AEW Collision and Battle of the Belts X Preview for April 13, 2024

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Akw7ZSVeoPc?si=OsIm8RtTRuH2MtkN

What a loaded night of action All Elite Wrestling has for our fans this Saturday night on TNT! It all beings at 8pm ET/7pm CT with COLLISION, and continues at 10pm ET/9pm CT with BATTLE OF THE BELTS X! The Truist Center is going to be rocking with The Blackpool Combat Club taking on The Don Callis Family in tag team action, AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm facing Stardom’s AZM in an Eliminator Match, The House of Black fighting Action Andretti, Matt Sydal, & Dante Martin in Trios action, and Lee Moriarty going head-up with Katsuyori Shibata! That all goes down on COLLISION, then on BOTB X we’ve got AEW International Champion Roderick Strong meeting Rocky Romero in an Eliminator bout, FTW Champion HOOK putting his title on the line against Shane Taylor, and ROH Women’s World Champion Athena return to AEW to battle Red Velvet! We are a eight days out from DYNASTY 2024 and the competition is getting fierce!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BeOKcExh9Y8?si=FIvxLts_HqVSn0Yk

Before the night begins, get prepared for all the action with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then come join us next Wednesday in Indianapolis for DYNAMITE featuring Claudio Castagnoli versus Will Ospreay and a mixed tag pitting TNT Champion Adam Copeland and Willow Nightingale against TBS Champion Julia Hart and Brody King!

COLLISION

ELIMINATOR MATCH…

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm vs. Stardom’s AZM

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nlfUEGbY70k?si=UwFRbKtAMlDaNfQT

Several first taking place with this match right here; the biggest one being this Saturday night marks the debut of Stardom’s AZM (pronounced Azumi) in All Elite Wrestling! She was part of the exceptional Stardom Trios match at ROH’s SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 event last weekend, and now she’s coming to AEW to take a shot at AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm in an Eliminator bout!

That brings us to the other first, this match also marks the first time Toni Storm and AZM have collided in singles competitions! During Storm’s tenure in Stardom, the two women were on opposite sides of a pair of Trios matches, with AZM and her Queen’s Quest partners winning one, and Toni’s group winning the other. The two women would never meet again during Storm’s time in Japan, but now that the 2-Time High Speed Champion is here in All Elite Wrestling, she is gunning straight for the top of the food chain in hopes of earning a future championship match! As for a little background on AZM,  she started her wrestling training at just nine years old, made her debut at twelve, and since then the now-21 year old prodigy has captured the Stardom High Speed Championship twice, a title for which she holds the record for most defenses at 12 during her second reign, as well as a former 3-Time Artist of Stardom (Trios) Champion.

This will be quite the test for The Timeless One, as it will be AZM, and after what happened Wednesday night with Thunder Rosa, Toni Storm better have eyes in the back of her head in case “La Mera Mera” comes for some revenge!

TAG TEAM BOUT…

Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli) vs.

Don Callis Family (ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher & Powerhouse Hobbs)

With DYNASTY 2024 just eight days away, The Don Callis Family is looking to soften up “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson ahead of his fight with Will Ospreay, as well as Claudio Castagnoli in advance of his fight with Ospreay on DYNAMITE in Indianapolis.

With that in mind, Don Callis is sending Powerhouse Hobbs and ROH World TV Champion Kyle Fletcher after The Blackpool Combat Club this Saturday night! Now Danielson and Fletcher had a tremendous singles match back in October, and he’s fought bout Claudio and Bryan in tag team situations when they had Wheeler Yuta as their partner, but this is the first time Powerhouse Hobbs has interacted with either Danielson or Castagnoli, and that alone makes this match quite an intriguing bout.

Now Bryan and Claudio are 3-1 as a team, the lone blemish on their record coming last year against Big Bill and Ricky Starks, while Hobbs and Fletcher are 1-1 with their last match being a losing effort in the Wild Card round of the AEW World Tag Title Tournament. These are two pairs comprised of competitors who compliment each other wonderfully, who balance out the abilities of the one other, and create two of the most threatening duos in All Elite Wrestling. Will Don Callis’ plan pay off this Saturday night on COLLISION, or will The BCC add another blemish to this DCF team’s record?

ONE-ON-ONE…

Lee Moriarty vs. Katsuyori Shibata

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0kWHeGG_QC8?si=zgInHwJ1pmeOU1c4&start=99

As a direct consequence of Chris Jericho pulling HOOK away from their corner just as Katsuyori Shibata was trying to make a tag, Lee Moriarty was able to secure a pinfall victory over “The Wrestler” with a little help from the right hand of Shane Taylor.

Now, just three days removed from that huge victory, Shane Taylor Promotions has got some serious business ahead of them during this three hour wrestling extravaganza on TNT, and it begins with #Taigastyle taking on Shibata in a singles bout! The two had a tremendous ROH Pure Championship bout last May that was won by Shibata, and Moriarty has been hungry to get back in the ring with “The Wrestler” ever since.

Well he’s got his opportunity on Saturday night, but he’s going to be dealing with an angry man in Shibata, especially with how dirty STP did him to get their win on DYNAMITE. Moriarty may be ecstatic right now that he got a pinfall on Shibata, but after COLLISION is over, he may not be so happy with the prize he won for that victory.

TRIOS BOUT…

The House of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews, & Malakai Black) vs. Action Andretti, Dante Martin, & Matt Sydal

BATTLE OF THE BELTS X

FTW CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

HOOK(c) vs. Shane Taylor

2-Time FTW Champion HOOK willing entered into an agreement with Chris Jericho, an agreement to allow Jericho to serve as a mentor of sorts, but an agreement that was sought out by the original AEW World Champion not by HOOK. That being said “The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil” and “Lionheart” have shown promise together as a team, at least they did before this past Wednesday night when Jericho purposefully pulled HOOK from Katsuyori Shibata’s tag. That choice by Jericho led to an argument with HOOK while the match was still going on, distracting both individuals from being there to save Shibata from Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty.

Well this Saturday night, as part of BATTLE OF THE BELTS X, HOOK will get to stand on his own terms when he faces the man up front of Shane Taylor Promotions, the heavy handed Shane Taylor! Taylor, having recently added Olympic medalist Anthony Ogogo to the STP stable, is feeling incredibly good right now, and picking up that victory on Wednesday only bolstered that, and now he’s hoping to continue that momentum as well bring STP its first championship since coming into AEW.

HOOK is fighting mad after DYNAMITE, mad at Jericho for how he cost them the match, and made at Shane Taylor Promotions for how they got the victory, and when it comes to HOOK, he’s that quiet mad, the kind that is scary to behold when it get unleashed, and Saturday during BOTB X, it’s going to get unleashed on Shane Taylor Promotions!

ELIMINATOR MATCH…

AEW International Champion Roderick Strong(c) vs. Rocky “Azucar” Romero

Roderick Strong and Rocky Romero have a long history together, one that dates back twenty years to the early days of Ring of Honor Wrestling. In 2004 it was Rocky and his partner Ricky Reyes, collectively known as The Havana Pitbulls, reigning as ROH Tag Team Champions while Roddy and his partner Jack Evans, both members of the Generation Next stable, tried in vain to dethrone the champs on several occasions, most notably at WEEKEND OF THUNDER: NIGHT 1. But even after The Havana Pitbulls lost the titles, it wasn’t the end of the Rocky and Roddy story, not by a long shot. The two men would engage in some memorable battles in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, including the stacked BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES 2006 tournament, and in 2007 they would actually unite in ROH to form The No Remorse Corps. Although the two never won tag gold together, despite several clashes with The Briscoes over those titles, they were quite an outstanding duo, and even when the NRC’s run came to an end, it wasn’t because of any falling out between Rocky and Roderick.

Fast forward sixteen years to All Elite Wrestling and what a different landscape it is now, what a different dynamic there is between these two men. Roderick now stands as AEW International Champion and member of The Undisputed Kingdom with Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Wardlow, and Adam Cole while Rocky Romero stood alongside Orange Cassidy, Trent Beretta, and Chuck Taylor. Where Rocky stands in that falling out remains to be seen, after all Trent was the tie that bound Rocky to the others, but there’s no question where he stands where it comes to The UK. It was only two months ago on RAMAPGE that Roderick and company laid out Rocky after winning a Trios match over him, Trent, and Orange, and Strong delivered an End of Heartache to Rocky on a mess of metal folding chairs. Rocky hasn’t forgotten, and he aims to get redemption by adding that International Title to his impressive championship resume, but first must come Eliminator victory this Saturday during BATTLE OF THE BELTS X!

ROH WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH…

Athena(c) vs. Red Velvet

For 490 days “The Fallen Goddess”Athena has reigned as ROH Women’s World Champion, the longest reign ever with that title, and as a matter of fact, in the whole of ROH’s twenty-two year history there are only four champions who have held a title longer than her: Nigel McGuinness and RUSH’s second with the ROH World Title, Jay Lethal with his second World TV Title reign, and Samoa Joe with both of those championships. Aside from Jay Lethal, none of them put in the amount of title defenses in their 490 days as Athena has done, and it certainly feels like she’s on her way to living up to the “Forever Champion” moniker she bestowed upon herself months ago, especially after her victory over 3-Time AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024.

But this Saturday night Athena is going to be tested once again, this time by a woman she’s never faced before in any fashion but one who earned her way to this title opportunity with her 5-1 record in Ring of Honor, and her performances in the ROH Women’s World TV Title Tournament. In fact, if it wasn’t for Queen Aminata narrowly beating her in the Semi-Finals, we may be calling Red Velvet the champion rather than Billie Starkz! With that opportunity having slipped through her fingers, Red Velvet has a second chance to make championship success her own when she battles Athena this Saturday during BATTLE OF THE BELTS X! Will Red Velvet be able to do what no woman in ROH competition has been able to do? Will she put the first loss on Athena’s 49-0 record in Ring of Honor singles competition or will Red Velvet be number fifty?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ENBybA_oUdw?si=3UPUoW5ZYYXtC6An&start=99

All Elite Wrestling is bringing three hours of the best professional wrestling action on the planet your way Saturday night! The Truist Center (https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aew-event/aew-collision-botb-x-highland-heights) on the campus of Northern Kentucky University host the action as we go live on TNT starting at 8pm ET/7pm CT with COLLISION, and continuing at 10pm ET/9pm CT with BATTLE OF THE BELTS X! We’ve got Danielson & Castagnoli versus Hobbs & Fletcher, Stardom’s AZM taking on AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm in an Eliminator Match, Action Andretti, Matt Sydal, & Dante Martin facing The House of Black in Trios action, and Shane Taylor Promotion’s Lee Moriarty going one-on-one with “The Wrestler” Katsuyori Shibata! That is coming your way as part of COLLISION, and BOTB X has AEW International Champion Roderick Strong fighting Rocky Romero in an Eliminator bout, Shane Taylor challening FTW Champion HOOK for his title, and Ring of Honor’s “Forever Champ” Athena returns to AEW to put her title on the line against Red Velvet! We are a week away from DYNASTY 2024 in St. Louis and everyone wants to make their mark heading into that pay-per-view extravaganza!

Before the night begins, get prepared for all the action with a visit to the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as AEW’s various social media platforms, to catch highlights from this week’s DYNAMITE and RAMPAGE, as well as the latest CONTROL CENTER! Then come join us next Wednesday in Indianapolis for DYNAMITE featuring The BCC’s Claudio Castagnoli clashing with The Don Callis Family’s Will Ospreay and a mixed tag pitting TNT Champion Adam Copeland and Willow Nightingale against The House of Black as honored by TBS Champion Julia Hart and Brody King!

Article source: allelitewrestling.com