Andrade Defends National Title, Machine Guns Debut On Collision

AEW Collision returns to Allen, Texas on Saturday, September 5, with a National Championship defense, a first title defense for new TBS Champion Persephone, and the long-awaited AEW tag team debut of the Motor City Machine Guns.

Andrade El Ídolo puts the AEW National Championship on the line against Gabe Kidd of The Dogs, continuing a feud that boiled over after Wednesday’s Dynamite. Andrade and Kidd were on opposite sides of a 10-man tag main event that saw Andrade team with AEW World Champion Will Ospreay and United Empire to beat The Dogs and The Demand, but the two brawled into the crowd once the bell rang. It’s the second meeting between the pair — Andrade beat Kidd back in February at NJPW’s The New Beginning in Osaka to become the number-one contender for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship. Andrade enters riding high after winning the men’s Casino Gauntlet at All In: London, which locked in a future AEW World Championship opportunity, giving him plenty of momentum to protect on home soil.

Persephone, who also holds the CMLL World Women’s Championship, makes her first defense of the TBS Championship since dethroning Maya World on the Buy In just six days earlier. Dr. Britt Baker’s surprise return played a role in that title change, and Baker will be on commentary as Persephone faces VertVixen. The pairing of Persephone and Baker has formed quickly, and how vocal Baker gets on commentary could say a lot about where that alliance is headed.

Elsewhere on the card, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley finally step into the ring together in AEW as the Motor City Machine Guns, taking on two-thirds of the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champions, Blake Christian and Lee Johnson of The Swirl. MCMG made their presence known at All In: London when they joined FTR and The New Level in confronting Cage & Cope after a tag title defense, and Christian has been openly dismissive of the veteran duo ever since — setting up a hostile welcome for one of the most decorated tag teams in wrestling history.

The card also features ROH Women’s World Champion Athena defending in a Proving Ground Match against Isla Dawn in Athena’s home state, the Young Bucks opening their road to a three-way ladder match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship at All Out against Don Callis Family members Brian Cage and Jake Doyle, and an uneasy pairing of Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight against Bang Bang Gang’s Juice Robinson and Ace Austin after tension between Fletcher and Knight spilled out following All In. Nick Wayne, coming off a backstage altercation with Chris Jericho, also squares off with former rival Komander, while Hangman Page, Bandido and Brody King look to regroup after losing the AEW World Trios Championship in the Roulette Royale at All In: London.

With All Out set for September 26 in Chicago, Collision is shaping up as another building block on that road, and the fallout from London is clearly still driving the storylines heading into the fall.