AEW Collision Maximum Carnage live results: The Opps vs. Hangman Page & JetSpeed
AEW Collision Maximum Carnage airs tonight.
The show was taped on Wednesday at the Arizona Financial Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona.
The AEW World Trios titles will be on the line as The Opps’ Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs defend against Hangman Page and JetSpeed (Kevin Knight & Mike Bailey).
Eddie Kingston and Ortiz will team up to face The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson). Andrade returns to an AEW ring to wrestle Angelico in singles competition.
Team SkyFlight’s Scorpio Sky and Top Flight (Dante & Darius Martin) will take on The Don Callis Family’s Kyle Fletcher, El Clon and Josh Alexander.
Jack Perry vs. Anthony Bowens in a National title eliminator bout is also scheduled. Penelope Ford returns to the ring as she teams with Megan Bayne in tag team action, while Marina Shafir will face newly signed Zayda Steel.
Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern.
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It’s Saturday Night and you know what that means. Time for a little Maximum Carnage as Collision comes from you from Phoenix, AZ.
We were welcomed by the usual Collision team of Tony Schiavone & Nigel McGuinness as our opening contest was set to kick us off.
Andrade el Idolo (w/ Don Callis) vs. Angelico
Andrade got things going as he struck Angelico with an elbow to the face of Angelico, as he then shelled him with a running corner Meteora. Andrade pulled up Angelico before the three count, as it was clear he wanted to dish out further punishment.
Andrade teased doing a Figure Four, but stopped as he then chopped Angelico across the chest. He then tried for the Three Amigos, but Angelico escaped on the second suplex and hit Andrade with a kick to the face. Andrade backed Angelico into the corner and hit another hard chop, as well as a vicious elbow to the face. Angelico’s kick to keep Andrade at bay was met with a gamengiri from Andrade, which allowed for a superplex from the top. This was the first of the the Three Amigos, which Andrade made no mistake on. He again pulled Angelico off the pin attempt. A small attempt of a comeback from Angelico was easily snuffed out by a patented spinning elbow to the face of by Angelico. This match came to the end after Andrade hit his finishing DDT formerly called “The Message” in WWE, which he now called “The DM”.
Andrade def. Angelico via pinfall
A solid showcase for Andrade and it’s nice to see him back in action here in AEW. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for him especially as part of the Don Callis Family.
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– Lexy Nair was backstage with AEW’s newest signings, The Rascalz. Myron Reed, Desmond Xavier, and Zachary Wentz (though with no Trey Miguel) emerged from a smoky room and boasted about being one of the best factions in pro wrestling for nearly a decade. The trio said that they didn’t come to take part, they came to take over. “Smoke ’em, if you got ’em, and we got ’em all…” said Wentz and Xavier.
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs. Eddie Kingston & Ortiz
Ortiz and Gibson got this tag match started with a little bit of chain wrestling. Drake blind tagged in, but couldn’t slow Ortiz down as he got hit with a gamengiri kick. Gibson was taken out on the outside by a suicide dive from Ortiz. Back in the ring, Ortiz slammed into Drake with a crossbody. Kingston tagged in as he and Ortiz then hit a double-team suplex on Drake.
Kingston locked in Drake in a camel clutch as Ortiz paced across the ropes before he struck with a dropkick on Drake. The GYV managed to turn things around as Kingston was struck down with a leg lariat by Gibson. More tandem offense from Gibson and Drake kept Kingston grounted for a bit, at least until a lariat from the wily veteran from Yonkers flattened Drake. Ortiz entered on a tag, but the GYV were in firm control as Drake flew through the ropes with a dive to Ortiz while he was being held up by Gibson outside the ring. This took us to the PIP break.
When we returned from the break, Drake had Ortiz momentarily isolated, but he found himself thrown into a Northern Lights Suplex, which gave Ortiz the chance to try and make it to his corner. Drake, however, used a Dragon Screw to keep Ortiz at bay. With Gibson as the legal man, he was hit with an overhead throw by Ortiz. Gibson tried to keep Ortiz away, but he was knocked aside. Finally, after some struggle, Kingston entered with the hot tag, as he yelled at Drake to get up and fight him.,
Kingston teed off on Drake with a knife-edged chop, followed by the trademark machine gun chops in the corner. Gibson tried to intervene, but he was put out of commission by Kingston. Ortiz was tagged in and connected with the stalling sitdown powerbomb, but Drake kicked out at two. Ortiz and Kingston tried for a Doomsday Device, but Gibson put an end to those plans.
In the (maximum) carnage, only Kingston and Gibson were left standing, as the two got into a duel of chops across the chest. Kingston got the best of Gibson as he hit the exploder suplex. Gibson feigned a neck injury, as Drake attempted to strangle Kingston with his scarf. That was foiled, but it allowed Gibson to hit the Ticket To Ride. Kingston managed to kick out at two, however.
Drake had Kingston locked in the Koji Clutch while Ortiz and Gibson brawled to the outside. Just as Kingston’s hand was going to drop, he woke up and was a force of nature with the stomps on Drake. Kingston kicked out of a pin attempt by Drake, which pushed him right into Ortiz striking him with the madballs behind the referee’s back. Kingston then got the pin for the victory.
Eddie Kingston & Ortiz def. The Grizzled Young Veterans via pinfall
This was a fun tag match. I love seeing Kingston and action, and Ortiz returning to the ring after a long layaway is awesome to see. The GYVs were the perfect team to pit Kingston and Ortiz against and we got a good match out of it.
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– We got backstage remarks from Kris Statlander, Harley Cameron, and Willow Nightingale after Dynamite this past Wednesday. Statlander said she’d happily take the bullet to help her friends Cameron and Nightingale before she turned her attention to Thekla, the woman who pinned her on Wednesday. Statlander pointed out that Thekla did get the victory over her, but asked what her prospective opponent planned to do about it.
FTR & Stokely Hathaway address Davis & Doyle
Tony Schiavone introduced the current, reigning AEW Tag Champions and manager Stoke and told them the situation with Jake Doyle and Mark Davis.
Big Stoke said that people would want him to talk trash about Don Callis and his Family, but he wasn’t going to do that just for the likes and clout as he congratulated Doyle and Davis on being FTR’s next contenders. Stoke said that Doyle and Davis looked like professional wrestlers and they had everything… except being the best tag team alive, FTR.
Cash Wheeler then backed up Stoke’s claims, as it wasn’t just them saying they were the best tag team ever, it was Sports Illustrated and ESPN also saying it. Making reference to Jake Doyle’s former ring name (“something”), Wheeler said that Doyle and Davis were not FTR.
Dax Harwood said that he hates these people because they live in a fantasy world, in a “Toy Story World”, where people talking about new things being the greatest of all time. Harwood took exception to how Davis and Doyle got a title match because of one shot, when he and Wheeler worked hard to make the tag division great. He talked about how Davis and Doyle had the luxury of calling their shot, and that they were living in the midst of the greatest tag team of all time. Harwood said that Davis and Doyle were living begging to be FTR, but that there was only one. “Top guys, out.” concluded Harwood.
I think we’ll be in for a good tag battle between Davis & Doyle vs FTR for the titles, and it’ll be interesting to see how they approach this heel vs. heel match.
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– The CRU said that they were willing to give The Rascalz a welcome they’d never forget as they issued a challenge to AEW’s newest signings.
Zayda Steel vs. Marina Shafir (w/ Jon Moxley)
Steel went after Shafir right away with an attempt at a Thesz Press, but she got pushed aside. However, Steel managed to force Shafir out of the ring. A suicide dive attempt was caught by Shafir, but the muscle of the Death Riders missed a chop as she hit the ringpost instead. Back in the ring, Shafir regained momentum with a hard boot to the face of Steel as Moxley shouted encouragement from the commentary desk (“Make her pay for that shit!”) and we took a break here.
We returned as Steel avoided a back elbow from Shafir and hit double knees to her face. The knee to the corner was for naught as Shafir recovered and threw her down afterwards. Steel was punched in the gut by Shafir, as she was then chopped in the chest. Steel avoided another strike from Shafir and got into a standing switch position. Shafir snuffed out hope with a bell clap, followed by Mother’s Milk for the submission victory.
Marina Shafir def. Zayda Steel via submission
Even in a match where it was clear who the winner was, Steel did look good standing up against Shafir. I enjoyed this, despite how short it was.
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Trios Match: Don Callis Family (Kyle Fletcher, El Clon, Josh Alexander) vs. Skyflight (Scorpio Sky, Dante Martin, Darius Martin)
Don Callis joined commentary as he engaged in a bit of a barbs with Moxley, who remained on the call for this match. Moxley shouted that he wanted a shot at Konosuke Takeshita as Callis left. Moxley soon left but was ambushed from behind by Lance Archer and Rocky Romero. Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli jumped into the fray and brawled it out with the Don Callis Family. Meanwhile, Skyflight made their way for the scheduled trios match as they dove into everyone at ringside.
We returned from the break with the match already in progress as the fight between the Death Riders and the DCF eventually headed out of ringside. Back in the ring, the Martins were working over Fletcher, who was left alone. As Sky was tagged in, Fletcher scoop slammed him and tagged in El Clon.
Hologram’s evil doppelganger stomped on Sky’s arm with Alexander now entering the match. Alexander got into a skirmish with Sky, but a rake to the eye allowed Sky to tag in Darius Martin. A Spanish Fly by Darius flattened Alexander, as did the aptly-named Flatliner for the two-count. Darius hit a nice DDT where he used his brother as a platform before dropping Alexander on his head.
As things began to break down a bit, Alexander hit a release German suplex on Darius. El Clon tagged in and hit a nice double stomp from the top rope after a Michinoku Driver from Fletcher. El Clon had his way on Darius with a forearm, as Fletcher tagged into the match. Darius tried to battle back with chops, but Fletcher cracked him with a lariat as he then dropped Dante from his corner with a running kick. We took a break at this point of the contest.
This match continued from the break with Darius battling against Alexander, who caught his foe’s leg in an ankle lock attempt. Darius managed to escape with a kick to Alexander, as Fletcher tagged into the match. Darius delivered a suplex to Fletcher, as Dante entered the match. Meanwhile, El Clon tagged in for the DCF.
Dante hit a gamengiri from the apron followed by a springboard dive onto El Clon for a near-fall. Faast paced action between El Clon and Darius as we saw the former’s amazing Matrix-style wheel kick in the corner. Fletcher tagged in and looked like he was going to hit the brainbuster, but Sky stopped it from happening. This allowed Sky Flight to punish Fletcher with a triple-team combination. The Martins delivered a double Flatliner on Fletcher, but El Clon and Alexander broke the pin.
El Clon hit a running lariat on Dante outside the ring and a moonsault where his knees hit the rampway on the impact. Back in the ring, Alexander tried for the piledriver on Darius, who escaped. However, Alexander had the Ankle Lock firmly locked in… at least for a moment. Darius escaped, but he couldn’t avoid Alexander’s trap piledriver for the victory.
After the match, Konosuke Takeshita entered alone, apparently not enthused with being left out of the DCF’s extracurricular activities. He entered the ring and gave Kyle Fletcher a handshake and hug, but not really caring for either El Clon or Josh Alexander and especially Don Callis.
Don Callis Family def. Skyflight via pinfall
A solid trios match. The DCF features some fantastic workers as part of their ensemble and we got to see that with El Clon, Alexander, and Fletcher in action. I also quite like the stuff with the Death Riders before the match as that war looks like it’s brewing. Plus, the post-match with Takeshita seemingly only caring about Fletcher and not anyone else in the Family brings a new dynamic that could shake things up in the near future.
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– Roderick Strong talked about how he was going to break the back of Claudio Castagnoli for the CMLL World Title. He tried to walk away to refuse Orange Cassidy’s help, but Mark Briscoe brought him back to the interview area as he turned his attention to El Clon. Briscoe issued a challenge to El Clon to face him for the TNT Title next week on Collision.
– We got a video from AEW World Champion MJF where we saw his title match against Bandido on Wednesday, as well as his match against Alec Price last night at Limitless Wrestling’s Limitless Rumble. He promised to make this new reign even better than his last one.
Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford vs. Danielle Kamela & Viva Van
Bayne took down Kamela with a hard clothesline as she then hit a suplex on Van from in the ring. Bayne had both her opponents in a simultaneous Samoan Drop and Fallaway Slam. Van got tossed out of the ring as Ford was tagged in and hit a Doomsday Device on Kamela for the dominant win.
After the match, Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa interrupted Bayne and Ford’s victory celebration. “Freaks of Phoenix, lend me your ears,” started Storm. She said that Bayne, Ford, and Shafir were sloptarts as Shirakawa promised that she and Storm would make the trio pay. Storm: “If you want to Death Ride, then I’ll make you meet your maker.” The two then told their foes to watch out for the Timeless Love Bombs.
Megan Bayne & Penelope Ford def. Danielle Kamela & Viva Van
I’m curious about how Marina Shafir will figure into Bayne and Ford’s long-standing tag team and it’s fun seeing all these interwoven storylines playing out as they are.
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– Swerve Strickland was asked backstage about what his plan was to get back to the AEW World Title, which was simply win. Kevin Knight then met with Strickland and said that he was the now right to Strickland’s face. The former AEW Men’s World Champion tried to get Knight to focus on the AEW Trios Titles, as he told Knight not to take five or six years to get to the top.
Winner Receives AEW National Championship Match: “Jungle” Jack Perry vs. Anthony Bowens
The AEW National Champion, Ricochet, was on commentary for this one.
Perry and Bowens adhered to the Code of Honor with a handshake before they got into the action with a lock-up in the middle of the ring. Methodical pace to start things off as Bowens tried the early pin attempt to no avail. We got some more nice chain wrestling action between Bowens and Perry with neither man getting the upper hand. Perry offered to scissor Bowens, which he accepted. But, it was a ruse as Perry bit at Bowens’ finger instead. Perry found himself trapped on the top rope and taken on a ride before he was knocked to the ringside area, but not before Bowens scissored his hands anyway.
Bowens lifted Perry on his shoulder and slammed him face-first onto the apron. Perry’s attempt at a baseball slide was caught at home plate by Bowens outside the ring, but he turned that around into a bulldog that left both men down and out. This took us into a break in the action.
Back from the break as Perry missed with the knee, which gave Bowens an opening to hit him with a huge thrust kick. In the corner, Bowens kicked Perry in the back and hit a nice standing tornado DDT for a near-fall. Bowens hit a sitdown uranage, then a running knee to Perry but couldn’t put his opponent away just yet. Bowens lifted up Perry but could hit the move he desired as that got turned into a pinfall attempt.
Clothesline from Bowens knocked Perry for a loop, but he couldn’t avoid two consecutive running knees from “Jungle” Jack, who picked up the victory to earn a shot at Ricochet’s AEW National Title.
After the match, Perry helped up Bowens and commended him for a good effort before he left the ring and went after Ricochet at the commentary area.
Jack Perry def. Anthony Bowens via pinfall
This was an enjoyable little match. Perry and Bowens put on a nice contest, and I think we’ll be in for a heck of a National Title match when it comes time for “Jungle” Jack and Ricochet to meet in the ring.
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– We got a video package ahead of the Trios Title main event match that helpfully explained Hangman’s war with The Opps since WrestleDream.
– The Death Riders addressed the Don Callis Family’s attack earlier. The group said that the Family crossed a line they never should’ve earlier. Daniel Garcia said that a family is when the whole world hates you, that they’ve got each other’s back, something that the DCF didn’t know. Jon Moxley said that he’s seen every kind of carny and snake, but that he knew who Don Callis was. Moxley ominously warned that of all the bad people in professional wrestling, he can be the worst… when he has to be.
AEW Trios Championship Match: The Opps (Samoa Joe, Powerhouse Hobbs, Katsuyori Shibata) vs. JetSpeed (Kevin Knight & “Speedball” Mike Bailey) & “Hangman” Adam Page
Page faced off with Joe to start our colossal Collision main event, at least until Shibata was tagged in. In response, Page tagged in Bailey, who got into it with Shibata right away. The Wrestler had Bailey down and out with strikes, but he couldn’t catch up with the speedy kicks of Speedball. Knight tagged into the match and showed some nice tag team combinations against Shibata early on in this contest. Shibata eventually recovered and tagged in Hobbs.
The massive Hobbs blocked one of Knight’s shots and crushed him with a hard punch to the face. As Knight struggled to get up, Hobbs lifted him up, but couldn’t get the move he wanted. Knight got out of Hobbs’ grasp as Page entered the match. Shibata got the tag and immediately was hit with a fallaway slam. The two then traded running knees across separate corners. Page hit a nice sliding lariat on Shibata as he then had Bailey enter the match.
Shibata rolled Bailey on the apron and hit a vertical suplex on the hardest part of the ring, before doing it again on the outside, which took us into the break.
Our main event returned from break as Joe had Bailey in a resthold. Speedball tried to fight out of the submission, as he then managed to ground Joe with a missile dropkick. Both men struggled mightily to get to their corner as Page and Hobbs entered the match for their respective teams. Page was on fire against Hobbs as he immediately went after Joe outside the ring after a dive.
Page turned his attention to Hobbs and jettisoned him out of the ring as he then headed up top. He took out both Joe and Hobbs with a signature cowboy’s leap of faith to the outside. Page and Hobbs dueled on the apron as Bailey saved his partner with a legsweep on the muscle of the Opps. He then hit his knees-first moonsault on Hobbs as Knight got into the match. Hobbs dropped Knight with a spinebuster, with Joe getting thet ag. He powerslammed Knight as The Opps then had their target isolated with a barrage of dropkicks, suplexes, dsentons. Page and Bailey made the save for the count. The Opps seemingly had their foes trapped in their respective submission holds, but Knight countered Hobbs’ spinebuster into a flash pin attempt. One, two, three! We have new AEW Trios Champions!
At the top of the ramp, Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana looked on at Page and JetSpeed celebrating as we learned that Strickland would face Kevin Knight on Dynamite this Wednesday. Strickland clapped at the victorious trio as we ended Collision this week.
“Hangman” Adam Page & JetSpeed def. The Opps via pinfall to win the AEW Trios Championships
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That was a nice little main event and even if the surprise title change was brought about due to Powerhouse Will Hobbs’ AEW contract expiring this past Thursday. That said, I do like that it works into Page’s vow of vengeance against Samoa Joe and stating that he’d take away everything from him. He took the Trios Title and it could easily work that he took Hobbs from him, too.
As far as the rest of Maximum Carnage Collision was concerned, this was, like Collision tends to be most weeks, a solid and cozy wrestling show with some nice action that you can jump right in and enjoy. The story beats we got with the Death Riders going to war with the Don Callis Family and Konosuke Takeshita’s loyalties with Kyle Fletcher was nice to see. I also appreciated the approach of having video packages explaining current storylines or introducing new talents to get those who are tuning into Collision for the first time up to speed with what’s going on in AEW.
Overall, this was a great show to watch from start to finish and I hope you enjoyed this recap as much as I enjoyed writing it tonight. ‘Til next time, folks.
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