The July 1st edition of AEW Collision saw MJF defend the AEW World Championship in an impromptu match against Ethan Page, multiple Owen Hart Tournament matches featuring Ricky Starks, Powerhouse Hobbs, Samoa Joe, and more, and a title defense for Kris Statlander against Lady Frost.
Highlights:
- After short promos setting up the Owen Hart Tournament matches tonight, we jump straight into MJF beating a local jobber in a couple of moves. After the match, in full heel mode, while talking trash to the locals and offering to put the title on the line to anyone from Hamilton, Ontario, enter Hamilton’s own All-Ego Ethan Page to cut a strong promo accepting the open challenge in full face mode. The match focused on MJF attacking Page’s left knee and Page fighting through the pain until falling to the Heatseeker. Nice appearance for Page, the question is where does he go from here?
- The second match of the night was an Owen Hart Tournament Quarterfinal match with Dustin Rhodes falling to Powerhouse Hobbs. Match was memorable for a multiple close pins for Dustin including one after a Cross Rhodes followed by a piledriver, and the interference from QT Marshall leading Hobbs to victory.
- Recap of last week’s tag team match lead into Tony Schiavone‘s in-ring interview with Bullet Club Gold including the group’s new members the Ass Boys (followed by a backstage rebuttal from the faces in the locker room to Bullet Club’s tough talk). This led into Juice Robinson‘s match with Ricky Starks in an Owen Hart Quarterfinal Match. With Bullet Club Gold barred from ringside, Starks got a close win against Robinson in the expected finish (although it felt like either man could eek out a victory with Robinson dominating a large segment of the match). Bullet Club Gold’s attempt to ambush Starks after the match was prevented by CM Punk (getting significant heel heat from the crowd) and FTR.
- Lexy Nair‘s backstage interview with Christian Cage and Luchasaurus was interrupted by Shawn Spears, following up his recent win on AEW Rampage, showing an interest in the TNT Championship and promising to see the pair soon. Nice little mini-feud for Spears could be fun, especially if the tone is going to be him proving to Christian he should be taken seriously.
- Roderick Strong and Samoa Joe pre-taped promo segment highlighting their history together over the years helping to promote tonight’s main event. CM Punk joined the commentary team for the match. Exactly the kind of hard-hitting match you would expect from the pair with Joe getting the win and setting up a Joe vs. Punk match in the next round of the tournament. Before leaving, Joe got in a cheap shot on Strong, bringing out paramedics and Adam Cole while Joe made his way to the back. Despite the mixed reaction he got earlier in the night, with Strong being carried off on a stretcher and a concerned Cole at his side, Punk received nearly all cheers alone on the ring apron as the show came to a close.
Lows:
- Lexy Nair’s backstage interview with Andrade El Idolo was little more than an incomprehensible temper tantrum over the House of Black stealing his mask. I get what they were going for here, but the segment didn’t make anyone look good.
Less Notable:
- Kris Statlander defeated Lady Frost in another successful TBS title defense. Solid match, with the crowd behind Statlander, but there were a couple of slightly awkward spots and some timing not quite as crisp as it could have been likely due to the pair not having experience working with each other much. Not a miss, but the weakest match of the card.
- Miro defeated The WorkHorsemen’s Anthony Henry.
- Replay of the Wheeler Yuta promo promoting his match with Kenny Omega next week.
