AEW Collision Review - April 2, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW Continental Champion Jon Moxley def. Anthony Bowens in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator Match

I was high on Bowens as a singles star when he first broke away from Max Caster last year, but it didn't take long for AEW to squander any momentum he had, and now he's back to teaming with Caster. Or at least he was as a few months ago. My point is, I have no idea why he needed to have such a competitive contest with Moxley when the outcome was never in doubt and it didn't feel like Bowens gained much in defeat. Post-match, it was established that Will Ospreay will indeed be coming for Moxley's AEW Continental Championship at Dynasty.

AEW Women's World Tag Team Champions The Divine Dominion def. Kristara and Ava Lawless (Non-Title)

Divine Dominion haven't been together for very long (Lena Kross was quickly catapulted into championship contention because of Penelope Ford's untimely injury), but they've already developed great chemistry as partners and it's smart to continue cementing them as a dominant force by giving them squash wins. This was more of the same from them, but it was short and sweet.

AEW TBS Champion Willow Nightingale def. Hikaru Shida

This was an open challenge from Nightingale. I couldn't even tell you the last time I remember seeing Shida on AEW TV, though I do know there was a recent report from Fightful that she was able to appear at any time but just wasn't being used. I'd like to think Tony Khan saw that report and was reminded that she's still under contract. At any rate, this was a good match. It was announced later on that Nightingale will defend against the returning Queen Aminata next Wednesday on Dynamite.

AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR def. Mo Jabari and London Lightning (Non-Title)

Similar to Divine Dominion's match earlier, this served as a successful showcase for FTR ahead of their AEW World Tag Team Championship clash with Adam Copeland and Christian Cage at Dynasty and was thankfully on the shorter side. Speaking of Cope and Christian, they showed up afterward to get physical with FTR. It wasn't anything super significant, but it was an effective angle.

Tommaso Ciampa def. Juice Robinson

Ciampa beat Ace Austin on last week's Collision and got revenge on Robinson this week for getting thrown out of the Blackjack Battle Royal by him at Revolution. It's a fine midcard story, but my hope is that Ciampa winning these back-to-back matches means he's ready to set his sights back on the AEW TNT Championship. They had a quality contest, but Bang Bang Gang doesn't mean much these days.

The Don Callis Family (Andrade El Idolo and Mark Davis) def. The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz and Dezmond Xavier)

The Rascalz already lost to Davis and Kyle Fletcher a week ago. Was it really necessary for them to eat another loss to The Don Callis Family this week, especially if Andrade and Davis being a makeshift team? The match was solid, though. The post-match angle left me feeling like Myron Reed will be next to challenge Kazuchika Okada for the AEW Continental Championship, but I'm not sure if that's worthy of the Dynasty card.

The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong) and AEW World Trios Champions Kevin Knight and Mistico def. The Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta and Claudio Castagnoli) and The Dogs (David Finlay and Clark Connors) in a Tornado Tag Team Match

This match felt like it happened simply for the sake of happening. There wasn't anything wrong with it from an in-ring standpoint and the action was enjoyable, but some setup would've been appreciated. I know that The Conglomeration are still feuding with The Dogs for some reason, but what's Knight and Mistico's connection with Death Riders? Is that supposed to be leading to Death Riders getting a shot at the AEW World Trios Championship? That wasn't made clear since they lost here.

Overall Show

This was a rare Thursday edition of Collision, presumably due to March Madness airing in its place on Saturday. I'm always down for Collision airing earlier in the week than usual simply so I can get it over with (and I don't mean that as a bad thing, I just prefer to be free on a Saturday night or don't want to catch up on it the next day!). Nonetheless, this was a thumbs-up episode despite not featuring anything too newsworthy and the two hours breezed by.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews