AEW Collision Review - August 16, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH Interim Women's World Television Champion Mina Shirakawa Saved AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm from ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Billie Starkz

Yes, that's a lot of champions in one segment. This was pretty simple stuff, but it was effective as far as building toward Storm vs. Athena at Forbidden Door. Shirakawa's been gone since Athena injured her at All In, so her returning was notable. It was also announced this week that Athena will defend her ROH Women's World Championship against Shirakawa at Death Before Dishonor in two weeks, so this furthered both of Athena's feuds.

The Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta and Jon Moxley) def. JetSpeed

Moxley already beat Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight in singles matches, so I thought the babyfaces might pull out the victory here by pinning Yuta. They probably should have, but sadly, that was not the case. The match was entertaining enough to where the outcome didn't bother me that much. Darby Allin obviously hates Moxley, but he won't give JetSpeed an assist when they face him. What a selfish prick.

Ricochet def. Ace Austin

I thought for sure Austin was bound for WWE NXT when he left TNA earlier this year, so I was surprised to see him wind up in AEW. However, I'm not complaining. He should do well and at least he's finally on a bigger platform. The match itself was fun and Austin only lost because he was outnumbered by Ricochet and The Gates of Agony. Ricochet should be winning more than he loses and Austin loses nothing in defeat (provided he follows up on this with some wins of his own).

Paragon (Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly) def. Lee Johnson and Blake Christian

This was such a quick and inconsequential match that I'm not sure what purpose it was supposed to serve other than giving Paragon a win and possibly a momentum boost. That said, they weren't even included in the AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament, so I doubt they'll be chasing the tag titles anytime soon. Meanwhile, Johnson and Christian recently said on ROH TV they have their sights set on the ROH World Tag Team Championship, but I doubt much of the AEW audience cares about that and thus their loss was expected.

FTR Attacked Brodido

FTR attacked and demasked Bandido in the back before attacking Brody King in the ring. The two teams will meet in the finals of the aforementioned AEW World Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament this Wednesday on Dynamite, so this was a basic angle to build toward that. I know Stokley was selling the beatdown from Adam Copeland from Dynamite, but I wouldn't have put him back on television three days later.

Kris Statlander def. Julia Hart, Penelope Ford and Anna Jay in a $100,000 Four-Way Match

In storyline, Tony Khan has given away so much money in random matches this year that you'd think more people on the roster would be upset that he wasn't giving everyone raises instead. In all seriousness, this was a perfectly fine four-way, but we get at least one or two of them a week in AEW at this point, so they mean very little. Harley Cameron returning afterward overshadowed the match itself.

Juice Robinson def. Bryan Keith

Robinson just lost to Ricochet on last week's Collision, so this was a necessary victory for him. Granted, beating Keith doesn't mean much because the guy loses to almost everyone, but it was the correct outcome, nonetheless. It didn't last long enough to be anything other than average (the commercial break didn't help, either), but it set up a future match between Bang Bang Gang and the duo of Keith and Big Bil.

Nigel McGuinness def. ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty, Daniel Garcia and Hechicero in an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender's Four-Way Match (Non-Title)

This was billed as a "Technical Spectacle." It certainly lived up to that name with all the damn submissions, but I'd argue it was excessive by the end and the crowd wasn't as into it as a result. Despite that, the four of them delivered and I love that McGuinness is moving onto Forbidden Door to challenge Zack Sabre Jr. for the IWGP World Heavyweight title. He won't win, of course, but it will be a memorable moment for him in his native England. I'm also intrigued to see if the tension between him and Garcia post-match will be followed up on eventually.

Overall Show

This was your usual edition of Collision where there were plenty of mid-tier matches, but on this episode in particular, we got the debut of Ace Austin, a main event with stakes and other angle advancement ahead of Forbidden Door next weekend. Those things gave the episode a slight edge, even if I could've done without some matches not getting a ton of time (and can we please do away with the prize money matches forever?!).

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews