Peoria Civic Center, Peoria, IL
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuiness
This being the go home show before the Dynasty PPV gives AEW a final chance to do some buisness before the event.
Collision as a show has really lost its way in the last few weeks to the point of being unbearable.
Maximum effort is needed for this show to get those final PPV buys before the big event.
The show started off hot with “The Rated R Superstar” Adam Copeland who always gets a great reception as soon as his Alter Bridge theme song hits.
Six Man Tag Team Match
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston, Marc Briscoe vs Top Flight and Action Andretti
Looks like this is was just a warm up match for Copeland and Co before their match at the PPV against House of Black.
Action Andretti started off the match imitating the Karate Kid stance, out of his trio he seems to be the one with the most personality.
Top Flight and Andretti got dominated in the early goings with the Copeland, Briscoe and Kingston tagging in and out, laying punishment to the younger competitors.
Top Flight made a bit of flurry to make a bit of a comeback with it culminating in all 6 men battling it out in the ring with everyone clotheslining each other.
Action Andretti was the unfortunate one was left in the ring to get a spinning back fist from Kingston then a spear from Copeland and to finish it off, Briscoe hit the elbow drop from the top ropes to get the pin-fall win.
Winner – Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston and Marc Briscoe
All men shook hands in the ring after a hard fought contest until House of Black appeared on the screen and sent a warning shot ahead of the Dynasty PPV.
A package played next hyping the match between Swerve Strickland and Samoa Joe as the main event of the Dynasty PPV.
Singles Match
Will “Powerhouse” Hobbs vs CJ Esparza
This was an enhancement match as Hobbs crushed his opponent in quick fashion.
Winner – Will Hobbs
Don Callis grabs the microphone and comes in the ring with Will Hobbs.
He said he had an announcement to make, he said he has made all the biggest matches for NJPW including the biggest being Omega vs Jericho in 2018.
He said he has cashed in his chips with them this week and made some calls to make the match on Dynamite for Will Hobbs vs Jon Moxley a IWGO Heavyweight title match.
A package played to build the match at Dynasty between Bryan Danielson and Will Ospreay.
Next was a recap from Dynamite of the altercation between Chris Jericho, Hook and Taz, this goes to a backstage promo from Jericho.
Jericho apologizes to Hook and Taz for his actions and admits he lost his cool.
Jericho doesn’t seem sincere with anything he is doing and is condesending and passive aggressive with his delivery.
He kept referring to himself as “The Learning Tree” and says he is going to teach Hook a lesson in humility so he went to Tony Kahn and asked for a FTW Title match at Dynasty and it was granted.
Jericho said he will beat Hook and teach him a valuable life lesson, he said it will hurt him a lot more than it will hurt Hook having to do this.
This is great stuff from Jericho, it’s hard to guess where this character change from Jericho s going and I admit I felt like his run was coming to an end in AEW as he became a bit stale but i like this character change and it’s given Hook something he sorely needed and that is a storyline.
Tag Team Match
The Gunns (with Jay White) vs The Acclaimed
Definitely a match that could have been on the PPV, this feud has been going for some time although it’s cooled off a bit in the last few weeks with both teams not consistently appearing on the shows.
Max Caster seems to be back to rapping as he comes to the ring with no mistakes.
The Acclaimed are really over with the crowd and I don’t understand why they haven’t been on TV as much as they used to.
Tony Schiavone announced that he got word from Tony Kahn that if the Gunns walk away from this match they will not have a match at Dynasty.
The Acclaimed jumped the Gunns and threw them in the ring.
Tony Schiavone on commentary said that these guys will face each other again at the pre-show of Dynasty which makes me wonder what is the point of this one?
The Acclaimed had a bit of miscommunication with Bowens knocking Caster out of the ring by mistake, Colton almost got the win with a leg on the rope but the referee spotted it.
A lot of back and forth from these two teams but it was the Gunns who stole the match with Colton Gunn grabbing Jay White’s Bat to gain leverage to pin Anthony Bowens.
Winner – The Gunns
Lexi is backstage with Bryan Danielson who says he feels good and is looking forward to getting revenge tonight against the Don Callis family, he is looking forward to testing himself against Will Ospreay at Dynasty.
Will Ospreay comes in the scene to tell Danielson he had nothing to do with any of the actions from the Don Callis family.
Danielson replied with “sure” and walks away with Ospreay looking frustrated that Danielson didn’t believe him.
Toni Storm was next with a promo from last week after Collision where she responded after getting lipstick smeared all over her face by Thunder Rosa.
This was shot really well with great lighting and was a nice change from just being backstage.
Storm asked for this to be shot in color to show the lipstick all over her face.
Storm cut another zany promo on Rosa.
Storm is untouchable in the women’s division when it comes to promo’s, I would even go as far to say she is best women’s promo in the biz.
Bunkhouse Brawl Match
Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli vs Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita
Fletcher and Takeshita jumped Danielson and Castagnoli from behind as they made their entrance, these guys brawled all over the place with Takeshita using a hammer on Castagnoli.
The Blackpool Combat Club looked they had it won with Castagnoli locking Takeshita in a Sharpshooter.
Danielson tried to take out Fletcher on the outside but was struck with a chair from Fletcher which busted Danielson open.
Fletcher broke the Sharpshooter with some powder to the eyes of Castagnoli.
Kyle Fletcher has really transformed himself over the last few months and is looking like he has packed on size to his once scrawny frame.
Castagnoli smashed Fletchers head multiple times on the steel steps eventually busting him open.
All four men battled it out in the ring until Castagnoli and Danielson had both men in a front face lock.
Powerhouse Hobbs came down the ramp and broke the holds.
Jon Moxley came through the crowd and got rid of Hobbs.
Fletcher and Takeshita tried to do a double team onto a chair off the top rope on Danielson but he reversed it with Takeshita landing on the upright chair.
Castagnoli clotheslined Fletcher with a chain, Danielson hit the flying knees and then choked Fletcher out with a chain.
Winner – Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli
Danielson grabbed the mic and cut a promo about how his idea of Heaven is different than everybody else’s and that bleeding in the ring in front of the fans is his “Heaven”
Danielson looked into the camera and had a message for Will Ospreay and that he was going to “Beat his ass”
Backstage Willow Nightingale is with Kris Statlander and Stokley Hathaway, She has her sights on Julia Heart ahead of their title match at Dynasty, she calls Heart a bitch with Stokley and Statlander acting like she just got owned.
Singles Match
Skye Blue vs “Legit” Leyla Hirsch
I have never seen Leyla Hirsch before but she comes comes from Moscow, Russia. Sky Blue isn’t the tallest girl but she a lot taller than this girl who is tiny.
This was a pretty obvious match and one the crowd didn’t seem to get into. Skye Blue tapped Hirsch out with the Dragon Sleeper.
Winner – Skye Blue
Six Man Tag Team Match
The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada vs FTR and PAC
This was a very long match with plenty of action, the guys brawled all over the ring and to the outside in the early goings.
Okada and the Bucks played the role of the villains, constantly bending the rules and frustrating their opponents and the crowd.
The match reached its crescendo when all 6 man battled it out in the ring hitting their big moves and a lot of super kicks until it was down to only PAC and Matt Jackson, PAC hit his Black Arrow from the top rope to pick up the win for his team.
Winner – PAC and FTR
After the match The Bucks and Okada jumped their opponents after the bell to have the final word but Daniel Garcia came down to the ring to stop them with the show ending with everyone staring at each other from afar.
Kevs Thoughts –
This Collision was leaps and bounds better than the previous weeks, they did a decent job of building the matches for the Dynasty PPV and the show was revolved around the matches for the PPV.
Still the show can ease up on these really long matches and put more effort into story’s and character development, they are still lacking in this department but in all this was an improvement from last week.
