AEW Collision Review - July 20, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Darby Allin def. The Beast Mortos

Allin returned on last week's Dynamite and officially aligned with Team AEW on Wednesday's Dynamite, so this must have been his first match since Anarchy in the Arena at Double or Nothing. According to the commentators, they have history from years ago, so they obviously worked well together and had a fun opener. Allin always excels against bigger opponents and Mortos was no exception.

Hikaru Shida def. Skye Blue by Referee Stoppage

Blue threw out the challenge to Shida during a backstage interview on last week's episode. It didn't go very long at all before Blue got hurt and that cut the contest short. This is the third straight week we've gotten an injury on Collision. All of them happened randomly, but it's still a bummer. Here's wishing Blue a speedy recovery. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and she isn't out indefinitely.

Rey Fenix def. Tony Nese

I wonder if Blue's injury caused this match to go longer than originally intended? I just don't see the point in Fenix having a competitive match with someone as low on the totem pole as Nese, who will never go higher than where he is right now. That said, they had a hell of a sprint. Speaking of injuries, Fenix has had a few of them during his AEW run, so fingers crossed he can stay healthy and keep having matches with this level of quality.

FTR Announced Their Intentions to Reclaim the AEW World Tag Team Championship

FTR returned last week saving Tommy Billington from The Don Callis Family. I thought The Don Callis Family might appear here, but they did not. Instead, we got a straightforward interview with them and Tony Schiavone where they announced their intentions to chase and reclaim the AEW World Tag Team Championship headed into All In. I doubt we get the fifth match between FTR and The Young Bucks on that show for the second straight year, so I'm curious what they end up doing instead.

Roderick Strong def. Tomohiro Ishii

Strong has been complaining for weeks about wanting a rematch with Ishii (who beat him for the ROH World Television Championship eight years ago) and he finally got it here. Unsurprisingly, it was quite the hard-hitting affair. Strong will be challenging for the ROH World Championship next Friday at Death Before Dishonor, so in addition to getting his win back from 2016, it made sense for him to go over, anyway.

Hologram def. Gringo Loco

For those unaware, Hologram is the former Aramis, whose work I'm familiar with from his stint in MLW. The guy can go and that was on full display here. I know there was some speculation that it could be Ricochet under the mask (a throwback to his Prince Puma days), but that's obviously not the case. I think it's cool they used vignettes to build buzz for him and he had a very impressive debut here.

Deonna Purrazzo def. Thunder Rosa in a Lumberjack Match

Rosa and Purrazzo have been going back-and-forth for months. I thought their feud was over when they had their No Disqualification match last month, but apparently not. I wish this had been saved for another week where they could have been the main event. This was mostly a mess due to the stipulation and felt rushed. I wasn't expecting Purrazzo to beat Rosa for a third straight time. Is a fifth match on the way?

The Patriarchy (Christian Cage, Killswitch and Nick Wayne) def. Bang Bang Gang (Juice Robinson and The Gunns) to Win the Vacant AEW World Trios Championship

I'm starting to think that the only reason Bang Bang Gang were stripped of the Unified World Trios Championship was so The Patriarchy could win them and have them just be known as the AEW World Trios Championship again (and drop the unnecessary ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship belts and the custom Acclaimed scissor belts). Bang Bang Gang must be babyfaces now because I don't know who the crowd was supposed to cheer for here. It was a quality main event, but time will tell if The Patriarchy are able to make the trios division matter.

Overall Show

Collision saw a significant step up in quality this week with Hologram debuting, the Lumberjack match (even though it was slightly underwhelming) and the trios title changing hands. Plus, this show marked AEW's debut at Esports Stadium Arlington. It's a unique setup and it gave Collision a different (albeit smaller) vibe. The Elton John theme song is also no more, sadly. All in all, a thumbs-up show that was actually worth watching this week.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews