AEW Collision Review – April 13, 2024

It was a night of big tag team matches on AEW Collision as Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli teamed up against Powerhouse Hobbs & Kyle Fletcher in the main event.

This week’s 41st episode of AEW Collision took place at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky. I wasn’t able to review last week’s episode that aired in the middle of the night due to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. I rated that show 6.75/10. It was a decent effort considering the circumstances. Tonight’s show figures to be a little better with a stronger lineup featuring a big match between Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli against “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher. There is also Battle of Belts taking place after Collision. I won’t be reviewing that. Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting. Let’s get to the action!

Tony Schiavone and “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard are on commentary. Menard is filling in for Excalibur. The show started with a video of Jon Moxley winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tetsuya Naito at New Japan Windy City Riot on Friday. I think it’s really cool for Moxley being the first wrestler ever to be a World Champion in WWE, AEW and now New Japan. The video is followed up by a backstage promo from Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli talking about their match against “Powerhouse” Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher later in the show. Don Callis wants his guys to hurt Bryan and Claudio in the match. They say it isn’t going to happen.

House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews) def Dante Martin, Matt Sydal & Action Andretti – Brody King cleaned house and hit a dive on all three of his opponents. The crowd chanted “Brody” for him despite him being a heel. Black and Matthews hit a nice double team powerbomb into a backstabber on Matt Sydal as we go to a commercial. Dante Martin had a good flurry of offense after tagging in. House of Black had been in control most of the match. All six men were in the ring at the same time hitting big moves on each other. It worked with the crowd as they chanted “A-E-Dub” and “this is awesome”. Brody kicked out at one after a 450 from Action. House of Black won after a triple team move including a cannonball splash from King who pinned Sydal. Rating ***¼

Brody King spoke to a camera telling Adam Copeland he’s coming for his head.

Gino’s take – Solid opener with an obvious result. Darius Martin wasn’t in this match because he is getting his pilot’s license. That’s pretty cool for him. Julia Hart was not with House of Black. She injured her shoulder on Rampage. Hopefully it isn’t serious because she has matches coming up on Dynamite and at Dynasty. Tony Schiavone announced the match between King and Hart against Copeland and Willow Nightingale for Dynamite so apparently the match is still on.

There was a replay of the Champagne Toast between Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa and Mina Shirakawa kissing Mariah May on Dynamite. That was followed up by Lexy Nair interviewing Toni and Mariah backstage in black and white. Toni has a match against Stardom’s AZM later in the show. She says something along the lines of AZM wanting Toni to kiss her bottom and it ending up in some sort of fetish magazine. Great stuff from Toni as always.

Another replay from Dynamite where Chris Jericho argued with Hook allowing Shane Taylor promotions to score the upset victory with Lee Moriarty pinning Katsuyori Shibata. Chirs Jericho spoke to Taz after the match and wanted Taz to tell Hook to call him. Taz is brokering a meeting between Jericho and Taz on Dynamite Wednesday. It hasn’t been a riveting storyline so far.

Katsuyori Shibata def Lee Moriarty – Anthony Ogogo who recently joined Shane Taylor promotions is on commentary. The pace was slow with mostly mat wrestling early. Taylor distracted the referee allowing Ogogo to hit a gut punch on Shibata before a picture-in-picture commercial break. Shibata did his thing where he no sells a bunch of strikes after the break. Running dropkick with Moriarty in the corner from Shibata. Shibata won after a penalty kick. Rating **¾

Taylor entered the ring for a beatdown after the match until Hook came out for the save. Hook suplexed Moriarty before going face to face with Taylor who he will face on Battle of the Belts after Collision.

Gino’s take – I give AEW some credit for there being storyline continuity leading to this match. This was still another bout with an obvious outcome. The action was pretty good. The post-match angle added a little heat to Hook and Taylor’s match later tonight.

There was a replay of Athena beating Shida and Billy Starks beating Trish Adora at Ring of Honor Super Card of Honor. Lexy Nair interviewed them after that. Athena has a match in the main event of Battle of the Belts against Red Velvet. I’m looking forward to seeing Athena. I don’t watch ROH so I really never see her wrestle.

Undisputed Kingdom is being interviewed by Lexy Nair. Roderick Strong has a match against Rocky Romero on Battle of the Belts. Strong is in a program with Kyle O’Reilly but I don’t think the group has had a good run since The Devil angle.

Daniel Garcia def Angelico – Angelico had the advantage working over Garcia’s knee. Figure Four from Garcia that was reversed by Angelico. They went back and forth reversing it a few times. Schiavone put it over on commentary. It was a unique spot. Garcia won with a heel hook which seems to be his finisher. Rating **½

Gino’s take – I’m a fan of Angelico. A short match was the right call. It got the right amount of time. The action was good for the time they got.

We’re shown a reply from Dynamite where The Young Bucks and Okada took out Pac and FTR with chair shots. Pac has a backstage promo after that. He thanked Okada for accepting his challenge at Dynasty. He’s going to prove to the world that he’s better than Okada. He’s not and won’t win but he showed good intensity here. It should be an awesome match.

Toni Storm def AZM – This is an eliminator match. AZM will get a shot at Toni’s AEW Women’s Championship with a win. Anna Jay is with AZM. AZM is pronounced Azumi. Toni hit a move Daddy Magic called a “flying ass” to knock AZM out of the ring. That was a funny line from Menard. Anna Jay fought with Mariah May and they went to the back as we went to a break. AZM hit a stomp form the top rope with Storm about halfway across the ring scoring a near fall. That was impressive. Devastating belly to back suplex from Storm where AZM landed on her head. Toni followed that up with a hip attack (flying ass) and Storm Zero for the win. Rating ***

Mariah May came out from the back with champagne to celebrate after the match. Toni licked Mariah’s face. It’s weird but Toni makes it work.

Gino’s take – There was about five minutes before the PIP commercial break that we get for almost every women’s match. That’s a bit of an improvement for AEW. AZM is clearly a talented wrestler at only 21 years old. She showed it in this match. I like seeing new talent and this was a good bout.

Red Velvet has an interview with Lexy ahead of her match with Athena on Battle of the Belts. AEW has done a solid job building up that show later tonight.

There have been a lot of short promos tonight. It’s Mark Briscoe’s turn. He says that House of Black should be afraid of him, Copeland and Eddie Kingston at Dynasty.

Tony Schiavone calls Thunder Rosa out to the ramp for an interview ahead of her match against Toni Storm at Dynasty for the AEW Women’s Championship. A title that Thunder held and never lost. Thunder says she doesn’t need help, especially from Deonna Purrazzo. Thunder is coming for Toni Storm who she calls Antonia. Rosa says you can’t kill what’s already dead and she’s going to take Toni to hell.

Deonna Purrazzo has a short promo. She’s still in the title picture whether Toni or Thunder win at Dynasty. She challenges Mariah May next week.

Tony Schiavone announces the AEW Tag Team Championship match between Young Bucks and FTR at Dynasty will be a Ladder Match.

Gino’s take – A lot to unpack here. Thunder’s promo was a bit clunky at times. It was also intense and I think she made her points very well. The crowd was behind her for the most part. I don’t think the rivalries between Purrazzo, Storm and Rosa have been excellent. I do think AEW is putting in more effort with the women’s division and things have picked up. I like the announcement of the Ladder Match at Dynasty. I think there’s a good chance we see the “Scapegoat” Jack Perry return at that show.

Kyle Fletcher and Will Hobbs have a promo ahead of their main event match. They are protecting the “Golden Goose” Will Ospreay from The Blackpool Combat Club. I don’t think Ospreay would want his opponent Bryan Danielson injured ahead of their match at Dynasty nor do I think he will be with Don Callis much longer.

Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli def “Powerhouse” Will Hobbs & Kyle Fletcher – There are about 25 minutes left in the show. Don Callis is not with his team which is a bit of a surprise. His presence would help as he always gets major heat from the crowd. Neither team was able to gain an advantage before the first PIP commercial. Danielson hit a flying knee on Hobbs on the outside. Claudio hit a huge uppercut on Fletcher. Claudio knocked Hobbs into the crowd with an uppercut. It didn’t take long to get to the second PIP break. The action was really good leading into this one with all four combatants brawling in the crowd.

Kyle Fletcher and Hobbs tried to expose the concrete floor. They couldn’t get the mat to stay down. My wife Amber laughed at that. It was a funny misstep. Danielson hit an avalanche belly to back suplex from the top rope on Fletcher. He had the Lebell Lock sinched in but it was broken up by Hobbs. There have been some awkward spots. Fletcher and Hobbs don’t seem to have great chemistry with their double team attempts. Claudio did the Giant Swing on Hobbs. Schiavone went nuts. He was a little over the top.

Super kick from Fletcher to Bryan, lifted uppercut from Claudio to Fletcher followed by Hobbs hitting a spinebuster on Castagnoli for a two-count. That was a great sequence. The crowd chanted “this is awesome” and “BCC”. Death Valley Driver from Claudio on Hobbs for a two-count. World’s Strongest Slam from Hobbs, Danielson broke up the pin attempt. After a flurry of offense from both teams on the outside, Castagnoli finished off Fletcher with a Neutralizer. Rating ***½

Konosuke Takeshita made an attack from behind after the match. The crowd chanted for Moxley who isn’t there. Takeshita hit a brainbuster to Danielson on the ramp. It was put over as a huge move that might have injured Bryan. We’ve seen a lot worse in AEW.

Gino’s take – It was a really good match. I expected a little better considering how much time they got. I also thought the angle where Don Callis wanted Hobbs and Fletcher to injure Bryan Danielson would be more prominent. Other than the botchy spot where Kyle Fletcher couldn’t get the mat to stay down there wasn’t much of an effort from The Callis Family to hurt their opponents. The brainbuster on the ramp was a pretty good spot. It wasn’t like it was a huge beatdown. The two commercials back-to-back hurt the match and I don’t think they needed 25 minutes.

Overall Rating for AEW Collision – 6.75/10

2024 Average Rating: 7.21

Final Thoughts – The main event and opener were good matches. The overall show wasn’t that memorable. There was too much talking for my liking. It makes sense to do a lot of promos this close to a PPV but it didn’t feel like anything really added to the buildup for Dynasty. Thunder Rosa probably had the best promo of the night. I am looking forward to her match with Toni Storm and don’t think that has an obvious result. There wasn’t anything bad or boring on the show. Everything made sense. It’s just that Collision is no longer must-see TV most weeks and the buildup for Dynasty hasn’t been nearly as strong as the build for Revolution that took place in early March.

Please follow me on Twitter/X @GeenoEvel86. Thanks for reading!