AEW Collision Review - July 6, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

MJF Addressed AEW International Champion Will Ospreay and Attacking Daniel Garcia

I loved that they advertised MJF to kick off Collision before he even attacked Garcia on Wednesday's Dynamite, especially because this had to air opposite of WWE's Money in the Bank premium live event. This was the MJF I've missed since he returned and even late last year when he was clearly a babyface. He's in his element as a heel and that was on full display in this great promo where he addressed both Ospreay and Garcia to set up future matches with both of them.

The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe and Kyle O'Reilly) def. Iron Savages (Bronson, Boulder and Jacked Jameson)

Yes, Cassidy's crew has their own stable name at this point. He was complaining for a little while that he had no friends, but now he has a group again. I was actually more intrigued to see him by himself for a change, but oh well. I have to imagine they're joining forces for a reason and that's to face The Undisputed Kingdom. Perhaps they'll beat them and go on to challenge for the Unified World Trios Championship. The awful Iron Savages shtick doesn't belong on television, but this is what it needed to be.

AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm def. Trish Adora (Non-Title)

I think there's a happy medium where champions can wrestle a fair amount of matches (including title defenses) without feeling overexposed or like they're never in action. Storm falls in the former category in my opinion. She's still a very entertaining character, but she has way too many squashes that are essentially all the same. This was serviceable albeit pointless. Adora is skilled, but she never stood a chance.

AEW TNT Champion Jack Perry def. Marko Stunt

This was an open challenge. I certainly wasn't expecting Stunt to show up, but he's from the area and thus the crowd popped for him. I was never to buy into most of Stunt's matches in AEW because he's so damn small, but this was a fine throwback to the Jurassic Express days now that Perry has undergone his character transformation. The match only lasted a few minutes and it gave Perry a decisive victory, so I have no complaints.

Claudio Castagnoli de. The Beast Mortos

It's been a bit since Mortos popped up in AEW or even Ring of Honor for that matter. He was around for a while and then stopped being used for whatever reason. This match had zero storyline significance other than to give Castagnoli a singles win (why has he been so directionless in recent months?), but I enjoyed it for what was as they made the most of the time they were given (which was roughly 12 minutes, surprisingly).

Riho def. Lady Frost

A Serena Deeb promo aired beforehand where she addressed Riho, so that made this match pretty predictable. Granted, I would've assumed Riho was winning anyway, but they foreshadowed the finish as soon as that happened (it may have been better saved for afterward). However, I have no issue with Frost scoring plenty of offense as she's a talented competitor. No date was given for Riho vs. Deeb, but I assume it's happening soon.

"Hangman" Adam Page def. Unified World Trios Champion Jay White in a Men's Owen Hart Cup Semifinal Match

The story coming into this contest was that Page has never beaten White one-on-one before, but there wasn't much doubt Page was making it to the finals as soon as he returned on Dynamite. Despite the obvious outcome, he and White had a top-notch main event. I could've done without all of the shenanigans, but I understand Jeff Jarrett still having involvement in the Owen Hart Cup given his connection to Owen Hart. Danielson vs. Page next Wednesday on Dynamite can go either way and they're guaranteed to deliver based on their previous encounters.

Overall Show

As noted, Collision was up against tough competition this week with Money in the Bank airing at the same time, so it's bound to take a hit in the ratings, but it resulted in AEW putting forth a stronger effort with Collision than usual. Some of the enhancement matches were inconsequential (even though they were given a fair amount of time), but the bigger stuff (specifically MJF's promo and the main event) were worth watching for.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews