AEW Collision Review - July 2, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

The Death Riders (Claudio Castagnoli and Pac) def. Unbound Co. (Shingo Takagi and Drilla Moloney)

Unbound Co. just lost at Forbidden Door and they took another loss here, but I understand giving Death Riders a win to keep them looking strong, especially since it was Castagnoli and Pac representing the group. This was the well-wrestled match you'd expect from these four. I don't know if it will amount to anything for Death Riders or it was just an excuse to get them on the show, but time will tell.

Andrade El Idolo def. Brian Cage

Cage has physically looked great since returning from his lengthy layoff from injury a few months ago. It's just a shame he never wins anything of note, but I guess he has sort of settled into his role as a stepping stone in The Don Callis Family at this point. That said, he and Andrade had a very good, hard-fought matchup here. This was a nice way to keep Andrade rolling now that he's a babyface.

Thunder Rosa and Mina Shirakawa def. B3CCA and Zara Zakher

Rosa failed to win the AEW Women's World Tag Team Championship with Olympia as her partner at Forbidden Door, so now she's apparently setting her sights on Shirakawa as her new partner. Uhm, sure, I guess. It's not like they have anything better to do at the moment. This served as a simple showcase for them. Personally, I don't care for them as a duo, but we'll see if it sticks.

AEW Women's World Champion Thekla Addressed the Audience

This was a fine follow-up to Thekla beating Starlight Kid to retain her AEW Women's World Championship at Forbidden Door. Granted, the outcome of that contest was never much in doubt to begin with, but I'll never complain about Thekla getting mic time. She was entertaining as always and kept her promo short and sweet. We'll find out who will face her at Redemption with the women's Casino Gauntlet match at the Beach Break edition of Dynamite.​

Bang Bang Gang (Jay White and The Gunns) and AEW World Tag Team Champion Adam Copeland def. Shane Taylor Promotions (The Infantry, Shane Taylor and ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty)

It's cool that the alliance Copeland had with White prior to White getting injured last year hasn't been forgotten about, nor has Christian Cage's own history with White. It's an interesting dynamic and I'm curious to see where it leads. This match existed to establish that Bang Bang Gang and Copeland are a cohesive unit, and it was fun while it lasted. Death Riders and The Dogs attacked them afterward.

The Demand (Ricochet and GOA) def. Chris Nastyy, Sonico and Jordan Oasis

Not only were The Demand dominant here, they also came across like total badasses with how rough they were with their opponents. It actually led to Toa Liona getting busted open and it was a hell of a visual. In other words, this was more of an eventful squash than I assumed it would be. Following their win, Ricochet addressed the returning Matt Sydal, who we found out will be joining forces with Top Flight.

ROH Women's World Champion Athena def. Rina to Earn the No. 1 Spot in the AEW Women's World Championship No. 1 Contender's Casino Gauntlet Match (Non-Title)

Rina is a Stardom talent. That's about the only thing I know about her. Thus, it was pretty predictable that Athena was winning here, as she should have. They had an average outing. Athena won't come out on top in that women's Casino Gauntlet match, but I'm glad she's been featured a bit more on AEW TV as of late. She needs to become a permanent member of the division again instead of splitting her time between AEW and Ring of Honor.

ROH World Champion Bandido, "Speedball" Mike Bailey and ROH World Tag Team Champion Mistico def. The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz and Myron Reed)

Mistico is also one-third of the CMLL World Trios Champions, but he didn't come out with that belt here, so I didn't both to list him as such above. Nonetheless, this was the chaotic spotfest these six stars are capable of. Bailey and Mistico team up occasionally, but Bandido being a part of this was random. It was announced that he'll defend the ROH World Championship against Katsuyori Shibata on Collision next week.

Rush def. Jordan Cruz

Now that Rush has gotten his shot at the AEW World Championship and lost, I have no idea where he goes from here. His match with MJF was excellent, but I'm also starting to think he should have gone after one of the midcard titles instead because now he doesn't have direction. This was one those quick squashes he's been having for months, but they'll going to get boring eventually.

Maya World def. Julia Hart to Earn the No. 2 Spot in the AEW Women's World Championship No. 1 Contender's Casino Gauntlet Match (Non-Title)

The outcome was equally as obvious for this match as it was for Athena vs. Rina earlier. I mean, World and Athena kicking off the women's Casino Gauntlet just makes sense after World beat Athena to advance in the women's Owen Hart Cup a few weeks ago. She and Hart had a decent match. World continues to improve, but she does need to win something of significance (like the ROH Women's World Championship!) sooner rather than later.

Kyle Fletcher def. ELP

For a main event with nothing on the line, this was quite the treat. I was wondering why it was being saved for left, but it's because it ended up being the best thing on the entire episode. The "This is awesome" chants were well deserved. Post-match, Don Callis starting running down Konosuke Takeshita, who Fletcher will challenge for the AEW International Championship at Beach Break, before Takeshita emerged to fend them off.

Overall Show

Collision aired on a Thursday night this week due to the Fourth of July being this Saturday, and good lord, they really packed this show with a ton of matches. However, it turned out to be an enjoyable episode with a lot of leftovers from Forbidden Door. That resulted in most of the matchups not mattering (aside from two of the women's matches since they had stakes), but at least they filled the two hours with quality action.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews