Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting! Welcome to the eWn’s live coverage of AEW Collision. Following last week’s sensational premiere, there’s a lot on tap for this week ahead of tomorrow night’s Forbidden Door. We have a massive 8-man tag main event featuring CM Punk, Hiroshi Tanahashi’s debut match on AEW television and more.
- CM Punk, FTR, and Ricky Starks vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson, and The Gunns
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Swerve Strickland
- Brody King vs. Andrade El Idolo
- Powerhouse Hobbs vs. TBA
- Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament Match: Willow Nightingale vs. Nyla Rose
- Christian Cage will address the TNT Championship situation.
- Sting/Darby Allin reveal their tag team partner for Forbidden Door
- We’ll hear from Miro.
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Tony Schiavone kicks off Collision as he introduces Darby Allin and Sting, but instead, Judas hits… CHRIS JERICHO IS HERE ON AEW COLLISION! AND SO IS MINORU SUZUKI!
Chris Jericho reminds up as Toronto, “I am from Winnipeg, you idiots!” Jericho and Suzuki do a weird handshake. Isn’t that racial appropriation or summat? Jericho mentions how Sammy Guevara is not there (due to obvious seasons… wink, wink 😉) before addressing Schiavone and getting in his face.
Out come Darby Allin and STIIIINNNGGGG!! Darby sends a message to Sammy at home, before revealing their partner for Forbidden Door Tetsuya Naito! Out comes Naito, and there’s a long faceoff before Jericho and Suzuki get out.
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Next up is Miro in a pre-tape, who talks about God and how he now refuses to bow to him. He also referenced Lana. I dunno what he exactly said, but he said it well.
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#1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Swerve Stickland – Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tanahashi picked up the win, rallied on by the crowd, and Toronto was behind him all the way.
MJF’s music hits. But he’s not here. He instead appears on the titan tron. He does his usual thang before informing us that he & Tanahashi will kick off Forbidden Door tomorrow night. He lets Tanahashi know, “You’re not on the level of ‘The Devil.’”
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#2. Brody King vs. Andrade El Idolo – Winner: Andrade (via DQ)
The crowd was really behind El Idolo here. The finish saw Andrade with the Figure 4 synched in on Brody King, who was in a precarious position, but Buddy Matthews attacked him, causing a DQ finish.
Matthews and King continued the assault before Malakai Black appeared on the titan tron and the lights went out.
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Schiavone’s in the ring again and he introduced Christian Cage and Luchasaurus, one of whom is the TNT Champion. Christian talks about being in a bad mood last week, but then Luchasaurus won the TNT Championship. Cage realized he was coming to his hometown of Toronto this week… and then he got in an even worse mood.
The initially mixed Toronto crowd starts booing Christian Cage incessantly, as he starts trashing THEIR sports teams. He declares that there will be no more open challenges for the TNT Championship and that contenders will have to fight, scratch and claw to earn the title, the same way he did.
Christian also declares that he won’t be treating the TNT Championship like his own little vanity project like someone who used to travel the ‘Rhodes’ here, if you catch his drift… do ya catch Christian Cage’s drift? do ya? huuhh?
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We see a CM Punk-Satoshi Kojima vignette for ‘The Owen,’ before other participants also talk about the tournament.
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#3. Willow Nightingale vs. Nyla Rose – Winner: Willow Nightingale
To the utter shock and disbelief of the AEW Galaxy, The Outcasts appeared to take out Willow afterwards, but they were chased off by Sky Blue (of all people).
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In a pre-tape, Scorpio Sky declares that he is back, better than ever.
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#4. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Jeremy Prophet (Job Guy) – Winner: Powerhouse Hobbs
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IT”S TIME FOR THE MAIN EVENT! Out come Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson and Jay White) followed by The Gunns.
And out next is Ricky Starks. Huge pop! Followed by the AEW World Tag Team Champions, FTR. MASSIVE, MASSIVE OVATION.
Followed by CM PUNK! HOLY SHIZNIT, WHAT A REACTION! THAT’S A POLARIZED REACTION, AND A MUCH MORE HOSTILE CROWD THAN EVER FOR PUNK. THERE’S “CM PUNK! CM PUNK!” CHANTS MIXED WITH THE CROWD BOOING LOUDER THAN DOMINIK MYSTERIO.
And Punk is prepared. He doesn’t do “It’s Clobberin’ Time” and is smiling at the reaction he has elicited.
#4. CM Punk, FTR & Ricky Starks vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson & The Gunns – Winners: Jay White, Juice Robinson & The Gunns
Goosebumps throughout, this is mind-blowing! CM Punk tags in and he’s the biggest heel in the business, drawing more heat than when he did in his heyday with Paul Heyman. Punk tags out, and the crowd chants for him like the biggest babyface in the business.
In the ring, any offensive maneuver of his booed incessantly, and any offensive move against him is cheered wildly, while when Dax, Cash or Starks are in, they are being cheered on raucously.
I mean it’s Toronto, but goddamnit, THIS IS ON THE LEVEL OF HOGAN-ROCK AT MANIA X8. AND IT LOOKS LIKE PUNK IS HAVING THE TIME OF HIS LIFE, HIS WORK JUST SHOWS THAT!
The heels start getting heat on Punk for an extended period of time, and that’s finally starting to turn the crowd a little. The reaction has now shifted to 60-40 in the Punk’s favor, which is drastic from earlier.
I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE, ANYONE DRAW THIS KIND OF A REACTION EVER!
They are milking it, and there’s the hot tag! Mr. Absolute is in!
I am so engrossed here that I had forgotten I have some money riding on this one. Come on eWn, rally on the Punky and crew!
Back in the ring, Starks is spearing everybody, but the numbers game catches up to him, and Jay White lands the Bladerunner for the win!
And there goes my 50 bucks… down the drain. Goddamn! Still worth watching one of the craziest matches in professional wrestling.
What a main event! Do join us for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II tomorrow night, with Tony Mango. And I’ll see you next Friday for SmackDown. Until then…
