All Elite Wrestling is starting hot on the road to DYNASTY 2025 in Philadelphia with the announcement of the International Championship Eliminator Tournament fighting newly-crowned champion Kenny Omega on April 6th, and #1 Contender Swerve Strickland battling whoever holds the AEW World Championship at that time! Why is that up in the air? Because next week in Omaha AEW World Champion will defend the title against “The Rated R Superstar” Cope in a Street Fight!
That's next week though; tonight AEW returns to Las Vegas for our debut at The Theater at Virgin Hotels with an all-new live COLLISION! Tonight we will see the International Championship Eliminator Tournament continue as Ricochet faces The Opps' Katsuyori Shibata and Mark Briscoe takes on The Don Callis Family's Mark Davis! Plus, after their tremendous battle two weeks ago in Oakland, FTR and Undisputed Kingdom's Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong are going for round two!
AEW presents COLLISION tonight starting at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT streaming on MAX, as well as airing on TNT, and around the world via AEW PLUS! Prior to tonight's action, make a point to check out AEW's official YouTube channel to catch-up on highlights from Wednesday night's DYNAMITE, REVOLUTION 2025, and so much more! As mentioned above, after that we are heading to Omaha, NE and the Liberty First Credit Union Arena for a live DYNAMITE! Following that AEW heads to St. Paul, MN and the Roy Wilkins Auditorium for DYNAMITE on March 26th!
DYNASTY 2025 INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT....
Ricochet vs. The Opps' Katsuyori Shibata
Ricochet is coming off a difficult loss to Swerve Strickland in their #1 Contender Match at REVOLUTION 2025, but has the opportunity to rebound strongly in the DYNASTY 2025 International Championship Eliminator Tournament. A victory tonight on COLLISION moves him forward to the Four-Way battle during next week's DYNAMITE, a bout which Orange Cassidy and Speedball Mike Bailey have already qualified for, with the winner of that getting a shot at newly-crowned AEW International Champion Kenny Omega. Unfortunately for Ricochet he has to step into the ring with former ROH Pure Champion “The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata!
As a member of The Opps alongside Samoa Joe and HOOK, Shibata has his eyes on the World Trios Titles currently held by The Death Riders and their impressive undefeated streak certainly gives them plenty of credence for a championship bid. This one, however, is all about Shibata as a singles competitor and pushing towards his first AEW singles championship. As mentioned “The Wrestler” is a former ROH Pure Champion, and while he twice challenged for the International Title during Orange Cassidy's record-setting reign, as well as battled Konosuke Takeshita back in January, and fought Eddie Kingston for both the ROH World and NJPW STRONG Championships at WRESTLEDREAM 2023, he's yet to add an AEW championship to his trophy case. In addition, after watching the two men briefly cross paths on Wednesday night, the prospect of seeing Shibata versus Kenny Omega for the first-time come April 6th has the AEW faithful salivating at that possibility. Tonight Ricochet aims to play spoiler to both Shibata's aspirations and the hopes of the AEW fans!
Mark Briscoe vs. The Don Callis Family's Mark Davis
Mark Briscoe experienced a victorious moment last Sunday night during the REVOLUTION 2025: ZERO HOUR with Orange Cassidy and Big Boom! AJ as his partners, but tonight he's running solo with his own designs on capturing the first AEW title of his career. As for Mark Davis, his night in Los Angeles was not as celebratory as The Don Callis Family's attempt to sway the Will Ospreay/Kyle Fletcher Steel Cage match the way of “The Protostar” did not pan out as hoped. So tonight Davis begins his quest to bring the AEW International Championship back to The DCF at Kenny Omega's expense. It's not going to be an easy road for either Mark. These are two men game to throw down once that bell rings, and Davis certainly brings bombs when he steps into the ring. However this is just his second singles match in All Elite Wrestling whereas Mark has had the last two years to really find himself in that role after a career largely spent in tag team competition with late brother Jay Briscoe.
In the most difficult of times, Mark fought his heart out through the 2023 Continental Classic, he became the ROH World Champion in Philadelphia at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, and though he was robbed of that title by Chris Jericho and his Learning Tree, Mark persevered to fight through the 2024 Continental Classic where he dealt Kyle Fletcher his only loss in League play. Mark's been through hell and back over the last two years, but he's kept his head up through it all and never stopped fighting, not even when confronted with the madness of Gabe Kidd.
Will this fight be the beginning of Mark Briscoe's road back to another Philadelphia championship victory, or the start of Mark Davis establishing himself as a singles competitor the way he and Kyle Fletcher did in tag team wrestling as Aussie Open?
THE RETURN MATCH...
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. Undisputed Kingdom (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong)
The last time that FTR, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong went to battle against one another, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood had the match won. After a nasty piledriver on Kyle, Dax made the pin, referee Stephon Smith counted the three, and the battle was, for the moment, awarded to the 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions. However that victory was only momentary, and it wasn't because of the referee's call but rather because Dax caught something the official didn't: Kyle's foot on the bottom rope. As every fan of professional wrestling knows, that should disrupt the three-count, but only if the referee tasked with a match catches it. If they don't, well they can't call something they didn't see, and that's why Stephon was initially insistent that FTR were the victors of the contest.
Dax wasn't going to take a win that way, Cash wasn't going to accept a victory in that fashion either; so after much back-and-forth, the match was restarted at FTR's insistence, though given that Undisputed Kingdom left the match as the victors several minutes later it would be understandable if FTR had some regret about their choice. That doesn't seem to be the case though, they'd rather have the honorable victory than one tainted by everyone knowing Kyle's foot was on the ropes when the decisive pinfall happened. It's a respectable approach to the fight, one Undisputed Kingdom clearly appreciated, because tonight on COLLISION they are willing to step back into the ring with FTR for round two!
Will this rematch be a repeat victory for O'Reilly and Strong, or can FTR even up the series with Undisputed Kingdom? Which ever way the bout goes, this is the kind of match-up tag team wrestling aficionados love to see unfold in All Elite Wrestling!
ONE-ON-ONE...
Thunder Rosa vs. Megan Bayne
On Wednesday night's edition of DYNAMITE, Megan Bayne made an impact on many fronts. She laid out AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm after she spoke to the world about her REVOLUTION 2025 victory and her future as World Champion. Then, in the aftermath of Willow Nightingale versus Penelope Ford, Bayne struck again to lay out both Willow and Kris Statlander.
After such a dominating evening in Fresno, Megan Bayne comes to Las Vegas to face another of the many problems she has created since returning to All Elite Wrestling back in January: “La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa! Rosa was the first woman to try and welcome Bayne but her graciousness was rebuked immediately, and we've since watched it rapidly deteriorate into animosity. Most recently Bayne, along with Ford, defeated Rosa and Kris Statlander in tag team action, but this will be one-on-one competition! Rosa and Bayne are no strangers. In fact Bayne's second AEW match was against Rosa back on the 6/8/21 edition of AEW DARK. Rosa was victorious in that, as she was when they met seven months later outside the auspices of AEW, but Bayne has grown tremendously in the three years since that last singles bout, and seems determined on decimating the entire AEW Women's Division! Can Rosa have the same success against Megan Bayne she's had in the past and prove a roadblock to her ambitions? Or will Bayne break Rosa down the way she has everyone who has opposed her since the GRAND SLAM: AUSTRALIA Casino Gauntlet?
Tonight All Elite Wrestling presents COLLISION beginning at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on TNT, as well as streaming on MAX, not to mention around the world with AEW PLUS! We will see the DYNASTY 2025 International Championship Eliminator Tournament continue as Mark Davis fights Mark Briscoe and Ricochet takes on Katsuyori Shibata for the opportunity to advance to the Four-Way in Omaha. Plus, after a tremendous tag team contest two weeks ago, we will see FTR and Undisputed Kingdom II! Before it all gets started, pay a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to watch highlights from this week's DYNAMITE, from REVOLUTION 2025, and so much more content from the place where the best wrestle! Next week we are off to Omaha, NE and the Liberty First Credit Union Arena for a DYNAMITE set to feature an AEW World Championship Street Fight between Jon Moxley and Cope!!