We are one night away from the AEW X NJPW crossover event that is Forbidden Door II, as All Elite Wrestling invades the Scotiabank Arena, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with the second episode of Collision. Admittedly, while I am not as excited for this week's episode, as I was for the premiere, there is still some good stuff scheduled for this show.

Tonight's Card

Singles Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Swerve Strickland

Singles Match
Andrade El Idolo vs. Brody King

Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Women's Tournament
Quarter-Final Match
Nyla Rose vs. Willow Nightingale

Eight-Man Tag Team Match
CM Punk, FTR, & Ricky Starks vs. Bullet Club Gold & The Gunns

Tanahashi/Strickland is the match I'm most excited for, granted The Ace might not be as good as he once was, but I still enjoy watching him do his thing. I'm also interested in El Idolo/King, even if I don't think it'll be as good as Andrade's match from last week, I'm definitely intrigued in seeing them advance the storyline between him and The House of Black.

Curious what the ratings drop off will be. And how well received Punk is outside of Chicago. This Canadian tour gonna be interesting when every other show you cannot use most of the AEW Canadians because Punk does not like them.

24 hours from the second Forbidden Door event, AEW Collision arrives at its doorstep.


On the schedule tonight...


CM Punk, FTR, and Ricky Starks vs. Bullet Club Gold & The Gunns

Swerve Strickland vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Willow Nightingale vs. Nyla Rose (Owen Hart Women's Tournament First Round Match)

Brody King vs. Andrade El Idolo

Miro will be in action.

Powerhouse Hobbs will be in action.

Plus, we'll hear from new TNT Champion Christian Ca...  I mean, Luchasaurus

Darby Allin and Sting will announce their Forbidden Door tag team partner.


T.O. will be rocking this weekend, and it all starts tonight.

First time Punk appears outside of Canada since his return.

Go home show for Forbidden Door and Omega cannot hype up the main event in Canada because Punk will get the sads.

Curious how the PPV goes. Assume Jericho and others will be playing peacekeepers backstage.

They're giving Collision the Saturday Night's Main Event style opening this week.

Andrande if Sammy comes I promise I wont hit him ...again.

IT'S NAITO!!!!

Coming out in his pimp coat.

Oh shit Naito!!!

This is the Forbidden Door we should have had last year.

Also Swerve is the new crown jewel o.O

So why does Naito get stuck in a tag and Tanahashi get a single match.

Likely just where the chips lay this time. Also him and Jericho have a past.

Doesn't Andrade have a lot of friends? Where is Rush?

I told ya Luchasaurus would never hold the title.

Awaiting his collision clearance to be approved by Punk <.<

TETSUYA FUCKIN NAITO

Jun 25, 2023 0:30:43 GMT X-zero said:

So why does Naito get stuck in a tag and Tanahashi get a single match.

Are you really asking why The Ace gets a singles match over a guy that basically refused to work in America for years?

Jun 25, 2023 1:03:12 GMT RT said:

Jun 25, 2023 0:30:43 GMT X-zero said:

So why does Naito get stuck in a tag and Tanahashi get a single match.

Are you really asking why The Ace gets a singles match over a guy that basically refused to work in America for years?

The Ace seems like he is past his prime which you could hide better in a tag match like Jericho does.

Jun 25, 2023 0:56:50 GMT CM Punk'd said:

I told ya Luchasaurus would never hold the title.

What ever you want to call this he did it before Jungle boy.

The crowd splits about 2/3rds hating Punk.

“We’re not in Chicago anymore.”

Fucking right. You’re gonna deny a Canadian crowd a Kenny Omega appearance and expect to get cheered? Fuck outta here.

And Punk just laughs off the crowd hating him because he is above what the crowd thinks.

Future of Collision is only running Chicago...

Jun 25, 2023 1:34:41 GMT CM Punk'd said:

The crowd splits about 2/3rds hating Punk.

He really has become their Cena.

Jun 25, 2023 1:03:12 GMT RT said:

Jun 25, 2023 0:30:43 GMT X-zero said:

So why does Naito get stuck in a tag and Tanahashi get a single match.

Are you really asking why The Ace gets a singles match over a guy that basically refused to work in America for years?

That's a fair point, but you can't deny that Naito vs MJF is a bigger and more interesting match than Tanahashi vs MJF. Naito can afford to take that loss. Plus Tanahashi and Jericho have history too. Wrestle Kingdom history. Tanahashi actually lost to Jericho, whereas Naito beat Jericho, so what does Naito really have to prove?

I'm gonna say it: In 2023, Tanahashi sucks. He gets all his big match opportunities because of his legacy, which is a phenomenal legacy, but when was the last great Tanahashi singles match? You'd have to go a few years back at least. Also he keeps calling himself the Ace when he hasn't been the real Ace for a long time. Okada is obviously the Ace and has been for at least five years. Tanahashi is arrogantly coasting on his name value, which is exactly what Tanahashi should be doing, but for me it hurts cards, this being a prime example.

Tanahashi is a great worker with a great mind for the business, but his body can no longer keep up with what his brain wants to do. He even slipped trying to hit the High Fly Flow against Swerve. You could attribute that to him not being used to an AEW ring, but you don't see other guys coming into AEW for the first time and messing up. He may get away with that kind of error against Swerve, but MJF will destroy him on such a mistake.

I suspect what it all comes down to is whoever faces MJF is taking the pinfall. Ace can lose on the big stage and not lose anything. Naito, maybe not in US where he is not well known. I assume this card was a series of compromises between NJPW and Tony about how many NJPW can take losses since the American brand for many NJPW is super low since people just have not seen much of them. And the reason NJPW would lend all of these guys is to improve their brand here.

I am super, super curious if for All In 2 we get someone like Okada or Naito back. ZJS and Will I am sure will be there, but Tony can literally make that show a super show bringing in NJPW and AAA talent.

Adam Cole is too ill to compete tonight. So the match with Filthy Tom has been cancelled.

Nana confirmed on twitter, Swerve is the new Crown Jewel and that was Rave's coat.

Lost 220k viewers from week one to two. 595k total.

Just a quick review and it looks like It’s the seventh biggest week-to-week ratings drop in Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision history.

The myth of Punk being a bigger draw than the Elite is rapidly being dismantled.

Waiting for Punk to demand to be swapped to Dynamite and the elite tossed on Collision.

Let's not jump to any conclusion. There was always going to be a large drop off after the first show. It didn't help that the main event of the second Collision was a rehash of the previous week's main event.