After rocking the house in Edmonton on Wednesday night, All Elite Wrestling is set to debut at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver this Saturday night! It's three hours of action as we present both COLLISION and RAMPAGE, beginning at 8pm ET/7pm CT, only this week all the action will go down on TBS! Knowing that Anarchy in the Arena is coming to DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, knowing that it's just fifteen days until AEW returns to where it all began in Las Vegas for the 5th anniversary, it is time for everyone already involved to step up to that next level, and everyone else to try to earn a fight on that landmark event!
Before COLLISION begins, be sure to visit AEW's official YouTube channel, as well as our assorted social media platforms, for highlights from last Wednesday's episode of DYNAMITE, as well as the latest edition of the CONTROL CENTER, and much more! Then join AEW next Wednesday night in Everett, WA at the Angel of the Winds Arena for another exciting edition of DYNAMITE!
COLLISION
COPE OPEN TNT CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGE...
Adam Copeland(c) vs. Kyle O'Reilly
After Adam Copeland defended his TNT Championship against Buddy Matthews, Kyle O'Reilly made it a point to let Cope know how much, as a fellow Canadian, it meant to him to share a locker room with Adam, and how inspirational he is to O'Reilly. Adam, at first appreciative, seemed to think Kyle had his eyes on the TNT Championship the entire time, but told O'Reilly to stay focused on his fight with Rocky Romero later that night during RAMPAGE. Now whether that was true, or just a bit of paranoia, is entirely dependent on one's perspective, but that being said, the TNT Champion has seemed a bit...off...ever since he was exposed to The House's signature black mist.
Still, Kyle said he'd have Copeland's back against The House of Black and lived up to that word after Adam defeated Brody King on Wednesday night, but continued to assault the victorious champion after the bell. After the match, cameras captured the moment between Copeland O'Reilly shown in the video embedded above, and that has brought us to this Saturday night's TNT Championship fight! For Kyle this is a homecoming, not only is it the place where his professional wrestling career first began, it's also Kyle's first time fighting in Vancouver since October 2019! The last time “The Violent Artist” came to Vancouver he did so as a champion, and with this return he aims to leave it one as well!
Unfortuantely for Kyle, he's got a very fired up Adam Copeland as his opponent, and there is very clearly something deeper going on with “The Rated R Superstar”. Adam has insisted he's fine when asked, and perhaps he is, but given how we have seen other AEW competitors react when exposed to that black mist (notable Skye Blue), there is certainly cause for concern, and the words of Malakai Black paint the picture of just what The House's intentions are in their engagement with the TNT Champion.
It's reasonable to assume that The House of Black will have their collective eyes on this TNT Title bout, there is clearly a vested interest in both the outcome as well as the actions of Adam Copeland, but will Malakai get what he's hoping for out of it? Will we see Cope fall deeper into this abyss that The House has created and lose himselt to that darkness fans have seen at various points throughout his career? Or will Adam be able to salvage himself before it is too late? Most importantly, at least for Kyle O'Reilly, will this tumultuous time be the key to ending Copeland's TNT Championship reign?
TAG TEAM CONTEST...
Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli) vs.
Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin)
As DYNAMITE drew to a close last Wednesday night, fans learned that Bryan Danielson and Eddie Kingston would join FTR for the Anarchy In The Arena battle at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 against The Elite! It's quite the intriguing quartet of individuals, bound more by their love for AEW and their loathing for the various members of The Elite squad, but four men who will support each other in this fight nonetheless.
That pay-per-view fight is still a couple weeks away though, meaning there's a lot that could happen between now and then, but one thing we know is going to happen is Bryan Danielson returning to action for the first time since DYNASTY 2024's loss to Will Ospreay! That brutal Tiger Driver left many questioning just how Danielson would feel upon returning to action, and we shall see this Saturday night on COLLISION when he and fellow BCC member Claudio Castagnoli enter tag team competition!
Now Top Flight are no strangers to The Blackpool Combat Club, in January of last year it was Danielson and Moxley who scored a victory over the Martin brothers, and several weeks before that Claudio and Moxley scored a win over Dante and Darius as well. That being said, in the $300,000 Three Kings Trios Battle Royal, Dante and Darius eliminated both Claudio and Moxley, they also hold a tag team victory over Claudio and Yuta from a Three Way tag on 1/16/23 edition of DARK: ELEVATION, but that BCC duo also got a win back during a Four Way tag on the 3/3/23 RAMPAGE.
Suffice to say there's plenty of history between Top Flight and the BCC, but this will be the first time they've dealt with the pairing of Bryan and Claudio, a team that is 3-0 thus far in 2024, while Top Flight is batting .500 at 3-3 in their tag team outings on the year. It's a huge opportunity for Top Flight, but also a situation heading into DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, as well as coming out of DYNASTY 2024, where the Blackpool Combat Club, specifically Danielson, needs to show he's ready for that kind of fight.
ONE-ON-ONE...
Dax Harwood vs. “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington
At just 23 years of age, “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington has already dedicated nearly a decade of his life to fighting inside the squared circle, a great deal of it as tag team partner to his younger brother Mark, but the entirety of 2024 has been spent competing in the singles ranks. As a nephew of the late “Dynamite Kid” Thomas Billington, there have undoubtedly been lofty expectations placed on Tommy since first stepping into the ring, but he's excelled in that shadow, creating a name all his own while simultaneously paying tribute to his influential uncle. As a tag team, Tommy and Mark are the reigning Dungeoun Wrestling Tag Team Champions, while as a singles competitor “Dynamite Kid” kicked off his 2024 by capturing the Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW) British Commonwealth Title, and has since successfully defended it 12 times over the 121 days he's been champion.
Now Billington steps into the highest pressure situation of his entire career, a fight on COLLISION, live in front of the eyes of the entire world, and against a man quite familiar with competing as both a singles and tag wrestler: former multi-time World Tag Champion FTR's Dax Harwood! Just like Bryan Danielson, Dax has quite a heavy load on his plate in just fifteen days but he's eager to put young Billington to the test this Saturday night in Vancouver. Clearly Dax is someone with a great deal of respect for what the original “Dynamite Kid” did for professional wrestling, how he and the original Tiger Mask changed the game, and how he and Davey Boy Smith, as The British Bulldogs, evolved tag team wrestling, but that doesn't mean Dax is going to take it easier on Tommy Billington than he would on anyone else across the ring.
Welcome to AEW Tommy Billington, hopefully you survive the experience!
ONE-ON-ONE...
“The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay vs. Shane Taylor Promotions Lee Moriarty
***AEW International Champion Roderick Strong on commentary***
Two weeks ago the AEW faithful watched as Will Ospreay earned himself an AEW International Championship match at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 by way of victory in the Casino Gauntlet Match. Though he was immediately confronted by Roderick Strong and the Undisputed Kingdom after the victory, it surprisingly did not break down into fisticuffs even with the numbers advantage The UK had in that moment. One noticable moment in that Gauntlet bout was how, in adherence to a promise he made after the Danielson match at DYNASTY 2024, Ospreay stopped himself from using the Tiger Driver '91, much to the chagrin of Don Callis.
No doubt this Saturday night, as Will Ospreay makes his COLLISION debut as COLLISION makes its TBS debut, Don Callis will be somewhere rooting for Ospreay to break that promise when he takes on Lee Moriarty of Shane Taylor Promotions! In addition to those debuts, this is also a first-timer match, the kind that gives Moriarty another opportunity to show why he believes his name deserves to be talked about among those considered the best wrestlers in the world. He's danced with Danielson, Moxley, Shibata, Orange Cassidy, and Adam Copeland, to name a few, and while Lee's lost more than he's won in those situations, he's never backed down, never relented, and never held back. What he has done is learn, grow, adapt, and with the tutelage of Shane Taylor, he's even found another level of aggression and killer instinct that was greatly on display in the Copeland, Moxley, and Shibata fights of 2024.
Lee Moriarty is going to have to bring everything he's learned in his AEW tenure, everything he's garnered from Shane Taylor's learning tree, and maybe even a little assist from STP if it's available, if he wants to come out of this one the victor. Will Ospreay has been on another level since coming to AEW, eleven straight singles victories dating back to June 15, 2022, seven of those taking place in 2024
ALSO FEATURING:
-Thunder Rosa vs. Robyn Renegade!
-Brian Cage & The Gates of Agony in Trios Action!!
RAMPAGE
ONE-ON-ONE...
Trent Beretta vs. Dalton Castle
Who would've ever thought Don Callis would be the one to save the day for anyone except himself? Yet that is what Callis did in the aftermath of Trent Beretta's loss to Orange Cassidy as Beretta continued to assault his former best friend. Orange may have been standing, barely, with a chair weakly held in hand, but Don Callis extricating Cassidy from the scene is the only reason Trent didn't make it worse.
For the sake of former ROH World Champion Dalton Castle, let's hope that Beretta is looking to pick up with him where he left off with Orange, otherwise “The Peacock” could be in for a rough night as these two clash on RAMPAGE in their first-ever one-on-one match! That's not to say they haven't met in combat before, they've got three ROH matches to their history including a Three Way ROH World Championship match from ROH/NJPW HONOR RISING: JAPAN 2018: NIGHT 2 in Korakuen Hall, as well as mutual participation in several AEW battle royals, but never before one-on-one!
Will Dalton find himself a target for the wrath that Trent had to stifle on Wednesday night, or will Castle strut his way to victory with this return to RAMPAGE?
SINGLES MATCH...
“The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo vs. Lady Frost
It's been over two years since the last time Deonna Purrazzo and Lady Frost locked horns inside the squared circle, but this week on RAMPAGE they will go one-on-one for the first time in All Elite Wrestling! From July 2021 to March 2022, these two competitors met in three championship bouts, including a ROH Women's World Championship match, and in all three bouts it was “The Virtuosa” who came out on top, but as Lady Frost said on her socials, she's not the same woman she was then, and she aims to put the first win in her column this Saturday night!
For Purrazzo, this marks her first time back in the ring since assaulting Thunder Rosa on RAMPAGE, with that attack sending the message loud and clear that “The Virtuosa” was going to do whatever she deems necessary to get to championship status in All Elite Wrestling. She will take on, and take down, any woman in her way, and Saturday night that means Lady Frost is in the crosshairs!
Will this be a fourth straight victory for Deonna Purrazzo, or will Lady Frost finally put Purrazzo's shoulders to the mat? And we know Thunder Rosa will be in the house given her match on COLLISION, but will she make her presence known during RAMPAGE as well?
Coming out of an exciting night in Edmonton this past Wednesday, All Elite Wrestling is heading to the Rogers Arena for our Vancouver debut this Saturday night! But it's not just COLLISION, it will in fact be three hours of the best professional wrestling on the planet as RAMPAGE immediately follows that action. It gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT, and this week it all takes place on TBS!
Prior to COLLISION, make a point to visit AEW's official YouTube channel, as well as our various social media platforms, for highlights from last Wednesday's episode of DYNAMITE, the latest edition of the CONTROL CENTER, and much more! Then come with AEW to Everett, WA next Wednesday night at the Angel of the Winds Arena for another exciting edition of DYNAMITE, and of course DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 is just fifteen days away!