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Here’s a place to check results and comment along with the new episode of AEW Collision, airing live tonight (July 8) at 8 pm ET on TNT.
AEW is broadcasting this week’s show from Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, the latest stop on their tour of Canada.
Tonight we’ll see both semifinals in the men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament, one of which revisits one of the defining feuds in Ring of Honor history — CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe! The other will see former tag partners Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs face-off. One of the women’s Owen semis is tonight, with ROH Women’s champ Athena taking on Willow Nightingale. Outside of Tournament action, Bullet Club Gold can earn a shot at FTR’s AEW Tag titles if they win tonight’s Eliminator match. And more!
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the Collision live blog kicks off once the show starts on TNT. It will be below this line here.
Enjoy the show!
AEW COLLISION RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR JULY 8
Geno here.
Let’s do this.
Standard opening with Ricky Starks saying he’s taking out Powerhouse Hobbs, who says he’s taking out Ricky Starks. Then, Samoa Joe says he’s taking out CM Punk, who says he’s taking out Samoa Joe.
Saturday night’s alright for fighting!
Punk hits the ring right away while the show’s theme song is still playing. He asks for a mic and then starts speaking before he’s even in the ring.
Loud chants for him.
He says he has a big match against Joe tonight and he doesn’t want to take up too much time but he wants to remind folks of history that needs telling. He recognizes the gravity of the moment, and calls this the biggest match of his career.
“If I could for a moment — if Joe kills me in a dream he better wake up and apologize.”
He says history will be made tonight, that time will stand still. It’s been 18 years since he’s been in the ring with Joe. He’s got missing teeth because of Joe, scars all over his body because of him. But bigger than all that is one name — Owen Hart.
He asks for the fans to chant that name and they do.
If it wasn’t for Owen, Punk says, a lot of the locker room wouldn’t be wrestling and he may not even be there right now. You can champion him, you can talk about how great anyone else is, but none of them would be there if it wasn’t for Owen Hart.
He knows this is a hockey town but he’s also not superstitious. So he touches the trophy, “not because I deserve it but because I will earn it.”
That gets another “CM Punk” chant going.
He says he can’t promise a victory but win, lose, or draw he’ll pour his heart out and leave everything in the ring for himself, for the fans, and for Owen. Cue the theme song again, Punk kisses the trophy, and off they go to a video package showing some history between Punk and Joe.
In the video, Punk pushes not ever beating Joe, same as he did in the promo.
Time for the first semifinal match in the Owen Hart Tournament.
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Ricky Starks
Match recap: Before the match, they showed some of the history these two have shared, including Hobbs helping Starks win the FTW title and the tag team success they had together. QT Marshall was out ringside and, of course, he helped Hobbs while the referee was distracted. Lot of power moves from Hobbs, lot of selling from Starks. Much of the match was an extended, slowly paced beatdown of Starks. He had one comeback cut off before he countered Hobbs taking him up top with a powerbomb from the second ropes. Still, Hobbs kicked out. Starks got his momentum taken when QT grabbed his ankle while running the ropes. The official seemed to see it, or at least thought she did, so she focused her attention there. In that time, Hobbs hit the spinebuster but the ref never counted because she was busy talking with Marshall. Hobbs got off the pin to yell at him and was then knocked into him from behind before Starks hit the Spear for the win.
Ricky Starks def. Powerhouse Hobbs via pinfall
That puts Starks in the final, where he awaits the winner of Joe vs. Punk later.
Back in the ring, Marshall was trying to talk to Hobbs, who kept looking away and turning his back on him. Finally, he pushed Marshall across the ring. QT begged off, and pleaded for Hobbs not to listen to the crowd, who wanted Powerhouse to attack.
Aaron Solow hit the ring to get in front of Marshall but he was hit with the spinebuster. Then it was Harley Cameron’s turn to get in the ring and jump in front of him, and that was enough for Hobbs to take off.
Miro is back.
He says many men have lost themselves after a deal with the devil but only one has proved himself after a showdown with his own god. No one can hurt the man who has nothing left to covet. He cannot be tempted from the path, not by a shiny belt, a false god, or a double jointed hot wife.
He must walk the righteous path and be what his god was not.
He senses a big battle is coming, one we’ve all been waiting for.
Willow Nightingale is backstage talking with Tony Schiavone about how she was injured in Japan and can’t get cleared to wrestle tonight.
Athena shows up to say Willow ruined her Collision debut. She can’t help but wonder if the injury is even legit. Athena had three flights in coach to get here and she thinks Willow just doesn’t want to take another L after losing the New Japan title to Julia.
Willow says she still plans on winning the tournament and once she’s done with that maybe she’ll take a stab at Athena’s Ring of Honor championship. Athena talks some more trash, saying Willow isn’t even going to get cleared for Rampage next week but if she does and manages to win, maybe they can tussle for the title.
A video airs with a special look at the upcoming Blood & Guts match pitting Blackpool Combat Club against The Elite. Oh, it’s actually just a short promo letting us know they’ll take a special look at it on Dynamite next week.
Julia Hart vs. Bambi Hall
Match recap: Kevin Kelly is sure to tell us Hart has over 20 wins in a row, including being 7-0 so far in 2023. Hall was called out as a local wrestler getting a shot here. She wasn’t here just to be squashed, as she got some offense in early before Hart tripped her up and went to work on her. Hall got a brief comeback attempt but Hart snuffed it out and then quickly submitted her.
Julia Hart def. Bambi Hall via submission
They cut to Malakai Black wondering why Andrade, who wears a mask, is telling him not to wear one. He said Andrade has been led to believe his mask is the reason for his success but he doesn’t realize he has had more success since taking it off.
Now, Black is going to teach him how and together they will cut that last vein pumping blood into the heart of lies he tells himself. And the world will see how truly great Black knows him to be.
They cut right to Andrade being interviewed, asking for his reaction and what his mask means to him.
He says he is a businessman. “Do you think I hide behind my mask? I am not a coward like you. My mask is everything to me. It’s about my family, about my culture, about my country, about all Latin people.”
When he takes his mask off, it’s time to fight, time to win.
Tag team action up next.
Bullet Club Gold vs. FTR (Eliminator match)
Match recap: The eliminator match meaning if Juice Robinson & Jay White lose, they won’t get to challenge for the titles as long as they’re held by FTR. Dax and Cash came out ahead early, with some fun tandem moves. White & Robinson were selling big for them. There wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth, with the champions in control for quite some time. They finally cheated by taking advantage of a ref distraction to lay Wheeler out on the apron. White spit on Dax while he was setting up for a submission, so Dax slapped his chest to get him out of it once he put it on. No disqualification was called, even though it was right in front of the referee.
Then they did another spot where the ref was distracted and missed a pinfall. The heels got their extended offensive sequence in. They set up the hot tag to Harwood but Wheeler couldn’t make it because Dax wasn’t there while fighting it out with Juice. After a commercial break, they finally got there and Dax ran wild for a bit. They were getting “this is awesome chants” before hitting Power & Glory, then the roof blew off when White kicked out after. Dax saved Cash from Blade Runner, then White avoided Goodnight Express, then another Blade Runner went awry, then another big kickout. More chants. They were throwing everything at each other. White just kept kicking out of everything.
Wheeler finally ate a Blade Runner, leaving White and Harwood alone to duke it out in the ring. Dax didn’t catch a tag that happened and he tried to roll up White. Juice used the opening to DDT him and score the pin while White was stopping Wheeler from breaking it up.
Bullet Club Gold def. FTR via pinfall
A video aired promoting Shawn Spears challenging for the TNT championship at Battle of the Belts next week, which will be right after Collision.
Another three hours of wrestling!
Tony Schiavone interviewing FTR.
They start to say it sucks they lost but Bullet Club Gold rolls up and say Tony is interviewing the wrong guys. White says they might have the right to call themselves the best tag team in the world because they’ve beaten them twice now.
So they want a 2-out-of-3 Falls match for the titles next week. An agreement is made.
Scorpio Sky vs. Action Andretti
Match recap: Some really good chain wrestling to start. Sky looked fantastic after so much time without actually working a match. After an initial jump on Andretti, Action took control and got the heat on. He was in the driver’s seat for the rest of the match, until Sky hit the TKO to get the three count.
Scorpio Sky def. Action Andretti via pinfall
After, Sky extended his hand to Andretti and helped him up before walking out.
Main event time.
CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe
It’s clobberin’ time.
Match recap: A long staredown to start. They really let the moment breathe. The early story was Punk avoiding a lot of Joe’s big clubbing blows by quickly scampering away. They did the awesome spot where Punk hit a springboard off the ropes in the corner for a crossbody but Joe just casually walked away to avoid it. Love that one. That’s what gave Joe the edge, because he started in with the clubbing blows from there. Eventually, Punk made it more of a back-and-forth, getting his stuff in. That included the knees in the corner into the elbow drop for two. Punk went for the GTS but couldn’t get it. Joe got a crossface but Punk broke it by getting to the ropes. A second failed GTS attempt into a near fall for Joe. Crowd chanted for Owen Hart, like Punk asked them to do at the beginning of the evening. Punk tried to go up top and was racked. Joe went for the Muscle Buster but Punk avoided it. Swinging neckbreaker and a third GTS attempt was countered into the sleeper but Punk rolled him through and managed to steal it with that.
CM Punk def. Samoa Joe via pinfall
Joe was shocked at losing like that, and hung his head in the corner in disbelief.
Punk held his face in his hands, first looking to Joe and then staring at the trophy he’ll be wrestling for next week.
They ended like they started, staring each other down from across the ring. After enough of that, Punk’s music stopped. The crowd chanted what sounded like “Joe and Punk.”
Joe offered his hand.
Punk, reluctant at first, went ahead and extended his as well.
They shook.
Joe used it to turn him over and put him in the sleeper.
“I’ve always been better than you,” Joe screamed over him after putting him out. He went out to grab a chair but while doing so FTR hit the ring to protect Punk.
Starks also came out, slowly walking and stopping at the top of the ramp. Punk came to and saw Starks there. Ricky walked off, looking back as he went.
Punk was on his feet in the ring and fell to his knees, his face in the mat. The show faded out with him rising back up again.
End.
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