AEW Collision Review - April 13, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews) def. Matt Sydal, Dante Martin and Action Andretti

House of Black will of course battle Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe at Dynasty, so this was basically a warm-up for them before then. More of Black in the ring is never a bad thing. Sydal, Martin and Andretti played their roles well. I don't know that this needed nearly 15 minutes considering the outcome was never in doubt, but at least they made the most of their time.

Katsuyori Shibata def. Lee Moriarty

This gave Shibata a small measure of revenge over Shane Taylor Promotions after losing to them in that six-man tag team match on Wednesday's Dynamite. I appreciated that Shibata didn't completely squash Moriarty and that it was a competitive contest. I don't know where Shibata goes from here or what his ceiling is, but I'm glad he's been featured as of late. Hook made the save for him afterward.

Daniel Garcia def. Angelico

This felt like a match you'd see on Rampage. Not that it was bad by any means, but Angelico can't be taken seriously in the slightest and Garcia is doing a whole lot of nothing right now. It was fine for what it was. I'm genuinely curious if there are any plans in place for Garcia, who was gradually building momentum coming out of the Continental Classic late last year and nearly won the AEW TNT Championship at Revolution but has been spinning his wheels since then.

AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm def. AZM in an AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Match

For those unfamiliar, AZM is a Stardom talent. AEW's new partnership means we'll be seeing plenty more stars from Stardom in AEW and Ring of Honor going forward. She had a solid showing and was able to score some offense before eating defeat. I understand why people wouldn't complain about Storm and Mariah May practically making out at this point, but it feels like a desperate attempt to keep Storm's act fresh.

Tony Schiavone Interviewed Thunder Rosa

Although it took a lot longer than I thought it would, Rosa vs. Toni Storm is a logical match to do for the AEW Women's World Championship considering Rosa was never beaten for the belt two years ago, but Rosa has been very cold since returning to the ring. I also think it's obvious Deonna Purrazzo will factor into the finish somehow and "accidentally" (or perhaps purposely) cost Rosa the title, but at least Rosa had a chance to hype the matchup with her promo here.

Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson) def. The Don Callis Family (ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher and Powerhouse Hobbs)

I don't want to say I expected a basic bout from these four, but I certainly didn't expect them to go all out they did and have a killer main event. This received a ton of time and was very entertaining with everyone involved working wonderfully together. You'd think Will Ospreay would have severed ties with The Don Callis Family by now, but perhaps they're waiting until after he faces Danielson to pull the trigger on that.

Overall Show

This was a fairly standard edition of Collision up until the main event, which was excellent and easily the best bout of the night. Collision continues to come off as an extension of Rampage and while some shows are stronger than others, it still doesn't feel as must-see as it did when it premiered last summer. There were no meaningful matches on this episode, but I would recommend making time for the main event.

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