What a night it is going to be in Youngstown, OH tonight when COLLISION rolls into town for the first time! After Wednesday and Friday brought the action, All Elite Wrestling looks to continue that momentum as we barrel towards FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 on June 30th at the UBS Arena! That means a No Disqualification bout between Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo as their grudge explodes in violence, and a huge Trios bout pitting The Bang Bang Gang against The House of Black! Plus, Dante Martin and Lee Moriarty will clash in hopes of advancing to the TNT Championship Ladder Match on Long Island, and the Forbidden Door opens up a little more as the full-strength Blackpool Combat Club fights TMDK members Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls as they team up with Lio Rush and Rocky Romero! All that and more is coming to you tonight on TNT beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT, so make a point to visit the official AEW YouTube channel before bell time, for highlights from this week's DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, Christopher Daniels joining Renee Paquette's Close-Up, and more!
Then join AEW next Wednesday night in Fairfax, VA at the EagleBank Arena for a DYNAMITE featuring The Young Bucks versus The Acclaimed in an Eliminator match, and kicking off with MJF versus RUSH with no commercial interruptions!
NO DISQUALIFICATION...
“La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa vs. “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo
For the last couple months Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo have been invested in the lives of one another, but none of that investment has been for the positive. At first their dynamic was born in their mutual desire to dethrone AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm but their cross-purposes in that resulted in neither achieving their goal. Instead “The Virtuosa” and “La Mera Mera” have turned their venom on one another, and for tonight's one year anniversary of COLLISION, Rosa and Purrazzo will fight it out in a No Disqualification match!
The AEW fans have seen the former AEW Women's World Champion fight with Lights Out, fight when locked inside a Steel Cage, but she's not the only one who has been through it. In her wrestling life before AEW, “The Virtuosa” has seen battle in No DQ bouts, even in a Texas Death Match, and she is going to bring that experience to bear tonight in Youngstown, OH!
Each of these women want another shot at the AEW Women's World Championship, regardless of who is holding it when the time comes, but before that day approaches they've got to deal with one another and under these circumstances, based on what we know of each woman's career in these situations, this is going to be one violent Saturday night!
TRIOS MATCH...
Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Juice Robinson) vs.
House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, & Malakai Black)
The challenge was laid out by The Bang Bang Gang this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE, not an Undisputed World Trios Championship match of course because that would require “Switchblade” Jay White, but a Trios fight with former AEW World Trios Champions The House of Black! Now one may question the sanity of any individual actually calling out Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, and Brody King for a fight, but that's certainly not the case with The Gunns and Juice Robinson. There's no question about where their heads are at, and that there's not a whole lot of sense between the three of them. Jay White is the sense in their nonsense, and without him, they are a half-cocked lot for sure, but perhaps that is what's needed to defend against the onslaught of The House of Black. As a trio, The House just edges out The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass in most matches, and they're tied in terms of most wins for an active trio, but The BBG are coming in with five straight victories while The House is coming in with four consecutive wins. What should be unnerving to The Gunns and Juice is the fact that The House has been silent since DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 and Malakai's loss to Cope in the TNT Championship Barbed Wire Cage match. Silence from that unit is scary...
TNT CHAMPIONSHIP LADDER MATCH QUALIFIER...
Lee Moriarty vs. Dante Martin
On August 13, 2021 fans bore witness to the premier of AEW RAMPAGE, live from the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA, and watched as three championships were defended, but that same night something very low key happened that made a monumental change to one man's life. On the episode of DARK taped that night for YouTube broadcast four days later, Lee Moriarty made his All Elite Wrestling debut in front of his hometown people. Standing across the ring from Moriarty that night was Dante Martin, one-half of Top Flight, at that time competing primarilu in singles matches as his brother Darius recovered from injury, but also learning at the side of world-traveled veteran Matt Sydal.
Later that year Sydal would also take Moriarty under his wing, and the three men would actually compete in a couple Trios bouts in January 2022, but that was a dynamic that did not last. By the summer Moriarty was fighting Martin and Sydal in singles matches, and in fact beating them both. That was two years ago, and in that time a lot has happened to both individuals. Darius would eventually return to action, endure another injury, come back stronger than ever only for Dante Martin to suffer a potentially career ending injury of his own at ROH's SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2023. Darius would bring Action Andretti into the fold, essentially a third member of Top Flight, and they would create a tag team synergy of their own. Dante defied the odds, came back after just eight months, and since then has been on fire in the ring. He fought Orange Cassidy for the TN Title, took on Adam Copeland in an amazing Cope Open Challenge, competed in the World Tag Titles Tournament this year with his brother, and they challenged for the trios championship with Action Andretti at their side. Dante has demonstrated time and again an athleticism that defies logic, and a hunger to continue improving with every type of match in which he competes.
As for Lee Moriarty's journey, at one point it seemed he was fated to join with The Blackpool Combat Club, Bryan Danielson even mentioned him by name in the early stages when it was just him and Moxley waving that flag, but Moriarty took another path into the world of Stokely Hathaway and The Firm. That meant a FTW Title fight with HOOK, an All-Atlantic Title shot at Orange Cassidy, and battles with The Acclaimed. Even after The Firm imploded, Lee kept his sights on championship prizes, fighting Wardlow for the TNT Title during HOUSE RULES: SALEM and taking on Katsuyori Shibata for the ROH Pure Title, but it wasn't until Shane Taylor came knocking on Lee's door that things seemed to begin fall into place. Shane Taylor Promotions hasn't led to a winning record for Lee, but what it has done is bring out a killer instinct that Moriarty was lacking previously. It was on display in his Cope Open Challenge, as well as his more recent fights with Shibata, Orange Cassidy, HOOK, and Will Ospreay.
So it will be tonight that the paths of Lee Moriarty and Dante Martin converge once more, a rubber match two years in the making, with Moriarty having scored the last victory in their series. As if taking the lead here wasn't enough of a reason to fight with all their hearts, the winner of this will also advance to FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024's TNT Championship Ladder Match, getting each one step closer to winning their first AEW championship!
EIGHT-MAN BATTLE...
Blackpool Combat Club (ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, & Jon Moxley) vs. Lio Rush, Rocky Romero, & TMDK (Mikey Nichols & Shane Haste)
Prior to their June 5th fight against the CMLL contingent, the full Blackpool Combat Club quartet had only competed together one time and that was at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2023's Anarchy in the Arena bout. But just ten days after their second outing as a full squad, The BCC will unite once again for something of a FORBIDDEN DOOR sampler as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley, ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, and Bryan Danielson will fight Rocky Romero, Lio Rush, and original TMKD pair of Mickey Nicholls and Shane Haste! That's quite an interesting foursome there as Rocky and Lio were both under the CHAOS banner at one point, while TMDK and CHAOS have had their fair share of fights dating back to 2022, but this match isn't about the friction between factions or the history they may have, it's about representing for each side of the Forbidden Door!
It's a situation that is probably most interesting when it comes to Rocky Romero; so much of his heart and soul reside in the New Japan ring, but so much of his 2024 has been spent fighting under the AEW and CMLL banners, so much so that his last trip to Japan was actually for participation on the CMLL FANTASTICA MANIA 2024 cards! One could go so far as to call “Azucar” the physical embodiment of the Forbidden Door because of how many different places he has fought over the last few years, but the question might be which of them he truly feels is his home? Is it New Japan Pro Wrestling as his positioning in this fight would seem to indicate? Is it CMLL where he's had his greatest successes over the last couple years? Or is it AEW where he's spent so much of his time in 2024, even if it hasn't been the most championship-laden run of his career? For all the talent wrapped up in this match, Rocky Romero may just be the deciding factor on which way the Forbidden Door opens tonight on COLLISION!
THE ACCLAIMED IN THE HOUSE!
Ahead of next Wednesday night's Eliminator Match with AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks, former AEW World Tag Champions The Acclaimed will be in the house on COLLISION and they've apparently got a lot on their minds! No doubt there's a lot of venom to be directed at The EVPs, and tonight is the night to let it all out! Do not miss out on what Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Daddy Ass have to share with the Colliders in Youngstown, OH and around the world!
ALSO FEATURING:
-Hechicero vs. Dalton Castle
Youngstown, OH is going to be on fire tonight when COLLISION comes to visit for its one year anniversary celebration! The week has been red-hot already between DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, and AEW aims to keep it going as FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 draws near! We've got Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo escalating their rivalry to a No Disqualification match, as well as Christian Cage celebrating Father's Day! Plus, The Bang Bang Gang fight The House of Black in a Trios match, Dante Martin and Lee Moriarty vie for a spot in the TNT Championship Ladder Match on 6/30, and a full-strength Blackpool Combat Club takes on TMDK, Lio Rush, and Rocky “Azucar” Romero! Before the show begins, be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel before bell time, for highlights from this week's DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, Renee Paquette's Close-Up featuring Christopher Daniels, and so much more!
From Youngstown, All Elite Wrestling heads to Fairfax, VA and the EagleBank Arena for next Wednesday night's DYNAMITE where MJF and RUSH will kick-off the program without commerical interruption, AEW World Tag Champions The Young Bucks face The Acclaimed in an Eliminator match, and AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada will also be in an Eliminator contest!