AEW Collision Review - June 27, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

AEW World Trios Champions The Conglomeration (Orange Cassidy, Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly) def. The Opps (Anthony Bowens, Katsuyori Shibata and Hook)

The Opps called out The Conglomeration on Thursday's ROH TV. I never bought into the possibility of The Opps actually taking the titles here, but if nothing else, I'm glad The Conglomeration have been fighting champs so far. It was a well-worked opener despite the obvious outcome. It was already evident, but The Opps especially feel like a dead group in the absence of Samoa Joe.

AEW TNT Champion Kevin Knight def. Dezmond Xavier

This was another instance of the title not at all feeling like it was in jeopardy of changing hands, but it was cool to see Xavier get a shot at a singles title and be made to look credible in defeat. Knight is making progress as a heel and is putting together a nice reign as champ with so many solid title defenses. As for The Rascalz, they're in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, but they've been making the most of the television time they've been given.

Triangle of Madness Addressed Starlight Kid and Maika

We've heard from Thekla plenty of times heading into Forbidden Door, and as I've said before, it's been the best part of the build for the event given her history with Stardom. She put Kid on notice with one of her usual compelling promos. I just wish Skye Blue sounded half as convincing on the mic as she does. Her mic work felt forced here, but she did hype her AEW TBS Championship Survival of the Fittest qualifier with Maika for the Forbidden Door pre-show.

Jericho def. JD Drake

Jericho doesn't often have enhancement matches, so this was somewhat refreshing for him. It was exactly what it needed to be with Jericho going over quickly and decisively. Post-match, he cut a promo addressing Tommaso Ciampa ahead of their match on the Beach Break edition of Dynamite in two weeks. He's in his element when he's serious and that was thankfully what we got from him here.

CMLL World Women's Champion Persephone def. Billie Starkz

While I don't particularly care about CMLL titles being defended on AEW TV, this essentially served as a showcase for Persephone, and it helped that she had a skilled opponent in Starkz. They had a quality contest, even though the outcome was never in doubt. The post-match angle with Hikaru Shida attacking Persephone before Kris Statlander, Harley Cameron and Queen Aminata made the save built toward next week's Survival of the Fittest match for the vacant AEW TBS Championship.

Mistico and "Speedball" Mike Bailey def. Premier Athletes (Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari)

We now know it will be Mistico teaming with Mascara Dorada to take on The Young Bucks and Unbound Co. in a three-way tag team match at Forbidden Door, so it was strange that Mistico teamed with Bailey here instead of Dorada. I'm going to assume Dorada wasn't available. Nonetheless, they previously held the AEW World Trios Championship together (albeit briefly), so this wasn't totally random. It was fun while it lasted.

Jake Doyle def. Adam Priest

I assume Doyle is being built up for something considering he just beat Mike Bailey a few weeks ago and has been protected since returning from injury. Doyle didn't destroy Priest, but it was still a glorified squash. Doyle did team with Brian Cage a time or two, but the fact he's getting more shine as a singles competitor must mean something is on the horizon (or at least I hope so).

ROH Women's World Champion Athena and Mercedes Mone def. Hyan and Maya World

This was a logical match to do before Mone and World face off in the finals of the women's Owen Hart Cup at Forbidden Door, especially after World beat Athena to advance on last week's Collision. I was hoping the babyfaces would go over, but that would've meant either Athena or Mone getting pinned, so I get why they didn't do that. The match itself was entertaining and I appreciated the women getting the main event spotlight ahead of the pay-per-view.

Overall Show

This was a perfectly fine go-home edition of Collision before Forbidden Door tomorrow night. It was hardly must-see, but we got the usual enjoyable action as well as some last-minute hype for the pay-per-view (in addition to more build for Jericho vs. Ciampa at Beach Break). None of the matches truly mattered on this show, but having three title defenses helped make the episode feel slightly more important than it would have otherwise, and the main event was a treat.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews