A New Era of AEW Begins: Recap of The First Episode of Collision

After over a month of building excitement, AEW Collision has come crashing onto the professional wrestling scene with returning stars and fresh storylines for fans to sink their teeth into. This article provides an overview of what went down during the new night for All Elite Wrestling. The show started off with the explosive and much-anticipated return of “The Best in the World” CM Punk. Fans and journalists alike have been speculating the direction of Punk’s return. As soon as Punk stepped between the ropes into the ring, removed the AEW-branded flag from the microphone, and raised it up to his lips, fans knew that chaos was about to ensue. CM Punk fired off lines addressing the past and present to Chicago's jam-packed crowd proclaiming himself to be the truth. Punk walked out with a red sack holding the AEW World Championship and claimed that it still belongs to him since he has never been pinned or submitted in the ring (Punk was stripped of the title in September 2022 following the brawl between him and The Elite). He walked back up the ramp, leaving the crowd red hot for the rest of the action-packed night.

The next match was between Wardlow, the TNT Champion at the time, and Luchasaurus, accompanied by Christian Cage. Luchasaurus was crowned the new champion with the help of Cage, who his Wardlow with a camera as the referee was distracted. The following match featured Buddy Matthews and the returning Andrade El Idolo. Andrade came out victorious after a hard-hitting match beating Matthews with a figure-four leg lock, adding a back bridge, a nod to his wife’s (Charlotte Flair) finisher in the WWE. 

Miro dominantly returned to AEW beating Tony Nese in an extremely one-sided victory. Miro locked Nese into his finishing submission known as “Game Over” leaving Nese with no choice but to tap out. The women’s division was showcased in an incredible tag team match with Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale going head to head against The Outcasts, Toni Storm and Ruby Soho. After the cheating tactics of The Outcasts backfired, Blue used it to her advantage and hit Soho with her finishing move “The Code Blue” to score the victory for her team. 

Finally, the main event of the show featured a six-man tag team match with the team of Samoa Joe, Juice Robinson, and Jay White going against FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) and CM Punk. The match featured tons of back-and-forth action leaving the fans on the edge of their seats for the remainder of the show. To cap off the remaining minutes of the brawl, FTR and CM Punk worked in tandem to beat their opponents with CM Punk scoring the pinfall.

There are so many rivalries and storylines for fans to be excited about in the coming weeks. This episode is just the beginning of this new era of AEW and the first episode of many to bring the hype to Saturday nights. 

0 comments

Leave a comment