AEW Collision is live tonight from the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
Announced for tonight’s show is an Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament quarterfinal match between Persephone and Hazuki.
The AEW Women’s World Tag Team titles will also be on the line tonight as champions Divine Dominion (Lena Kross and Megan Bayne) defend against TayJay (Anna Jay and Tay Melo).
The winner of Persephone vs. Hazuki will move on to the tournament semifinals to take on Mercedes Moné, who returned to the company on Dynamite and defeated Alex Windsor in the quarterfinals. On the other side of the bracket, Athena has advanced to the semifinals after her win over Mina Shirakawa, and she’ll face the winner of Skye Blue vs. Sareee, scheduled for Dynamite on Wednesday.
Announced for tonight’s AEW Collision:
- Persephone vs. Hazuki in an Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament quarterfinal match
- AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champions Divine Dominion (Lena Kross and Megan Bayne) defend against TayJay (Anna Jay and Tay Melo)
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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TayJay (Tay Melo & Anna Jay) vs. Divine Dominion (Lena Kross & Megan Bayne) for the AEW Women’s World Tag Team Championship
Anna Jay made started the match with Megan Bayne, but it wasn’t long before Kross and Bayne were going for Divine Intervention. Jay slipped out and Melo and Jay hit a series of double team moves and dodges that kept Divine Dominion crashing into each other. Melo and Jay hit stereo crossbodies of the middle ropes to the floor on Kross and Bayne as they went to an ad break on TNT.
Kross and Bayne were able to isolate Jay on the floor after enticing Jay to chase her around the ring. Kross then started getting the heat on Anna Jay. Bayne hit a German suplex on Jay as they came back from break, and tagged out to Kross again. Kross charged Jay in the corner, but Jay dodged and hit a bulldog and tagged out Melo who hit a series of strikes and a spinning back fist to stun Bayne.
Melo hit a series of strikes in the corner and then scraped her boot on Bayne’s face. Melo tagged out to Jay and they went for a double team move, but Bayne powered out and tagged out to Kross. This did not help matters as they both ate superkicks, and then hit a double DDT on Kross for a 2-cout that Bayne broke up. Bayne and Kross then hit a German suplex/pump kick combo, and Tay Melo broke the pinfall up. All four women hit moves and did a quadruple down. After a scramble Jay locked the sleeper hold on Kross, but Kross walked her back to her corner and drove Jay into the corner before Bayne came in and they hit Divine Intervention for the pinfall. Solid tag match.
Result: Divine Dominion defeated TayJay to retain
–A hype video aired for Brody King and Swerve Strickland for Dynamite on Wednesday.
–Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta cut a promo on Konosuke Takeshita while Lance Archer and Jake Doyle beat the crap out of a ton of local talent in the background. This was quite fun.
Shane Taylor (w/ Shane Taylor Promotions) vs. Alan Angels
Alan Angels makes his return to AEW and immediately dies at the hands of Shane Taylor. After making a few dodges of Taylor’s offence, Taylor caught him with a forearm as he springboarded of the ropes and then hit a package piledriver for the pinfall.
Result: Shane Taylor defeated Alan Angels
–Shane Taylor took a mic and said that the Death Riders has been the most violent group in AEW, but as of this moment, Shane Taylor Promotions was the most violent group in AEW. Moxley noted that all they had to do was beat him, so Taylor said his crew should come down to the ring and get beat. The Death Riders music hit, and Jon Moxley led his crew to the ring to a massive pop from the crowd.
The Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & PAC) (w/ Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, & Marina Shafir) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty, Carlie Bravo, & Shawn Dean) (w/ Shane Taylor, Trish Adora, & Christyan XO)
Moxley started the match and took it right to Moxley, driving him back into the corner and isolating him. Bravo tagged in and started chopping Moxley, who just started getting fired up and asked him to hit him harder. Moxley turned him around after the next chop and hit ten punches in the corner before thumbing him in the eye and tagging out to PAC.
It was not long after this that it broke down into a 6 person brawl and Moxley dumped Shawn Dean into the front row as they went to an ad break on TNT. Claudio was beating on Carlie Bravo in the ring, and Shane Taylor indicated that this was just one of their gameplans to wear them out by surviving everything they had, even though Bravo was looking worse for wear as PAC tagged in. This changed when Shawn Dean tripped PAC from the floor and hit a cutter across the apron.
Shane Taylor Promotions isolated PAC with this and started beating on him in their corner, with Carlie Bravo punching PAC and biting him, taunting Mox for his thumb to the eye earlier. Dean hit a lariat from the second rope on PAC for a 2-count. Moxley started getting the crowd fired up to cheer for PAC to escape, and was going nuts on the apron, and the fans started a very loud chant for Moxley, and Shane Taylor Promotions cut off PAC from that very tag to a chorus of boos.
Moxley saw enough and started attacking everyone on the floor himself, but got beaten down. It did allow PAC to dodge a corner charge from Moriarty and hit a German suplex on him before tagging out Castagnoli though, which was a really nice “take one for the team” moment for Mox. Castagnoli hit a series of very violent forearms in the corner and then went for the Neutralizer, but Moriarty cut him off. Moxley and Castagnoli laid out Bravo and then PAC went for the Black Arrow, but Shane Taylor distracted the referee and Trish Adora shoved PAC’s feet from the ropes.
While the referee was distracted, Yuta hit a dive on Taylor while Marina Shafir took out Trish Adora and Christyan XO, letting the Death Riders lay out Carlie Bravo and did the brutalizer on him for the submission finish.
Result: The Death Riders defeated Shane Taylor Promotions
This match was fantastic. The Death Riders are incredible babyfaces in this match.
–A highlight video aired of all the major storylines from Dynamite, which was excellent. They should do this on every show.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Beef
Beef was surprisingly agile in this match, cartwheeling out of the way of a clothesline and hitting a dropkick. Beef went for a bulldog but Ciampa blocked it and yanked the hair to drop Beef before hitting a running knee on Beef. Nigel McGuinness said the cows were coming home. I laughed. Ciampa locked on the Liontamer and tapped Beef out, sending a message to Chris Jericho.
Result: Tommaso Ciampa defeated Beef
–Ciampa continued the attack after the match and locked the Liontamer on again on the floor and demanded that Tony Schaivone announce to the audience that Tommaso Ciampa was better than Chris Jericho. Schiavone said so, and Ciampa said that Schiavone has been friends with Jericho for years and even he knew the truth. Good promo here.
–Shane Taylor was backstage with Trish Adora and Taylor said that he wanted Jon Moxley to answer the age old question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Taylor said he failed his brother, as they picked off Wheeler Yuta and left him laying on the ground with The Death Riders nowhere to be seen. Taylor then challenged Moxley for the AEW Continental Championship on Dynamite.
Clark Connors (w/ David Finlay) vs. Juice Robinson (w/ The Bang Bang Gang)
These former Bullet Club members were set to battle here, with Connors immediately attacking Robinson and choking him with his own t-shirt. The announcers talked about how the Young Bucks pushed all of the War Dogs’ buttons noting that they were a discount Bullet Club compared to them. It is interesting how many different incarnations of the Bullet Club are present in AEW at the moment. Robinson started hitting a few jabs but Connors bailed, and Robinson mimed a dog relieving himself in Connors direction.
Connors did not enjoy this display and pulled Robinson from the ring and drove him into the guardrail. Connors continued this assault for a few minutes, including hitting some shoulder blocks in the corner, then a running shoulder tackle to a seated Robinson for a 2-count. Robinson and Connors shared punches, but Connors continued with this extended heat segment. Robinson started to fire up at some of the weak punches Connors threw and then hit a shoulder tackle and hit a back senton.
Robinson hit a series of punches and chops that backed Connors back to the corner and he hit a cannonball in the corner. Robinson then hit a powerbomb for a 2-count. Robinson signaled going for the Killswitch, but Connors shoved him aside and hit a powerslam for a 2-count. Connors went for a spear, but Robinson jumped over it and hit a lariat that sent Connors to the floor. Robinson hit a pescado to the floor and David Finlay ran down to try and hit Robinson with the shillelagh, but Robinson hit the Left Hand of God on Finlay. Robinson hit another Left Hand of God on Connors and went for Pulp Friction, but Finlay hit Robinson in the back and this led to Connors hitting a spear on Robinson for the pin.
Result: Clark Connors defeated Juice Robinson
This was a really solid match with Connors looking excellent, and Juice Robinson showing he is underutilized as a babyface.
–A hype video for the Survival of the Fittest match for the TBS Championship, with an excellent promo from Hikaru Shida in English and Japanese (with subtitles). Statlander, Mina Shirakawa, Harley Cameron, Queen Aminata, & Zayda Steel all commented on the match. This was very good.
–Jon Moxley was backtage with Marina Shafir, and said that STP and Taylor himself want what he and the Death Riders have, and made the move of attacking Yuta. Moxley said that Taylor needed to be sure he really wanted it, because when he got to the ring with Moxley on Wednesday he is going to find out what it means to face Moxley alone for the AEW Continental. This was a tremendous promo. Taylor and Moxley have done a fantastic job on this show building up a TV match for next week.
Los Faccion Ingobernable (Rush, Dralistico, & Sammy Guevara) vs. The Conglomeration (Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong, & Orange Cassidy) for the AEW World Trios Championships
Sammy Guevara told Orange Cassidy to tranquilo, which is a bit redundant as he is always relaxed. Guevara baited Cassidy in and hit a kick, but Strong blind tagged in and threw Orange Cassidy at Guevara with a hip toss. Strong tagged in and hit a backbreaker before tagging Cassidy, who went to the top rope, decided it was too high, went to the middle, then to the bottom rope, before dropping to the mat and hitting a walking elbow. Guevara did not like this and turned it around on Cassidy and drove him back to his own corner.
LFI was going to hit a trio of kicks to the back of Cassidy, but he casually laid down to avoid this. They tried again, so he laid down again, and they then stomped him repeatedly. Guevara hit a top rope eye poke on Cassidy, which was hilarious. Cassidy, however, soon escaped and tagged out to Strong, who started turning this into a serious fight, destroying people with high impact moves. It broke down soon after this with Guevara hitting a moonsault off the top rope to the floor on Strong.
LFI continued to get the heat throughout the ad break on TNT, and finally hit their triple dropkick, but it was on Strong instead. Cassidy broke up the pinfall attempt and Rush looked like he was going to kill Cassidy for it before throwing him from the ring. Strong decided to stand up to Rush and start hitting hard chops, and suddenly we had an awesome mean guy match with both Rush and Strong hitting hard strikes and forearms.
Dralistico came in and Kyle O’Reilly countered a lung blower attempt with an ankle lock on Dralistico. Guevara saved him, but O’Reilly hit a rebounding lariat on both and tagged out to Cassidy who hit a tornado DDT on Guevara, but Dralistico blocked it and hit a lung blower on Cassidy. Cassidy was not down long and went for an Orange Punch, but he ate a punch from Rush. Rush then went for the horns, but Cassidy rolled to the floor. Strong and O’Reilly attacked Rush and sent him into the audience, while Dralistico hit a crossbody over the ring post and steps onto them, only for Cassidy to hit a tope suicida on Dralistico. Guevara came in and tried to hit Go to Hell on Cassidy, but Cassidy fought out, shoved Dralistico into Guevara and then hit an Orange Punch on both for the pinfall win.
Result: The Conglomeration defeated LFI
This made me want to see Rush and Roderick Strong in a 20ish minute match. Hopefully we’ll get to see that at some point.
–The Dogs were backstage talking about their feud with the Bang Bang Gang, and their ongoing conflict with the Young Bucks over being the #1 contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, so they wanted to settle it with the Bucks as soon as possible so they can get on to beating Cage & Cope.
–Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta walked up to the Conglomeration and they said that Andrade El Idolo was challenging Orange Casssidy to a match. Cassidy shrugged. Romero said, “Don’t say that!” Cassidy told them to get out of there because he accepted.
Hazuki vs. Persephone in a Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Match
Hazuki immediately locked a headlock on Persephone, but it was soon worked into an exchange of basic holds until they started countering pinfall attempts in very creative ways. Fun start to this match. Persephone dodged a clothesline, but Hazuki grabbed Persephone and went for a crossface that forced Persephone into grabbing the ropes. Persephone rolled through a sunset flip attempt and hit a shotgun dropkick on Hazuki for a 2-count.
Persephone went for a lionsault, but Hazuki countered and hit a back stabber. Persephone caught Hazuki as she went for a crossbody to the floor and slammed Hazuki on the mats outside before sending Hazuki back into the ring. Persephone charged Hazuki, but Hazuki immediately countered into a crossface, and as Persephone tried to get the ropes with her feet, Hazuki grabbed them and did a sort of inverted bow & arrow lock.
Persephone went for a crucifix bomb on Hazuki, but she slipped out and hit a hurricanrana from the middle ropes. As the match went on the audience got more and more into Hazuki, who hit a springboard shotgun dropkick for a 2-count. Hazuki then hit Persephone with a lung blower and went for a senton, but Persephone cut her off and hit a superplex. Persephone held on and then hit a jackhammer for a 2-count.
Persephone went for a crucifix bomb again, but Hazuki countered with a sunset flip for a 2-count. Persephone hit a trapped leg German suplex for a 2-count. Persephone went for a powerbomb, but Hazuki countered out, hit a lung blower, and then a La Magistral cradle for the pinfall. Hazuki has advanced to face Mercedes Mone in the next round of the tournament.
Result: Hazuki defeated Persephone
Both women shook hands after the match, and while there were some moments that were a little rough due to miscommunication, it ended up being pretty good just by how hard they worked.
–After the match, Mercedes Mone ran down and attacked Persephone from behind, hitting her with the Owen Hart Foundation title belt and locking on the Statement Maker. Hazuki ran down and made the save, but as she was checking on Persephone, Mone attacked and security came out to separate the two. Hazuki then hit a dive onto Mone and two or three security guards had to be pulled away from Mone, which proved quite difficult for the security as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts
This was a fun show. The Death Riders and Shane Taylor Promotions match and promos were the best part of the show, in terms of action and build for next week, but nothing on this show stood out as bad. Most of it was even quite good. I liked how they dedicated time to adding a little heat to Mone and Hazuki at the end of the show. Thumbs up!
