Saturday night’s AEW Collision comes loaded with Owen Hart Foundation Tournament action, a pair of Forbidden Door tune-ups, and a TBS Championship qualifier, as the show rolls into Houston’s Smart Financial Centre at 8 p.m. ET on TNT and HBO Max — just eight days before AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 28 in San Jose.
The marquee bout is the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Semifinal, where ROH Women’s World Champion Athena puts her tournament life on the line against her own former protégé, Maya World. The winner earns a spot in the Finals at Forbidden Door opposite Mercedes Moné, with the AEW Women’s World Title at All In: London ultimately on the line. It’s a loaded stakes match with a deeply personal backdrop: World credits Athena as her trainer, while Athena has pointedly noted she didn’t pass along every trick she knows. Athena holds a 3-0-1 record over World, though World pushed the ROH champion to a time-limit draw in a Proving Ground match back in March — a performance that turned heads across the division. World has also been competing with extra motivation following the tragic death of her brother, making this one of the most emotionally charged matchups on the card.
The Young Bucks and Jack Perry square off against The Lethal Twist — Jay Lethal, Blake Christian, and Lee Johnson — in six-man tag action. The Elite trio backed Kenny Omega on this week’s Dynamite when TMDK sided with Zack Sabre Jr. following Omega’s win over Tony Nese. ZSJ himself also appears on Collision, returning to the brand for the first time since last August to face Adam Priest ahead of his Forbidden Door clash with Omega.
On the women’s title scene, Mina Shirakawa and Kris Statlander meet in a TBS Championship Survival of the Fittest qualifier. The winner joins Hikaru Shida and CMLL World Women’s Champion Persephone in the six-way match on the July 1 Dynamite. Statlander, a former TBS Champion and first woman to hold both the TBS and AEW Women’s titles, beat Shirakawa in her first AEW Women’s Title defense last September.
Elsewhere on the card, PAC steps into action after challenging NJPW’s Shota Umino for the IWGP Global Championship at Forbidden Door — a match Umino accepted earlier Saturday at Yuji Nagata’s Blue Justice XVIII in Japan. Dante Martin takes on CMLL World Trios and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Místico in what figures to be a high-flying showcase. The Hurt Syndicate — Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin — also compete as they look to work their way back toward the AEW tag titles. And Tommaso Ciampa and Chris Jericho come face-to-face in a segment with plenty of animosity fueling it.
It’s a stacked Collision card, and with Forbidden Door just around the corner, the stakes couldn’t be higher heading into Houston.
Source: All Elite Wrestling
