The July 15th edition of AEW Collision included FTR defending the AEW World Tag Team Championship against Bullet Club Gold and both the men’s and women’s finals of the Owen Hart Tournament.
Highlights:
- After brief interviews from tonight’s competitors, the show started off with the 2-out-of-3 falls match with FTR defending the AEW Tag Team Championship against Bullet Club Gold. Terrific tag team action in one of the best TV tag matches I’ve ever seen as AEW proves once again they are unparalleled in terms of tag team wrestling. Jay White took the first fall with the the Blade Runner. FTR came back with the Shatter Machine to tie the match 1-1. After the second fall, the action spilled into the crowd between Dax and Jay almost leading to Bullet Club Gold being counted out. In just under one-hour Juice Robinson tapped out to Dax’s Sharpshooter allowing FTR to retain. Simply amazing.
- The second match of the night was the final of the Women’s Owen Hart Tournament with Ruby Soho falling to Willow Nightingale when her attempted shenanigans failed. Hard spot in the card to follow FTR and Bullet Club Gold but good match and big win for Willow, who was presented with the cup on the stage by Tony Khan, and furthered the storyline of Ruby not being quite good enough two years in a row.
- In the main event, Ricky Starks battled CM Punk for in the final of the Men’s Owen Hart Tournament. The crowd was evenly split between the two men at the start with Punk moving more into the heel role as the match continued with Starks playing more to the crowd. Starks won with the help of the ropes to the delight of the crowd and the surprise of Punk who is protected by the controversial pin. While the win could be seen as Starks putting one over on the heel, which a tweener face is allowed from time to time, his post-match celebration seemed to suggest he would be the one turning heel in this spot rather than Punk.
Less Notable:
- Kings of the Black Throne, with Julia Hart at ringside, got a quick squash win over local talent. Andrade El Idolo came out during the match but wasn’t allowed down to ringside by the AEW referees. The match was sandwiched between the two Owen Hart Tournament matches, but might have been better placed after FTR and Bullet Club Gold to allow the crowd a breather.
- Blood & Guts promo.
- Promos for Battle of the Belts VII.
- Locker room segment between QT Marshall and Powerhouse Hobbs that didn’t do much to further the split storyline that started after Marshall accidentally cost Hobbs a win over Starks in the tournament.
