‘AEW: Collision’ Review (Aug 10th 2024)
Welcome to this week’s review of AEW’s, Collision, which brings wrestling back to Saturday nights! We’ve got the commentary team of Tony Schiavone and Nigel McGuinness calling the action, so let’s get into the review!
Match #1: Darby Allin & Hologram def. Premier Athletes (Tony Nese & Josh Woods)
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Josh Woods shoved Hologram into the corner. Nese tagged in but Hologram hit an arm drag on Nese. Darby grabbed a tag and he and Hologram overwhelmed Nese with a flurry of offensive. Sterling grabbed Darby’s ankle from outside the ring and Woods took advantage of the distraction Sterling created with a German Suplex on Darby. Woods dumped Darby with a back breaker-lariat combination. Nese smelled blood in the water and tagged his partner. Nese cradled Darby for a near fall. Darby fought his way out of the opposition’s corner and made the tag to Hologram. Hologram spiked Woods with a DDT and followed up with a rising knee strike. Sterling interfered again, grabbing Hologram’s ankle from the ring apron, but Darby came to Hologram’s aid with a Coffin Drop to the outside. Hologram took down Woods with a crucifix pin and scored the 1-2-3!
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #2: Texas Bull Rope Match – Thunder Rosa def. Deonna Purrazzo
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Thunder Rosa connected with two lariats and a sit out senton. She grounded and pounded Deonna. “The Virtuosa” left the ring but Thunder Rosa yanked the rope and pulled Deonna hard into the ring apron. Thunder Rosa whipped Deonna into the steel ring steps. Thunder Rosa cracked Deonna with a backstabber in the ring. Deonna gained control of the cowbell, clocking Thunder Rosa in the head with it, drawing first blood! Back in the ring, Thunder Rosa pulled Deonna off the top rope and onto a pile of steel chairs that Deonna had brought into the ring. Thunder Rosa dropkicked Deonna in the face, sandwiching her between the turnbuckles and a steel chair. Deonna managed to put Thunder Rosa in the Tree of Woe in the turnbuckles. Deonna speared Thunder Rosa, who had been tangled upside down in the corner. Deonna power bombed Thunder Rosa and followed up with a Gotch style piledriver, but Thunder Rosa kicked out at the two-count. Deonna put Thunder Rosa on a table in the ring and whipped her with the bull rope. Deonna climbed up the turnbuckles, but Thunder Rosa met her up there and smashed Deonna through the table with an avalanche bulldog. Thunder Rosa planted Deonna with a shoulder breaker and scored the pinfall victory!
My Score: 3.5 out of 5
Match #3: FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) def. The Outrunners (Turbo Floyd & Truth Magnum)
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Truth knocked down Cash with a shoulder tackle and then posed. Cash fired back with shoulder tackles of his own, and then flexed. The Outrunners smashed Cash with a double elbow drop. Cash tagged out to Dax and he and Cash ruled the ring, knocking both Outrunners over the top rope with clotheslines. Dax chopped down Truth with a big lariat. Dax dumped Turbo on his head with five consecutive German Suplexes followed up by a piledriver! FTR pumped the brakes on Turbo with the Shatter Machine and picked up the pin!
My Score: 3 out of 5
Match #4: Rush def. Preston Vance
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Preston planted Rush with a spinebuster. Rush grabbed Preston and whipped him into the guardrails outside the ring. Rush battered Preston with chops and then chomped on Preston’s forehead. Back in the ring, Preston rocked Rush with a discus lariat. Preston charged at Rush, but Rush countered with a suplex, launching Preston into the turnbuckles. Rush smoked Preston with the Bull’s Horns and pinned Preston. Don Callis smiled backstage as Rush picked up another victory here in AEW. After the match, Rush smashed Preston Vance with the Bull’s Horns again! Referees ran down to prevent Rush from inflicting anymore punishment on Preston.
My Score: 2 out of 5
Match #5: Swerve Strickland def. Tomohiro Ishii
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Swerve pulled out a quick dropkick on Ishii. The champ was cool, calm and collected here. Ishii knocked down Swerve with a shoulder tackle. Swerve fired off forearms, but Ishii didn’t budge. Swerve switched strategies on the fly and nailed Ishii with a side suplex. Swerve took flight, vaulting over the top rope, flipping, and landing on Ishii on the arena floor. Ishii superplexed Swerve for a near fall! Swerve ate a lariat from Ishii. Swerve face planted Ishii for a two-count. Ishii staggered the champ with a headbutt, but Swerve rallied back with a headbutt and a brain buster for a near fall! Ishii ducked the House Call and ran into Swerve with a lariat, showing his fighting spirit! Swerve put an end to Ishii’s momentum with a double foot stomp. Swerve connected with the House Call out of nowhere and pinned Ishii!
My Score: 3.5 out of 5
Match #6: Hikaru Shida def. Aleah James
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
Shida hit a German Suplex on James. Shida followed up with a swinging neck breaker on the mat, and then cracked Aleah James with a knee strike. Shida landed the Falcon Arrow and pinned Aleah James in decisive fashion!
My Score: 0 out of 5
Match #7: The House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) vs. Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson & The Gunns – Austin & Colten) [No Contest]
The following is courtesy of allelitewrestling.com:
The Bang Bang Gang triple teamed Buddy with a flurry of offense. Juice cracked Buddy with a headbutt. Matthews crawled to his corner, making the tag to Malakai. Malakai used a leg sweep on Juice. Brody rocketed out of the ring and wiped out the Bang Bang Gang with a tope suicida! Juice jabbed at Brody. Colten dropkicked Brody. Juice splashed Malakai with a cannonball in the corner. Brody got blasted with the 3:10 to Yuma but Buddy jumped in to break up the pin attempt. Black wiped out Austin with the End kick! Colten nailed Black with a spinning neck breaker. Brody walloped Colten with a Bossman Slam! Juice spiked Brody with a DDT. Buddy jumped on Juice with a meteora. Both teams were down for the count! Christian began the 10-count! Buddy got to his feet, but Christian Cage speared him, calling for the bell, claiming neither team made it to their feet before the 10-count! The Patriarchy members rushed to the ring! The Patriarchy assaulted both teams with steel chairs!
My Score: 4 out of 5
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
The improvement over July’s less-than-stellar shows in recent weeks has, thankfully, turned things around on Saturday nights for AEW. In fact, the Texas residency for this show does seem to be really working – as evidenced in this week’s episode of Collision. As noted by some folks on X (fka Twitter), this week’s Collision also had some really great promos – that both felt real AND had fantastic production values. This week’s episode opened strong with a tag match featuring the impromptu team of Darby Allin and Hologram, who looked and moved like they’d been tagging for years! And thankfully, the Premier Athletes didn’t roll over for this match either! That match was swiftly followed by a fantastic Texas Bull Rope match that, once again, really let AEW’s female talent shine in a match that held nothing back – though not up to the awesomeness that was the ROH match between Leyla Hirsch and Diamante, this was still a superb match. And surprise, surprise, FTR’s style was very well matched by throwback team The Outrunners and it was great to see the latter given a high-profile slot on the show too. Ruch versus Preston Vance was almost, almost, a squash match but managed to stay on the right side of things; unlike the women’s match between Hikaru Shida and Aleah James, which was 100% a squash. Poor James, moves from WWE to AEw to get squashed in her first match! The Strickland/Ishii match was as good as expected – Swerve is one of those guys who can make anything work against any opponent and up against someone as seasoned and goddamn tough as Ishii made Swerve look like he could take on a literal giant in the ring and still win! As for the main event. Wow. How the hell, did this one end up so good? The Bang Bang Gang aren’t exactly the most solid of tag teams and you’d expect House of Black to dominate but that was not the case! As for the interference from The Patriarchy, well that just made things all the more interesting TBH. Ultimately this was a great week of Collision, probably the best show of the week for AEW overall too!
