AEW Collision Review - August 10, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Hologram and Darby Allin def. Premier Athletes (Josh Woods and Tony Nese)

If there was ever any question whether Collision has become inconsequential, look no further than this match right here. None of these guys have anything to do with each other at the moment and therefore this was a meaningless matchup. Was it well wrestled? Sure, but what did it really accomplish? Allin is better than this, Hologram should be racking up singles wins, and Premier Athletes are on TV far too much for my liking. What a random opener.

Thunder Rosa def. Deonna Purrazzo in a Texas Bull Rope Match

The Purrazzo vs. Rosa rivalry has gone on long enough that I'm not sure what they're even fighting over at this point, but to their credit, they had a hell of a match here in what was easily the strongest in their series. Blood is overdone in AEW, but it added to the intensity of this match and they made excellent use of the stipulation. This should've been saved for a future week where they could have been the main event.

FTR def. The Outrunners

A quick vignette for The Outrunners beforehand, so I appreciated that AEW tried to tell viewers more about them before they got swiftly squashed by FTR. There was no reason for this match to be anything more than what it was. FTR have had a handful of encounters with The Acclaimed lately, but The Acclaimed didn't show up here. It feels like it's going to be a three-way for the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All In with The Young Bucks defending against The Acclaimed and FTR. Otherwise, I don't know why they'd do the Bucks vs. The Acclaimed next Wednesday on Dynamite.

Rush def. Preston Vance

Don Callis made this match official after Rush got pinned in that six-man tag team match on Wednesday's Dynamite as he needed Rush to prove he could still be aggressive, even if he's facing one of his former friends. You know, La Faccion Ingobernable never actually ended, so as far as we know, these two never had a falling out. They had an average outing and it accomplished what it needed to with Rush winning decisively.

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland def. Tomohiro Ishii in an AEW World Championship Eliminator Match

This was an open challenge from Strickland. Thankfully, his title wasn't on the line as that would have been ridiculous two weeks out from All In, but it's still odd that the world champ was positioned in the middle of the show. I hated the no-selling throughout, but on the whole, they had a nice, hard-hitting affair. There was no reason to think Ishii would win, but it was a fine tune-up for Strickland before he defends against Bryan Danielson.

Kris Statlander Accepted CMLL World Women's Champion Willow Nightingale's Mixed Tag Team Challenge at All In

Nightingale teased a mixed tag team match at All In during a backstage segment on Friday's Rampage and it was made official here. It will be Nightingale and Ishii vs. Statlander and Stokley Hathaway. I was pretty disappointed when that was announced as I was hoping we'd get Nightingale and Statlander one-on-one at the event, but I understand they need to save some stuff for All Out two weeks later. This will be relegated to the pre-show, so they'll get to compete in front of the big crowd without taking up a spot on the main card.

Hikaru Shida def. Aleah James

James was impressive during her time on WWE's NXT UK brand. However, this wasn't about her as Shida beat her relatively quickly. It was designed to be an easy showcase win for her because she later challenged Mercedes Mone to an AEW TBS Championship match on Wednesday's Dynamite. It's kind of funny they would book that bout considering it's bound to be far superior to Mone vs. Britt Baker from an in-ring standpoint.

Jim Ross Conducted a Sit-Down Interview with Bryan Danielson

This was along the same lines as Ross' sit-down interview with Strickland on Dynamite in that it was very good. Ross has clearly lost a step due to medical issues, but he still did really well in the interviewer role here. Danielson consistently shines in this environment as well. He mentioned that he has neck surgery coming up soon, so he's trying to sell the retirement stipulation as hard as he can.

House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews) vs. Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson and The Gunns) in an AEW World Trios Championship No. 1 Contender's Match Ended in a Draw (AEW World Trios Champion Christian Cage Served as Special Guest Referee)

Perhaps this was explained, but I assume Christian was appointed the special guest referee by The Elite in storyline because that's the only way this makes sense. I have no idea who the crowd was supposed to cheer for between the two trios, but they did end up having a fun match and Christian was entertaining in his role. It predictably ended in a non-finish as it's obvious we'll be getting a multi-team match for the Trios titles at All In.

Overall Show

Everything was all over the place on this edition of Collision, but at least it was more worthwhile than usual with the AEW World Champion in action, the main event having something at stake, a new All In match announcement, and the Texas Bull Rope match that's worth seeking out. This was an above-average show by Collision standards and it'd be great if they followed this formula more often.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews