties to Jericho? We will find out Saturday night on COLLISION!
THE TNT CHAMPIONSHIP...
We are anticipating that Christian Cage will be on hand this Saturday night on COLLISION to address the TNT Championship. Last week Luchasaurus defeated Wardlow, with a little assist from Cage, to claim his first singles title in All Elite Wrestling, but looking at how the moment played out, one would think Christian was the man who won the championship.
So what could he possibly have to say about the TNT Championship situation this Saturday on COLLISION? His Right Hand of Destruction is the champion, the title is firmly in their camp, so what else is there to say about his cheating ways?
With FORBIDDEN DOOR 2023 24 hours away, the second edition of COLLISION comes to the AEW faithful tomorrow at 8:00pm ET/7:00pm CT, as well as at AEWPlus.com for AEW's international fans, and it features Tanahashi versus Swerve, ABSOLUTE CMFTR versus BC GOLD & The Gunns, Willow versus Nyla in the next Owen Hart Foundation Quarter-Final bout, and more!
Before the night gets underway, be sure to surf over to official AEW YouTube channel for highlights from this week's episodes of DYNAMITE and RAMAPGE, as well as the latest edition of ROAD TO, and much, much more!