The SmarK Rant for AEW Collision – 02.15.25

The SmarK Rant for AEW Collision – 02.15.25

“Grand Slam Australia”

I’ve been avoiding spoilers all friggin’ day so I’m pumped to finally see this one tonight.

Taped from Brisbane, Australia

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Nigel McGuinness

Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher v. Kenny Omega & Will Ospreay

Ospreay and Fletcher renew hostilities to start, but then Kyle gets rid of Kenny and they double-team Ospreay. Will fights them off and brings Kenny in, but Fletcher CAN escape and tells us that. Kenny sends him to the floor with a rana, but Takeshita breaks up the dive, so the faces dump him and do a DOUBLE Terminator dive on them. Back in the ring, they work Fletcher over, but Kyle runs Ospreay’s head into Kenny’s gut, RIGHT IN THE DIVERTICULITIS, and the heels take over with a senton from Takeshita that gets two. Don Callis and his gleeful cackle on commentary is just great. Takeshita with a knee to the gut for two. Takeshita works the body in the corner, but Kenny comes out with a sling blade and it’s back to Ospreay. Kenny runs wild for a bit with a snapdragon on Fletcher , and Ospreay follows with a Spanish fly on him and everyone is out as we take a break. Back with Will and Kyle trading kicks, and Ospreay reverses a powerbomb into a DDT. Ozcutter is caught, so Ospreay hits ANOTHER DDT and sets up to finish, only for Callis to trip him up and Fletcher to hit a german suplex for a double down. Takeshita pounds on Kenny’s midsection some more and follows with the Warrior clothesline, but Ospreay breaks it up. So Takeshita suplexes BOTH GUYS in an incredible spot. Kenny comes back with a rana on Takeshita off the top, and the V-Trigger gets two as Ospreay takes out Fletcher outside. Another V-Trigger is countered into the Blue Thunder Bomb for two. Kenny with a poison rana that doesn’t go very well and he hits Takeshita with a running knee before trying a One Winged Angel off the top, but Takeshita blocks, so Ospreay hits a cutter from the top instead. Fletcher returns and cuts off the V-Trigger with a superkick, but Kenny blasts him with an elbow and then finishes his V-Trigger on Takeshita. They try stereo finishers, but the heels reverse into stereo tombstones for stereo two counts. Everyone slugs it out for the boo/yay spot, and the heels manage to lay them both out. Takeshita with the knee strike on Kenny, but it only gets two. Brainbuster gets two. Ospreay tries to protect Omega with his own body, but Fletcher pulls him off, so Ospreay sets up the Hidden Blade and Takeshita cuts it off with his running knee. Another knee for Omega, but Kenny grabs the leg and hits his own knee strike. Takeshita escapes the Angel and Fletcher puts Kenny on top, but Omega sends him to the floor and then drops Takeshita facefirst on the turnbuckle, at which point Ospreay FLIES over him and hits Fletcher with a dive. Back in the ring, it’s a One Winged Angel backed with a flying Hidden Blade, and that finishes Takeshita at 21:48. An absolutely incredible opener with non-stop action and a super hot crowd. ****1/2

TBS title: Mercedes Mone v. Harley Cameron

Mercedes is invited to FEEL THE WRATH, so she grabs a headlock and slams Harley down and tells her to get out of the ring. So Harley gets a rollup for two and a legsweep into a flatliner for two. Mone tries the Moneymaker and Harley escapes that and takes her to the ropes for the dreaded boob rakes and then unleashes her puppet. Mercedes sadly doesn’t take kindly to it and tosses the puppet out before choking her out in the corner. Some people have no sense of humor. Mone with the double knees for two as we take a break. Back with Harley hitting a bulldog and making the comeback, but Mercedes cuts her off with the Three Amigos before going up with a frog splash that hits the knees. Harley gets two off that. Pumphandle into a suplex gets two. Mone with the backstabber and she puts Harley on the floor off that, but the puppet returns in a tremendous shot, as Harley goes up with a bodypress and a destroyer for two. They trade cradles and Mone powerbombs her, and goes up with the meteora for two. Harley with a crucifix for two. Rolling cradle gets two. O’Connor roll gets two. 619 and she goes up, but misses the swanton and Mone hits the Moneymaker and pins her to retain at 12:50. I mean, it was clearly Harley’s best match ever and a great match, but WHYYYYYYY couldn’t someone tell Mone to ditch the stupid goddamn Moneymaker that she can never hit. The finish was obvious, I thought: Mone puts her in the Bank statement and uses the puppet to smother Harley and make her pass out, and then you do the walk of respect afterwards. Match was still great but it felt like a missed opportunity for something really special. ***3/4. Also if Harley’s gonna be a top star, and she will, she’s gonna need an actual finisher because there wasn’t really any moment in the match in particular where it felt like she could really win decisively.

Meanwhile, Kenny challenges Takeshita to an International title match, and Ospreay challenges Fletcher to a cage match, for Revolution. Yeah I’m gonna go buy that show right now.

Brisbane Brawl: COPE & Jay White v. Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli

The crowd is so jacked that they actually sing COPE’s whole song. They go brawling right away and COPE fights with Claudio into the audience while Mox pulls out a trash can lid and hits White to block a dive. Meanwhile COPE dives off the balcony onto Claudio, apparently never learning his lesson about that sort of thing. Moxley sets up a table while the audience declares him to be a WANKER and Nigel leaps to his defense. “What have these Australians ever done, Koalas with chlamydia?” That’s a hell of a band name actually. COPE tries to suplex Mox onto his own table, but Marina breaks it up with a kendo stick and Claudio powerbombs him through the table as we take a break. Back with Jay White fighting off both Death Riders with the kendo stick, but Claudio runs him into a chair, so White runs Claudio into his own chair and the Blade Runner gets two. This brings Wheeler Yuta in to ruin things as usual and he whips White with his belt, but Jay sucks it up and hits the Blade Runner on Yuta. COPE returns and spears Claudio through the table in the corner and then hits another spear on the rebound. Next up, a barbed wire chair, and of course Moxley takes the beating with that, but Yuta saves him from a Conchairto. Marina hits COPE with the briefcase and Claudio hits the Neutralizer for two, and then Moxley chokes COPE out at 14:31. Oh boy more heat for the Death Riders. Just what we needed. Kind of a normal TV brawl. ***. Crowd booed the finish out of the building and chanted “bullshit” as well. I’m very perplexed by that finish, unless they’re actually putting the belt on COPE. But they should NOT be wasting the Moxley loss on COPE so I really hope that they don’t.

AEW Continental title: Kazuchika Okada v. Buddy Matthews

Okada does not accept a handshake, so they battle to a stalemate and Buddy returns the middle finger. Okada tries to leave but Buddy taunts him back into the ring and they trade chops, only for Buddy to put him down with a knee and drop the knee for two. He goes up and misses a flying knee, but he goes up and Okada dropkicks him off the top and to the floor as we take a break. Back with Buddy hitting a meteora for two. Okada with a neckbreaker and he goes up and drops the flying elbow, but stops for another middle finger and Buddy grabs it. Buddy with a GTS, but he misses a curb stomp and the Rainmaker gets two. So he grabs the title and Buddy rolls him up for two and hits a curb stomp for two, and Murphy’s Law for a crazy two count as Okada’s leg lands on the middle rope. They fight to the top and Buddy brings him down with a superplex into a jackhammer for two. Buddy with the leglock, but Okada run him into the ref to break, and then goes low and hits the Rainmaker to finish at 13:22. Man this is a rough night for the Australians. As usual with Okada it took a while to get going but the near-falls were super hot at the end. ***1/2

Meanwhile, we immediately complicate the International title match that was just announced, by booking a mini-tournament instead with the winner of an Orange-Strong match facing Takeshita for the title and then the winner of THAT facing Kenny at the PPV. Why would you take a match I was instantly excited about and then wreck it with this overbooked nonsense?

AEW Women’s World title: Mariah May v. Timeless Toni Storm

Slugfest to start and Toni beats her down in the corner, then drops her with a german suplex, not once, not twice, but THRICE. And then a few more times for good measure to send Mariah to the apron, where May regroups and dropkicks her into the railing as we take a break. Back with Toni making a comeback in the ring and a short powerbomb gets two. Toni with the STF, but Mariah bites the arm to escape. So Toni goes back to it again, but May makes the ropes and then waits for Toni to charge off the apron and catches her with Mayday on the floor as a result. Back in the ring, Mariah with a missile dropkick, but Toni hits her own version of Mayday and then gives Mariah three hip attacks and Storm Zero for two. Mariah plays dead and then hits Toni with a backdrop driver and Mayday for two. So Mariah puts her on the top and tries for the rana, but Toni fights her off and brings her down with a powerbomb, and another Storm Zero, but Mariah bails to the floor to escape. Back in, she hits Toni with another Storm Zero, but Toni pulls out one last small package to regain the title at 15:15. Hell of a fight here and Mariah will be back I’m sure. ****

Booking weirdness aside, this was an incredible PPV quality show on free TV, easily the best Collision ever from that standpoint, and is well worth checking out. Really the only thing that was a disappointment was the Brisbane Brawl and everything else delivered.