As All Elite Wrestling continues towards FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 on June 30th, we make our next stop tonight in Council Bluffs, IA for an all-new COLLISION! It is AEW's first visit to Iowa and it's going to be a memorable one as The Blackpool Combat Club of Claudio Castagnoli and ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta take on former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions FTR, plus AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm will be in action against Lady Frost! In addition, after taking part in that Four Way International Championship Contender's match on Wednesday, Orange Cassidy and Kyle O'Reilly will go one-on-one!
It begins at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, so be sure to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel before bell time, for highlights from this week's DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, highlights from DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, Chuck Taylor joining Renee Paquette's Close-Up, and more! Then it's off to Des Moine and the Wells Fargo Arena for next Wednesday's DYNAMITE featuring AEW International Champion Will Ospreay defending against Rey Fenix AND TBS Champion Mercedes Moné taking on Zeuxis, the tag team partner of her FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024 opponent Stephanie Vaquer!
TAG TEAM CHALLENGE...
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs.
Blackpool Combat Club (ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta & Claudio Castagnoli)
Wednesday night on DYNAMITE ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta made his return to in-ring competition after nearly five months away dealing with concussion issues and other nagging injuries, and he managed to turn it into quite an impactful evening by scoring the winning pinfall for The BCC over CMLL's Rugido!
After so much time sitting on the sidelines watching the action, watching his brothers-in-arms fight the good fight, Yuta isn't about to sit back and let the the battles pass him by, he's jumping straight back into competition at the highest level because for the first time, the BCC duo of Castagnoli and Yuta will clash with multi-time World Tag Team Champions FTR tonight on COLLISION!
Now FTR and the BCC have quite a complicated relationship, they went 0-1-1 against the Moxley/Castagnoli pairing earlier this year, then there's their Trios battle that added in Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson, and of course Danielson teaming up with them for Anarchy in the Arena at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, but in addition to this being a first-time tag match, this is also the first time FTR has ever had Wheeler Yuta as an opponent.
Together, Castagnoli and Yuta are 11-3 as a team, and though that doesn't touch FTR's AEW career record of 51-14-2, it does make their tag team pairing one of the most effective in the Blackpool Combat Club with Mox/Claudio 11-1-1 record the only comparable duo. It's not just about tag team competition though, we know Claudio had issues with Danielson taking part in the Anarchy match, though that was as much because of Eddie Kingston as because of the health risks to Danielson, and has to put some of that on FTR, so between that and the BCC/FTR history, this is just a little personal.
ONE-ON-ONE...
AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm vs. Lady Frost
Things are getting a little...tense...in the Toni Storm/Mariah May/Mina Shirakawa triangle; with the official announcement that current Artist of Stardom (Trios) Champion would be Storm's challenger at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, it changed the dynamic of the situation from Mina just being Mariah's other friend to her being a direct threat to Storm. Now Mariah and Mina have quite the history with Stardom, former Goddesses of Stardom (Tag Team) Champions together as well as both being members of Club Venus, but none of that matter to Toni until Mina became a challenger to her crown.
It's a clash that's got wrestling fans everywhere excited for FORBIDDEN DOOR 2024, but June 30th is in the future, there is still the present to be concerned with and in the present “Timeless” Toni Storm has to fight a very game Lady Frost tonight on COLLISION! Though she's winless in singles competition here in AEW, it's vital to look at the level of competition Lady Frost has taken on in those matches. She faced Kris Statlander for the TBS Championships twice, gotten into the ring with former AEW Women's World Champion Thunder Rosa, stepped up to Mariah May, and danced with Deonna Purrazzo. Frost has faced the top tier of the AEW Women's locker room in her matches here, and now steps up to the highest level tonight she faces “The Timeless One”. Obviously this is the biggest opportunity of Frost's AEW matches, can she make the most of it and shock the world live on TNT?
SINGLES MATCH...
Kyle O'Reilly vs. “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy
Both Kyle O'Reilly and Orange Cassidy had an impressive showing in Wednesday night's Four Way fray with an International Championship match hanging in the balance, but when it came down to the end, Jay Lethal made sure both men were out of the picture before he attempted the Figure Four on Rey Fenix. Sadly for Lethal that submission attempt saw him get craddled by the former International Champion and thus giving this coming Wednesday night's championship bout with Will Ospreay to Rey Fenix while OC and O'Reilly were unable to stop the result. Afterward Cassidy had his world further rocked when Kris Statlander slapped him across the face, showing the world quite clearly that she'd picked her side in the dissolution of The Best Friends, but at least he learned that Willow Nightingale had his back in this situation.
That brings us to tonight on COLLISION and the very first singles battle between Kyle O'Reilly and Orange Cassidy! They've got Wednesday's Four Way in their history book, as well as a Trios match from December 2021, but never a one-on-one bout until now, and it absolutely will have an impact on both man's perpetual pursuit of that International Championship. Kyle wants his first AEW championship, Orange wants the belt that helped shape his identity the last several years back, and they're going to lock horns tonight in hopes that each victory will get them closer to another chance!
SINGLES MATCH...
Daniel Garcia vs. Tate Mayfairs
Daniel Garcia is on a mission to become the best version of himself he can possibly be, to pursue championship gold in All Elite Wrestling, and achieve the kind of excellence he knows he has inside. His has been a hard-fought road, both within AEW and even before he set foot between those ropes, and though he is a former ROH Pure Champion, though he holds victories over men like Bryan Danielson, Buddy Matthews, Brody King, and has that lingering no contest with Adam Copeland thanks to The Patriarchy's involvement, he's not where he wants to be, at least not yet.
The journey towards that destiny, Garcia's march towards what he wants from his AEW career, it starts anew tonight on COLLISION when he welcomes Tate Mayfairs to All Elite Wrestling. A native of London with six years as a competitor under his belt, Mayfairs made his first trip to the United States this past April when he competed on the PROGRESS event in Philadelphia, and returned just days ago to compete on Beyond's WRESTLING OPEN event this past Thursday night. Currently reigning as the TNT Extreme Wrestling Champion, Tate Mayfairs even traveled to Uganda for Soft Ground Pro Wrestling as well as traveling his home country to hone his craft! Getting in the ring with a man like Daniel Garcia, in addition to competing on COLLISION, is a huge opportunity for Tate to make an impact on a global scale. Will we see him break out in this fight, or will he be the first stepping stone on Garcia's path?
ALSO FEATURING:
-Kris Statlander vs. Robyn Renegade
-Dustin Rhodes vs. Johnny TV
-And more!
The show gets started tonight at 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT, and with BCC versus FTR, Cassidy taking on O'Reilly, and Storm versus Frost, it's going to be quite the rocking night in Council Bluffs! Now make a point to drop by the official AEW YouTube channel before showtime to get caught up on highlights from this week's DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as catch Renee Paquette's Close-Up with Chuck Taylor, and so much more! Then All Elite Wrestling heads to Des Moines Wells Fargo Arena for the next edition of DYNAMITE where AEW International Champion Will Ospreay defends his title against Rey Fenix and TBS Champion Mercedes Moné faces the championship challenge of Stephanie Vaquer's tag team partner, Zeuxis!