AEW Collision 2nd April - RECAP

For Collision I will just be doing a shorter form recap without going into massive details like I do with Dynamite. Instead I will just recap what happened.

Jon Moxley defeated Anthony Bowens. The story here was that Hook is apparently recruiting members for The Opps while Samoa Joe is injured and Bowens wanted to impress him. He made a good account of himself and Moxley gave him a lot in this match. Bowens tried to use a steel chair on Moxley unsuccessfully and ultimately Moxley won the match with a Death Rider. They went for about 15 minutes (of a 20 minute time limit).

Post-match Ospreay hit Moxley with a hidden blade and went to get a steel chair but Garcia, PAC and Marina Shafir pulled Moxley to safety and they fled through the crowd. Ospreay ticked off another curse word on his bucket list, calling Moxley a “little cunt” (which got bleeped) he challenged Moxley to put the Continental Title on the line at Dynasty. Tony Khan immediately made the match with the title on the line as we got a graphic on screen.

Backstage Kazuchika Okada was with Detective Andrade and Mark Davis, they said they were going to get revenge for Kyle Fletcher being injured last week in a match against the Rascalz and Okada said Takeshita didn’t care about Kyle.

Divine Dominion won a squash match against two jobbers in a Women’s Tag Team Match.

Backstage Moxley cut a promo with the Death Riders saying he didn’t need to beat Ospreay and that Ospreay was going to beat himself.

Backstage The Hurt Business cut a promo with MVP saying Bobby Lashley was back from injury and that they were recruiting again.

TBS Championship: Willow Nightingale © defeated Hikaru Shida. Good match, Shida answered the challenge after being away for over 500 days. Nightingale retained with a Backslide. Post-match Shida went to hit Willow with her kendo stick but she changed her mind, Willow was oblivious to this as she had her back turned. Shida hit the stick on the mat in frustration.

FTR won a squash match against two jobbers, they came out with a security detail to the ring. Stokely hilariously took a sign from a fan in the front row as they made their entrance and showed it to the camera. 

Immediately post-match Christian’s music played and he walked out on the stage with a chair. Then Cope’s music plays and Cope & Cage wipe out security with steel chairs.  FTR got the jump on Cope & Cage but Christian low-blowed Dax and Cope hit the Impaler DDT on Cash. Christian went to give a Con-chair-to to Cash but Stoke ran in and stole the chair from him. Strangely two members of the security team then came back in and jumped Cope & Cage from behind, but Christian hit one with a Killswitch and Cope speared the other. Christian delivered a Con-Chair-To to one of the security guys as Stoke looked on, incredibly scared.

Brawling Birds and Mina Shirakawa cut a promo after Dynamite, Jamie Hayter challenges Thekla to a match for the Women’s World Championship at Dynasty. Mina tells her to beat the piss out of her.

Tomasso Ciampa defeated Juice Robinson. Juice looked good in this one. During the match Ciampa drank water from Tony Schiavone’s water bottle and spat it in Juice’s face. He then went over to Tony thanking him and offered him a high five, then when Tony went for the high five he moved his hand away and Nigel said he got served. Tony called him a son of a bitch. Juice’s chest got destroyed from chops. Juice hit a Cannonball on Ciampa against the guard rail on the outside. Ciampa won after two knee strikes. After the match he kisses Juice on the cheek which Tony says is “in celebration I would guess”.

Isiah Kassidy cuts a promo he says it’s time for Private Party to change, he says Moxley took out his boy and now he’s on his own. He says he’s going to eat because he’s starving for opportunity.

Darby Allin promo from after Dynamite, he says he has to get through Andrade to get a World Title shot. Brody King and Jack Perry interrupt, they talk about the things Darby has done to them. Darby says they all hate the Don Callis family and can coexist for one night which they agree to - they will have a six man tag match next week on Dynamite.

Spanish Detective Andrade El Idolo & Mark Davis defeated The Rascalz (Zachary Wence & Desmond Xavier). I was disappointed that Andrade wasn’t in his detective garb, he came out wearing a white jacket and white gear. Don Callis joined commentary. Kyle Fletcher got injured apparently last week but the commentators don’t know the extent of his injury, they ask Don what the injury was and Don said he was suffering from Handsome-itis but he’s going to make a full recovery. Tony asks if that makes you limp, and Don says Tony is the expert on being limp. I couldn’t stop laughing. Nigel says it’s not contagious and Don begs them to call the wrestling match. Two Women’s matches were added to Dynasty during this match, Thekla vs. Jamie Hayter for the Women’s World Championship and on Zero Hour, Alex Windsor will face Marina Shafir. During the match Andrade stops to take a selfie with an attractive woman in the front row, Don says they charge $20 for a Polaroid photo, and $40 for a kiss. Tony says he wants a polaroid, and Nigel says Tony wants a kiss too. Commentary were hilarious in this match and it got even more ridiculous. Tony says Andrade took someone’s shirt and Excalibur said it was Desmond Xavier’s, Tony says he’s glad it wasn’t a fan’s. Don said the best part of the match will be coming up soon for Tony, because Andrade is going to take his pants off. I was crying with laughter, maybe I should watch Collision every week? Does he actually do that like Taichi used to in New Japan? I have no idea. Davis hit the gutwrench piledriver which Nigel called a Pendulum piledriver on Wence then Andrade hit the DM for the win.

Post-match after Andrade and Davis had left, Okada came out with Roppongi Vice and they jumped the Rascalz. But Myron Reed who is a third Rascal took out the Don Callis crew single handedly. RPG Vice were selling the Cope and Cage attack from Dynamite, with Trent having taped ribs.

Main Event: Eight Man Tornado Tag Match: The Dogs (Clark Connors & David Finlay) and Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta) vs. Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong, Mistico & Kevin Knight. They plugged that Jericho would be on Dynamite next week. Big party match which was chaotic as you would have expected. The Dogs and Orange Cassidy & Roderick Strong would eventually fight to the back, leaving Death Riders vs. Mistico & Knight. Knight pinned Yuta with the UFO Splash as Mistico held Claudio down. Post-match “Speedball” Mike Bailey came out to celebrate with his partners as the Trios champions to close the show.

Stokely Hathaway is most unimpressed with a fan's sign

Stokely Hathaway is most unimpressed with a fan's sign

The Wonderful Review

First time watching Collision and it was fine, it had the same commentators as Dynamite but with Tony leading things and Excalibur doing less. There were more squash matches, but they were fine in their execution.

Probably one of the funniest shows I've watched in a long time, with Don Callis on commentary.

I've always liked Juice Robinson's work from his New Japan days, and I thought he looked good. Tomasso Ciampa looked great too.

Okada should lead his own group, I want to see him like a mob boss. I thought he looked like a dork though with the Rascal man taking Okada and Roppongi Vice out, although well done to Trent for selling the chair attack from the previous night.

Presumably Death Riders will challenge for the Trios belts? Claudio might do something with Mistico?

This was a fine show but didn't feel like a big show. It just progressed things along.