AEW Collision & Rampage Preview for April 27, 2024

AEW is back at Daily's Place in Jacksonville this Saturday night for THREE hours of the best professional wrestling on the planet! It all begins with two hours of COLLISION, immediately following the conclusion of the NBA Playoffs on TNT, and rolls right into a hard-hitting hour of RAMPAGE! We've got the debut of world-reknowned tag team The Grizzled Young Veterans who've challenged The Acclaimed to a fight on COLLISION. Plus AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm and Anna Jay go head-to-head, the Bang Bang Gang make their first defense of the Unified World Trios Championship against Top Flight and Action Andretti, but the night will begin with the first live interview of AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland since he beat Samoa Joe at DYNASTY 2024!

Then we roll right into RAMPAGE featuring a Parking Lot Fight between former Best Friends Chucky Taylor and Trent Beretta, as well as a battle between Thunder Rosa and Deonna Purrazzo! It's going to be a red-hot night of action in Duval County on Saturday, the kind that only All Elite Wrestling can bring to wrestling fans around the globe!

Then join us on Wednesday May 1st in Winnipeg for an all-new DYNAMITE featuring the return of Kenny Omega to the AEW stage, Chris Jericho versus Katsuyori Shibata in a FTW Championship Match, and we will learn more about Swerve Strickland's DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 challenger!

COLLISION

HIS HOUSE!

On Wednesday night's edition of DYNAMITE, newly crowned AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland let his actions speak when he defeated ROH World Television Champion Kyle Fletcher in an Eliminator Match. This Saturday night live on COLLISION, immediately following the conclusion of the NBA Playoff game, fans coast-to-coast will hear from Swerve himself with his first live interview since defeating Samoa Joe at DYNASTY 2024!

Swerve will certainly have a lot to share with the AEW faithful in Jacksonville, and those watching around the world, so do not miss out on what he has to say when the AEW World Champion opens up COLLISION on Saturday night!

GRUDGE MATCH...

AEW Women's World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm vs. Anna Jay

It seems that AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm has gotten quite protective of her understudy Mariah May as of late. Perhaps it's the arrival of Mina Shirakawa from Stardom that's brought out this protective instinct, perhaps it was the #1 Contender's Match between May and Thunder Rosa that preceeded DYNASTY 2024 and Toni's seeming appreciation for Mariah nearly getting the top contender's spot. Whatever the case may be, Toni has her sights set on Anna Jay for all that “The Queen Slayer” has done when it comes to “her child” and is looking to teach Anna Jay a lesson! It's been seventeen months since the last time these two competitors went one-on-one, and nearly a year since they met inside the squared circle, so it's quite intriguing to see how they match-up now after each has undergone so much in their lives and careers.

“Timeless” Toni Storm says she's on the run of a lifetime, will Anna Jay be the one to trip her up?

UNIFIED WORLD TRIOS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH...

Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunns, Colten Gunn, & Jay White)(c)

vs.

Action Andretti & Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin)

The Bang Bang Gang unified the AEW World Trios and ROH World Six-Man Championships at DYNASTY 2024 when they defeated The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass during the ZERO HOUR. It was the culmination of weeks of a seeming alliance between the two groups that was just destined for failure given the nature of the six men involved there. Unfortunately it was Jay White and The Gunns who won out, and now they're the ones who get to move forward with the Unified Championship, which means their first title defense this Saturday night on COLLISION!

But why Action Andretti and Top Flight? Because Wednesday night on DYNAMITE both Jay White and Dante Martin were involved in the Casino Gauntlet Match for an International Championship Match at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, and “Switchblade” blames Dante for not winning the match. Now it's not as if Martin won the title shot either, but that doesn't mean White doesn't want a piece of him because of Wednesday night! That's what's brought these six man into combat this Saturday night on COLLISION, and why The Bang Bang Gang is putting up the titles to get Jay White what he wants. It's the first defense of the Unifed World Trios Championship, a new dawn for these titles, but could it also be the sun setting on The BBG's reign atop the division?

TAG TEAM DEBUT!

Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs.

The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster)

As for The Acclaimed, Anthony Bowens and Max Caster were quite disappointed to lose their AEW World Trios Championship on April 21st. It brought an end to their 238-day reign, the longest in the history of the titles, after successfully defending them a record eleven times, including wins over The Mogul Embassy, TMDK, Dark Order, and the Andretti/Top Flight trio, but that wasn't their only milestone in All Elite Wrestling.

Bowens and Caster also stand as former AEW World Tag Champions, defeating Swerve In Our Glory at DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2022, and defending them six times over 140 days including victories against The Varsity Athletes, FTR, Lethal and Jarrett twice, as well as Swerve & Keith Lee in a rematch. They were ready to run the division forever if able, but The Gunns crushed that dream and managed to escape REVOLUTION 2023 with the belts still around their waist, marking the last chance The Acclaimed had to regain those titles.

All that is mentioned to put into context the AEW career of The Acclaimed and to point out that, despite the words of James Drake and Zack Gibson, Anthony Bowens and Max Caster need to be taken quite seriously as opponents this Saturday night on COLLISION. But why are these two men known as The Grizzled Young Veterans so confident and arrogant about their ability to best such a decorated tag team? Because Drake and Gibson have been fighting as a tag team since 2017, been involved in each other's careers for even longer, and have captured seven tag team championships together around the world, including currently reigning as RevPro Undisputed British Tag Team Champions. They've been in the ring with Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin, The Workhorsemen, Alex Zayne & Lance Archer, Matt Menard & Angel Parker, as well as Aussie Open, to name just a tiny fraction of the teams they've faced.

James Drake and Zack Gibson are coming into AEW with a great deal excitement surrounding their debut, and a great many teams who'd love to lock horn with them to test the hype, but The Acclaimed will be the first to put GYV to the test, and it's a test that Drake and Gibson sought out! Perhaps they don't see The Acclaimed as being on their level, or perhaps they're just running their mouths to rock the resolve of the former AEW World Tag Champions. Either way, the time to fight is upon them all; will GYV shake the foundation of the tag team division or will The Acclaimed show Drake and Gibson why they are the winningest team in the division?

RAMPAGE

PARKING LOT FIGHT... Chuck Taylor vs. Trent Beretta

For more then ten years Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta have traveled the wrestling roads together as The Best Friends. From Reseda to Berwyn to Gastonia, from Beyond to Ring of Honor to New Japan Pro Wrestling, The Best Friends fought all across the wrestling landscape for six years before All Elite Wrestling even came into existence. They took on The Young Bucks, Adam Cole & Kevin Steen, Alex Reynolds & John Silver, Guerillas of Destiny, BULLET CLUB, LIJ, LAX, and participated in both the 2017 and 2018 World Tag League Tournaments.

Suffice to say that before the dawning of AEW, Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta amassed quite a bit of worldwide experience, although they never earned a tag team championship to give them the accolades they deserved for all that hard work. It wasn't lack of opportunity, they challenged for both the PWG and ROH World Tag Titles prior to DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2019 launching AEW into the wrestling world, but just never managed to earn the crowns.

Perhaps they thought All Elite Wrestling would be the place that changed their championship resume, but instead Chuckie T and Trent met with the same frustrations when it came to titles. The IWGP Tag Titles, the ROH World Tag Titles, and the AEW World Tag Titles have all been within their grasp over the last five years, but eluded The Best Friends every time they got close. Injuries even derailed their AEW momentum on several occasions, yet despite all of the road blocks, speed bumps, and detours, The Best Friends kept riding the road together. In fact, their unit only expanded with Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, and Kris Statlander joining up along the way, as well as others like Wheeler Yuta, Danhausen, HOOK, and Katsuyori Shibata hopping in the car from time-to-time. Not all worked out well, but the core of Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor, and Orange Cassidy held firm through every up-and-down, that is until three weeks ago when, following their loss to The Young Bucks in the AEW World Tag Title Tournament, Trent Beretta laid out Orange Cassidy, leaving Chuck Taylor left standing their in utter confusion.

Trent's motives remained a mystery, though he whispered something to Kris Statlander when she tried to confront him as he left the building, but it all became clear this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE. Fans knew going into the night that Trent Beretta intended to put Chuck Taylor on the spot and force Chuck to choose between OC and him, but doubtful anyone anticipated the night to begin with Cassidy being tossed out in front of the people having already been assaulted by Trent.

It's rather unlikely that Trent Beretta would even create this scenario if he thought Chuck Taylor would make any choice besides him, but Beretta still made it clear to Chuck and the AEW faithful why he'd committed these crimes. He called Cassidy a narcissist who didn't care about any of them, who used Chuck and Trent, and how he'd made The Best Friends his lackeys in AEW. Trent's words reeked of jealousy and resentment, and Chuck Taylor clearly heard that sentiment because not only did he deny Beretta, he knocked him down, and said he wanted a Parking Lot Fight with his former tag team partner! Oh, and Chuck finally got to say the s-word on TV...

The Parking Lot fight has been somewhat of a staple of The Best Friends tenure in All Elite Wrestling, as well as that of AEW events at Daily's Place. In 2020 Chuck and Trent defeated Santana & Ortiz in the first Parking Lot Fight during the 50th edition of DYNAMITE, and three years later they'd go into that battle again, this time with The Blackpool Combat Club, but the result would not be in their favor. Maybe that's where it all began to spiral out for Trent Beretta, a feeling he was fighting Orange Cassidy's battles for him, but wherever it began for Trent, it looks like Chuck Taylor aims to finish it this Saturday night in the Parking Lot of Daily's Place! Ten years of friendship, of fighting together against all odds, it comes to a brutal end for The Best Friends this Saturday night on RAMPAGE. But it's not just Trent and Chuck here, though that is the core of the group, it's also Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, and all the other lives touched by the two Best Friends that started it all. How will this affect the entire friendship circle?

ONE-ON-ONE...

“La Mera Mera” Thunder Rosa vs. “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo

Deonna Purrazzo and Thunder Rosa are in competition for the same thing, the AEW Women's World Champion, it's just that “La Mera Mera” got there first at DYNASTY 2024. In truth part of the way Rosa got there was by virtue of a tag team alliance with “The Virtuosa”, the two uniting on the March 20th edition of DYNAMITE to defeat Toni Storm and Mariah May with Rosa scoring the winning fall on Toni Storm. It was the first time Storm had been pinned since DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM 2023, and that fall put Thunder Rosa in the driver's seat to face Mariah May for the DYNASTY 2024 title opportunity. Now the Rosa/Purrazzo team wasn't the most cohesive, Thunder essentially force-tagged herself in to get that winning pinfall, and the two have not gotten along since. Heading into the title match, Rosa was insistent she didn't need or want assistance from Purrazzo, but she still got it as “The Virtuosa” stopped Mariah May from interfering in Rosa's championship match.

Ultimately it didn't matter, Toni Storm found a way to win and retain the belt, and the assist Deonna Purrazzo gave to Thunder Rosa only served to amplify the animosity between the two women. They got into it on DYNAMITE when Renee Paquette was interviewing Rosa, and now they'll have a chance to settle this grudge inside the squared circle! It's been three years since the only time these two women ever met one-one-one, a bout won by Deonna it should be noted, and now they'll clash once again to try and settle this issue!

Daily's Place in Jacksonville (https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aew-event/aew-collision-rampage-jacksonville) is home for All Elite Wrestling, and this Saturday night we are bringing THREE hours of live professional wrestling to the amazing fans in Duval County! COLLISION gets underway as soon as the NBA Playoffs conclude on TNT, and then leads straight into a hour of RAMPAGE action! It will all kick off with AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland's first live interview since DYNASTY 2024, and then it just gets wilder! The Grizzled Young Veterans make their AEW debut against former AEW World Tag & Trios Champions The Acclaimed, and AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm faces Anna Jay in something of a grudge match! Plus AEW Unified Trios Champions The Bang Bang Gang make their first defense against Action Andretti & Top Flight, and then we head into RAMPAGE for a Parking Lot Fight pitting Chuck Taylor against Trent Beretta! We will also see Thunder Rosa take on Deonna Purrazzo, and so much more!!

Then on Wednesday night May 1st, we head to Canada, specifically Winnipeg, MB,  for an all-new DYNAMITE that includes Kenny Omega's return to AEW, FTW Champion Chris Jericho defending against Katsuyori Shibata, and we will learn how DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 looks for AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland!