Post by sethisthegoat on Feb 23, 2024 12:01:05 GMT -5
AEW Collision
Feb. 24, 2024
1-hour pre-Revolution show, featuring Revolution previews and two matches.
It’s a three-man announce team with Pat McAfee, Coach and Taz. They put over the big night coming up for Collision and Revolution, which will feature seven huge championship matches, plus the finals of the Owen Hart Cup for men and women, a tag team battle royal and the huge triple threat between Goldberg Kenny Omega and Roman Reigns. They introduce the preview for the AEW World Championship first.
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AEW World Championship Preview
The build for Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara has been swift, with tendrils connecting back to the beginning of AEW. Guevara is a two-time TNT Champion and has long campaigned for more of AEW’s homegrown talent to get opportunities. His most recent feud with Mick Foley challenged Guevara to stop taking shortcuts to win matches. New general manager JBL invited Guevara to put his money where his mouth is by vacating the TNT Championship for an opportunity at the AEW World Championship. He added that Guevara will never be able to challenge for the TNT Championship again; and if he fails to capture the World Championship at Revolution, he’ll be knocked to the bottom of the list of contenders. This decision came a week after Rhodes sucker-punched Guevara, after Sammy taunted him.
Cody Rhodes sees it as his destiny to be a World Champion and wants to lead AEW into the future. Since regaining the title against Goldberg last September, he’s maintained that he’ll do whatever it takes to stay champion. In December, that meant using Malakai Black’s tights as leverage in a pinfall attempt. That led to their 3 stages of hell buried alive match last month, which Rhodes narrowly won. Guevara feels like Rhodes is on the back foot and is on the verge of losing the title. Will Rhodes do something out of bounds to keep the belt? Will Guevara resort to his cheating ways to become the champion?
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Preview for AEW Women’s Championship
Ronda Rousey became the third woman to hold the belt by defeating Paige VanZant in a brutal “I Quit” Match at September’s All Out PPV. Since then, she’s defeated Serena Deeb and Bianca Belair, but hasn’t defended the belt in three months. In that time, she’s lost multiple tag team matches, getting pinned by Beth Phoenix and Sasha Banks.
Banks is the inaugural TBS Champion in AEW, and was also the previous UWA Women’s Champion, before losing to Jade Cargill in January 2023. She has been itching to get back to the top of a women’s division, and defeated Phoenix in a number 1 contender’s match. Rousey-Banks is one of the biggest women’s matchups in the world, and Banks wants to prove that she can make Rousey tap out, which is why she challenged the former MMA champion to a submission match.
In recent weeks, both women have made their opponent visually tap out in scuffles in the ring. Who will make her opponent tap when it really counts?
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The Bloodline arrives
Roman Reigns arrives at the arena earlier today alongside the Usos and Solo Sikoa. Jey Uso remarks to Roman that he’s heard from the Tribal Council. There’s a lot of attention on tonight’s matches, both the tag team battle royal and Roman’s triple threat match with Goldberg and Kenny Omega. Reigns questions why the council would reach out to Jey first. Jey shrugs and just says it’s the way things are working right now.
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Match - Tag Team Battle Royal - The OC vs. The Usos vs. FTR vs. Blackpool Combat Club vs. The Young Bucks vs. RVD/Sabu vs. The Acclaimed vs. LAX
- All 16 men are in the ring to start. Last man standing wins the match for his team, and a future tag team title shot.
- The teams that have been circling each other in recent weeks go straight for each other — BCC and the OC; The Acclaimed and LAX. Cash Wheeler exchanges blows with Matt Jackson; Dax Harwood clashes with Jimmy Uso.
- The match is really chaotic to start with. The Acclaimed get the first elimination, teaming up to dump Homicide. Karl Anderson gets tossed next, thanks to Claudio Castagnoli.
- A big moment partway through the match is when The Usos and FTR face off and exchange punches until Jey catches Wilder with a superkick. Things break down again as Luke Gallows goes on a bit of a run of eliminations, taking out RVD and Sabu and Matt Jackson.
- The BCC teams up to try to take Gallows out, but Gallows hangs on and while Yuta and Castagnoli are focused on him, Nick Jackson and Hernandez sneak up behind them to eliminate them.
- Nick immediately superkicks Hernandez, who stumbles backward and over the top rope and is eliminated.
- At this point, we’ve got Nick Jackson, The Usos, FTR, Gallows and The Acclaimed in the ring. Caster goes after Gallows, but gets reversed and tossed over the top rope.
- Jey is in the corner with Wheeler, punching him to a 10-count — but he gets tossed over the top by Nick, who turns into a spinning backfist from Wilder as FTR teams up to toss Nick from the ring.
- Jimmy Uso tosses Anthony Bowens next, and the final four is the two members of FTR, Jimmy Uso and Luke Gallows. Jimmy and Gallows seem to agree to an uneasy truce as they work on the separate members of FTR, and they’re able to independently eliminate Wheeler and Wilder!
- Jimmy turns around directly into a big boot, followed by the Gallows pole, and then Gallows tosses Jimmy from the ring to win the match for The OC. Anderson gets back in the ring to celebrate with Gallows after a 14-minute battle royal.
Preview for Goldberg vs. Kenny Omega vs. Roman Reigns
The motivations for this mammoth matchup are clear: To assert dominance. Reigns came into AEW with the Bloodline last year with the goal of asserting the group as a top faction in the company. They worked to dismantle The Apex, and then set their eyes on The Elite.
In the meantime, former AEW World Champion Goldberg also got tangled up with Kenny Omega and was set to face The Cleaner at Winter is Coming. But a week before that could happen, a “masked man” that looked a lot like Omega hit him with a car, knocking Goldberg out of commission.
Reigns stepped up to face Omega at Winter is Coming. They fought, hard, to a double countout after Reigns speared him through a barrier on the outside.
In the new year, Omega entered the Owen Hart Cup. His progression through the tournament was halted after Goldberg attacked him before a match, leading to Omega’s elimination. Since then, Reigns and Goldberg have argued over who should have first dibs against Omega. They each won matches that placed them in the Revolution match, and all three men have taken turns attacking each other leading into Revolution, most recently with Reigns standing tall in the ring after Spearing Goldberg.
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Preview for UWA Women’s Championship
Jade Cargill won the Universal Women’s Championship over Sasha Banks in January 2023 and has continued her dominance ever since, going undefeated for the past 22 months.
In May 2023, Bianca Belair debuted in AEW and cost Cargill her AEW Women’s Champion in a fatal four-way after Cargill had already retained her UWA title in the same match. Belair earned a shot at the Universal Championship at August’s Summer Smash event. She nearly defeated Cargill, but the dominant champion continued her reign. Fast forward to February 2024, and Cargill is zeroing in on her 40th consecutive career win. Belair is itching to prove that she is, in fact, the EST. She wants to be the first person to end Cargill’s historic run, and maintains that Cargill is losing her grip. It’s only a matter of time until someone defeats her, and Belair wants to be that woman.
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Owen Hart Cup recaps
Men’s Cup -
Jon Moxley defeated Solo Sikoa, Kevin Nash and Scotty Flamingo on his way to the finals.
Wardlow crushed Jeff Jarrett in the first round — and Jarrett hasn’t been seen since. He went on to beat Miro and Dean Malenko in the following rounds to reach the finals. Wardlow has been focused purely on winning the tournament and not taking anything personally. However, after Mox put him through the announce table a week ago, Wardlow is absolutely ticked off now.
Women’s Cup -
Britt Baker arrived in the finals after two hard-fought matches against Serena Deeb and Tay Melo.
Madison Rayne relied on help from The Beautiful People to defeat Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale. That outside interference inadvertently jump-started Statlander’s rise to contention for Alexa Bliss’ TBS Championship.
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Main Event - TBS Championship - Alexa Bliss © (12-5) w/ The Beautiful People vs. Kris Statlander (9-2)
- The match starts with a lock-up, but Bliss quickly escapes and taunts Statlander, calling her an "alien freak". Statlander responds with a slap and a series of strikes, followed by a springboard moonsault for a near-fall.
- Bliss rolls out of the ring and grabs a steel chair, but Statlander stops her with a baseball slide and a suicide dive onto all four members of the Beautiful People. Statlander throws Bliss back into the ring and goes for a top-rope splash, but Bliss gets her knees up and hits a DDT for a two-count.
- Bliss applies a sleeper hold, trying to wear down Statlander, but Statlander powers out and hits a backbreaker. Statlander goes for a Big Bang Theory, but Bliss counters with a roll-up and a handful of tights, only getting a 2 count.
- Bliss argues with the referee and tries to hit Statlander with the TBS Championship belt, but Statlander ducks and hits a superkick. Statlander hits a Big Bang Theory the ref counts 1…2…no! Bliss gets her foot on the ropes (Velvet Sky placed it there) to break up the pin.
- While the ref is yelling at Sky, after realizing what she’d done, Bliss finds the discarded championship belt and decks Statlander with it. She hits Twisted Bliss as the ref turns around and gets the pinfall victory to retain the championship at 9:56.
And now it’s time for AEW Revolution!