COLLISION action gets underway following the Atlanta Hawks/Milwaukee Bucks NBA game on TNT, and you can get ready for the excitement with a visit to AEW's official YouTube channel to watch highlights from DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, as well as previous editions of COLLISION! Then All Elite Wrestling returns to the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC for DYNAMITE: HOLIDAY BASH 2024 featuring TBS Champion Mercedes Moné defending against Anna Jay, Continental Classic Gold League action between Darby Allin and Will Ospreay, Blue League with The Beast Mortos versus Shelton Benjamin, plus we'll unfortunately hear from MJF! Fans in DC will also see Continental Classic action on RAMPAGE with Brody King versus Komander! After that it's off to New York City for a huge weekend of action at the Hammerstein Ballroom including ROH's FINAL BATTLE 2024, CHRISTMAS COLLISION, and DYNAMITE ON 34TH STREET!
CONTINENTAL CLASSIC...
Blue League
“The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher (9) vs. Mark Briscoe (3)
Kyle Fletcher has unquestionably been the star of the Continental Classic thus far; as the only man who's secured victories in all three of his matches, “The Protostar” stands atop the Blue League with nine points, although his methods of getting here have been rather...unscrupulous. He topped The Beast Mortos quite cleanly in his first C2 outing, but the victory over Shelton Benjamin only came because Kyle used the ropes for leverage and the win over Kazuchika Okada was a direct result of a low blow. One could make the argument that Fletcher was merely repaying “The Rainmaker” for how he scored victory in their September 4th DYNAMITE clash, but the lesson of two wrongs not making a right is something both those men should've learned a long time ago.
Be that as it may, tonight as he heads into his fourth match in the Blue League, “The Protostar” is five points ahead of Okada and TNT Champion Daniel Garcia, his two closest competitors in the field, and a whopping six points ahead of the man he faces tonight, former ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe!
Now Mark picked up a hard-fought victory over TNT Champion Daniel Garcia last week on COLLISION to get his first three points for 2024, a far cry from last year's tournament when they didn't come until his final match with Jay Lethal. What that means is Mark Briscoe can still take a run at the top spot though it would require winning this bout tonight against Fletcher as well as his final league bout against The Beast Mortos, and even then the best he could hope for would be a tie with Fletcher provided Kyle also loses his final bout with Daniel Garcia and Okada either loses out, or only wins one of his last two fights. It would also require Garcia to only get a victory in his Fletcher match, not in his bout with Shelton Benjamin. Speaking of Shelton, with only two tournament bouts under his belt and three points to his name, he's still got the potential to add nine more points in fights with Garcia, Okada, and The Beast Mortos.
All of that is a roundabout way of saying that even though “The Protostar” Kyle Fletcher is currently in control of the Blue League, there are still plenty of ways the Continental Classic could slip out of his grasp if he loses here tonight on COLLISION. Can Mark Briscoe be the man to spoil Fletcher's party and add another three points to his tally, or will Kyle solidify his spot at the top of the Blue League with 12 points, leaving only Shelton Benjamin with a hope of tying him?
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada (4) vs. The Beast Mortos (0)
Mathematically The Beast Mortos is extremely close to being eliminated from any possibility of winning the 2024 Continental Classic. His only route is victory in all three of his matches against Shelton Benjamin, Mark Briscoe, and here tonight against AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada, but even that requires Kyle Fletcher to fail in his two remaining bouts as well. There is that runner-up situation this year that will play out at WORLDS END 2024, but as far as taking the league victory, The Beast Mortos is behind the proverbial 8-ball.
On the other hand, though he's got just four points after three bouts, “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada can still claim league victory with a win here tonight and when he faces Shelton Benjamin in his final bout. Of course the math of it requires other men in the league to suffer losses, notably Daniel Garcia and Kyle Fletcher, but none of that matters unless there is a win tonight against LFI's Beast! Okada best leave the math to the statisticians, and worry about each fight as they come lest he lose focus on the goal of the reigning Continental Champion fighting in the finals of the Continental Classic!
WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CUP QUALIFIER FINALE...
Willow Nightingale vs. Jamie Hayter
On Thursday night's edition of ROH ON HONOR CLUB fans witnessed ROH Women's World Champion Athena qualify for the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup with a victory over ROH Women's World TV Champion Red Velvet, Billie Starkz, and “Legit” Leyla Hirsch.
Just last night during CMLL's event at Arena Mexico, Persephone defeated Zeuxis, Sanely, and Reyna Isis to earn that promotion's spot in the 4-Way Cup Finals on January 5th, and yesterday afternoon we learned that Stardom will hold a 16-Woman Tournament from December 20th-22nd featuring Hanan, Yuna Mizumori, Momo Watanabe, Saki Kashima, Syuri, Saya Iida, Fukigen Death, Ranna Yagami, Koguma, Waka Tsukiyama, Tomoka Inaba, Rina Konami, Suzu Suzuki, Hina, and Aya Sakura in order to determine their entrant into the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2024.
So with two entrants set in stone and a fourth to be determined in eight days time, the third entry into the International Women's Cup will be set tonight during COLLISION when Willow Nightingale and Jamie Hayter go one-on-one! Though they were both part of a 4-Way #1 Contender match two months ago, these two competitors have not faced off head-to-head since September 30, 2022 when Hayter defeated Willow on RAMPAGE. Both women have come so far since that meeting in Philadelphia, for one Nightingale was not even an AEW contracted competitor at the time of the match, but since then she's captured the CMLL World Women's Title, the NJPW STRONG Women's Title, the TBS Championship, as well as won the 2023 Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament, and captured the hearts of fans around the world.
For a time Hayter was riding a tremendous wave of success, defeating Toni Storm at FULL GEAR 2022 to claim the AEW Women's World Title just two months after that Willow match and holding it for 190 days until DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023 where a combination of injury and The Outcasts conspired to end her run.
Sadly that injury kept Hayter out of action for 15 months until she made her shocking return to the AEW stage at ALL IN: LONDON 2024 just four months ago. Since that night Hayter has made it her mission to right the wrongs inflicted upon her, and to get back to the championship she was robbed of in Las Vegas in May of 2023. She's 6-1 since returning to competition, 6-0 in one-on-one matches, with that sole blemish stemming from that aforementioned 4-Way Contenders Match won by Willow when she pinned Saraya. Willow, on the other hand, isn't coming into this fight on such a hot streak; in fact this is just her second AEW bout since losing to Mercedes Moné at WRESTLEDREAM 2024 back in October. Thus for the former TBS Champion, that meant the fight with Serena Deeb last week was about dusting herself off and trying again, which led to Willow scoring a thunderous victory over “The Professor” to advance to this match!
So will it be Hayter who rides her momentum into the Tokyo Dome on January 5th for her first Japanese trip since 2020, or will it be Willow Nightingale who returns to Japan for the first time since losing the NJPW STRONG Women's Title in July 2023?
TAG TEAM CONTENTION...
Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) vs. Action Andretti & Top Flight
So after weeks of Top Flight, Action Andretti, and Lio Rush not collectively being on the same page and Leila Grey being somewhat stuck in the middle of it all, the four men are going to settle their differences inside the squared circle tonight on COLLISION! Furthermore, based on their engagement with Private Party during the above embedded video, the winner of this bout will be next in line for an AEW World Tag Team Championship match!
Admittedly there is far more experience in this situation on the side of the Martin brothers, they came into AEW as a tag team and though they've been divided several times by injuries to each man, when they've been able to put in the tag team work, Dante and Darius have been electrifying. They've scored wins over The Young Bucks, MxM Collection, The Butcher & The Blade, Premier Athletes, and let's not forget Private Party earlier this year. On the other hand, Lio Rush and Action Andretti have only had one match together as a tag team in AEW and that was back in September when they fell to House of Black (Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black) on RAMPAGE.
What's quite fascinating about this entire scenario requires circling back to those aforementioned injuries Dante and Darius have suffered during their AEW career. The involvement of both Action Andretti and Lio Rush in their lives is a direct result of said injuries as, when Darius was injured in 2021, it was Lio Rush who temporarily slid into a partnership role with Dante just as it was Action who stepped up as Darius' partner when Dante's career was nearly ended at ROH's SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023 event. For better or worse, Top Flight essentially invited this into their lives three years ago, but it's only been over the last several months that it's turned in the tense situation we have before us.
Lio Rush may have said “no hard feelings”, but it's quite interesting that he said it directly to Darius rather than Dante given that's who allowed him into this situation in the first place. Just as it's quite interesting to note who Leila Grey stood at the side of Lio as Dante spoke, but chose to walk away from the situation with Top Flight.
While this is ultimately all about the World Tag Titles held by Private Party, one has to question if the bond between these four men that's been established over the last three-plus years is strong enough to endure stepping into the ring and punching each other in the face?
TEN-MAN TAG TEAM BATTLE!
TNT Champion Daniel Garcia, Orange Cassidy, Komander, & The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
vs.
Premier Athletes (Ariya Daivari, Josh Woods, & Tony Nese) and MxM Collection (Mansoor & Mason Madden)
This is going to be chaos, of that there is no question, but perhaps a little bit of chaos is what someone like Orange Cassidy needs as he's embroiled in this war for the soul of All Elite Wrestling with AEW World Champion Jon Moxley and The Death Riders. Perhaps a little bit of chaos is what TNT Champion Daniel Garcia and Komander need as they are wrapped up in the heat of the 2024 Continental Classic, the latter in the Gold League while the former is in the Blue. As for The Outrunners, well chaos is where they've been thriving since 1964 when Mid-South Coliseum opened its doors!
Tonight those five men unite in 10-Man tag action to face the ever unpredictable MxM Collection of Mansoor and Mason Madden and the talented trio of Premier Athletes comprised of Josh Woods, Tony Nese, and Ariya Daivari! Whether you love them or hate them, no one can deny that “Smart” Mark Sterling's collection of competitors are among the best athletes in All Elite Wrestling, yet picking up crucial victories has been the bane of their existence as of late. Will a unified front with the catwalk competitors be the key to success when faced with this all-star unit of talent?
ALSO IN ACTION:
-3-Time AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm!
-Former TBS Champion Kris Statlander!!
-And More!!!
Tonight, COLLISION will kick off following the Atlanta Hawks/Milwaukee Bucks NBA game on TNT, and features C2: Blue League contests pitting The Beast Mortos against AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and Mark Briscoe versus Kyle Fletcher! We'll also find out who moves onto the Tokyo Dome on January 5th for the WRESTLE DYNASTY 2025 International Women's Cup when Willow Nightingale faces Jamie Hayter, Top Flight will battle Action Andretti and Lio Rush with a future World Tag Team Championship match at stake, and we'll also see both Kris Statlander and Toni Storm in action!
Get ready for the COLLISION action with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel to catch highlights from DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, as well as previous editions of COLLISION! Then join us at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC for DYNAMITE: HOLIDAY BASH 2024 where TBS Champion Mercedes Moné defends her title against Anna Jay, we will see Continental Classic Gold League action between Darby Allin and Will Ospreay, and we'll be subjected to words from MJF! Following that, we head to New York City for a huge triple shot of action at the Hammerstein Ballroom including ROH's FINAL BATTLE 2024, CHRISTMAS COLLISION, and DYNAMITE ON 34TH STREET!