AEW Collision Results: Winners, Live Grades and Highlights Before Forbidden Door 2024

Welcome to Bleacher Report's coverage of AEW Collision on June 29.

This was the final show before Sunday's Forbidden Door PPV, so it was the last chance AEW had to sell the PPV to anyone who was still on the fence about purchasing.

Here's a look at what AEW advertised leading up to the show:

• Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay weigh-in
• Hikaru Shida vs. Deonna Purrazzo
• Shane Haste and Robbie Eagles vs. Orange Cassidy and Tomohiro Ishii
• Daniel Garcia vs. The Butcher
• Lady Frost vs. Stephanie Vaquer
• Serena Deeb in action
• Hechicero in action
• Mark Briscoe, Dante Martin and Lio Rush vs. Jack Perry, El Phantasmo and Konosuke Takeshita

Let's look at what happened on this week's episode of Collision.

Zack Sabre Jr.'s buddies were looking to soften up his Forbidden Door opponent when Haste and Eagles took on Cassidy and his partner for the week, Ishii.

OC waved off Eagles and wanted to start against Haste, who was concerned that Cassidy had something illegal in his pockets. Before anything significant could happen, Ishii tagged i and started trading strikes.

This match was a combination of comedy moments and short bursts of offense. There were times when everything was clicking, and there were times when it felt like everyone was taking it too easy.

Most of what we saw was executed well, but it felt as if everyone was just following a blueprint. Nothing felt spontaneous or surprising. It had it's moments but won't be anybody's Match of the Night.

OC and Ishii picked up the win to give Cassidy a little momentum heading into Sunday's match against ZSJ.

Result: Cassidy and Ishii defeated TMDK

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Haste is one of the lowkey funniest wrestlers. 
• Haste is deceptively big. He towered over Cassidy and Ishii. 
• Eagles and Cassidy had the best sequence in the match. They were evenly matched in almost every way. 
• Haste hit a nice release Michinoku driver. 
• We got an interesting video package for Adam Page after the match. 

Before Vaquer faces Mercedes in a double title bout on Sunday, she took on Lady Frost in a warmup match. The CEO came out to watch from ringside.

Vaquer kept one eye on the TBS champion and it led to her being distracted enough for Frost to take control.

They fought through a break and Frost began to make a comeback after being on defense for several minutes.

The NJPW strong women's champion regained the upper hand and won clean with a backbreaker. Zeuxis, who is Vaquer's tag partner, attacked Mercedes from behind. The CMLL women's tag champs left the CEO down and out.

Frost is always impressive in the ring and she helped Vaquer look good before her first AEW PPV match at Forbidden Door.

Result: Vaquer defeated Frost

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Nigel McGuinness noted that Vaquer also holds two titles in CMLL. She should be carrying all three belts. It would make her feel like a bigger deal to unfamiliar fans. 
• AEW needs to give Frost some wins outside of ROH. She's too good to be the resident AEW enhancement talent. 
• The superkick Frost took while upside down looked brutal. 
• The way Frost hit a twisting crossbody and rolled right into a pin looked about as perfect as it gets. 

Deeb was booked in a match against a local talent this week and made an example out of her with a quick, dominant victory. She demanded competition on her level and a returning Riho came out to confront her. They didn't fight, but it's clear this was the start of a mini-feud.

Result: Deeb won

Grade: Incomplete

Throughout the show, Chris Jericho was shown giving random people backstage advice. He and his friends were attacked by Hook, Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata. Jeff Cobb showed up to save Jericho and revealed himself as the third man for Jericho's team at Forbidden Door.

Hechicero had an exhibition against Kevin Blackwood, who Excalibur noted is a training partner of Daniel Garcia. They traded holds and takedowns for a moment before the luchador took control.

This wasn't as one-sided as Serena's match, but it was definitely still a squash. Hechicero got the win with a submission.

Result: Hechicero won

Grade: Incomplete

Notable Moments and Observations

• Deeb put a little extra spice on her finisher. She flattened her opponent. 
• Cobb's spinebuster on Joe looked awesome. 

Garcia and Butcher are both locals, so this was billed as The Battle of Buffalo. Garcia hugged some family members at ringside before it began.

Garcia was giving up a lot of size and power, so he tried to use his speed to stay out of Butcher's grasp. It worked for a little while, but the powerhouse eventually got the upper hand.

AEW has made Garcia look like one of the toughest competitors whether he wins or loses a match, so seeing him go toe to toe with a guy twice his size didn't feel out of place like it would have when he first arrived on the scene.

After a hard-fought battle, Red Death was able to defeat The Butcher with a piledriver.

Result: Garcia defeated Butcher

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

• Jay White had a funny exchange with The Patriarchy backstage. 
• Where are The Bunny and Blade?
• Garcia's running dropkick caught Butcher right in the face with both feet. Butcher didn't let it slow him down. 
• Seeing Butcher have so much color in his gear was weird. 

The Owen Hart tournament continued this week with another first-round match in the women's bracket between Shida and Purrazzo.

The crowd chanted back and forth for both women as they had their initial exchange. They kept it simple and traded holds and counters until The Virtuosa cornered the former women's champion and kicked her in the ribs.

This match had a steady pace and some good moments, but there were times when it felt like they should have been moving a bit quicker and never shifted into the next gear. They did a good job selling big moves, so in that regard, the slower pace helped.

Shida got the win with a Katana kick to advance to the next round of the tournament. Purrazzo attacked her after the match until Thunder Rosa made the save.

Result: Shida defeated Purrazzo

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• It was kind of sad seeing Purrazzo get such a tepid reaction for her entrance. 
• There was a small group of fans that kept chanting after most of the crowd had stopped. It was kind of weird until the rest of the crowd started making noise again. 

Perry reluctantly teamed up with ELP and Takeshita to take on Briscoe, Martin and Rush in a trios bout. All six of these men will compete in a Ladder match for the vacant TNT title on Sunday, so the alliances were shaky at best.

Most of the competitors in this match like to work at a brisk pace, so they went from 0-60 right away. We saw a lot of quick tags and double-team spots, especially from the babyface team during the first half.

Perry seemed unconcerned with helping his team and even stood on the floor to avoid a tag for a few minutes. ELP went for a tag and Perry just ignored him, but the Scapegoat regretted it a moment later when a dropkick wiped him out.

Takeshita got the win for his team but was immediately taken out by Perry with the TNT title. This led to everyone trying to get their hands on the belt and taking each other out in the process. Briscoe took everyone out with a big dive off a ladder.

This bout was enjoyable for what it was, but the post-match activities were the best part.

Result: Takeshita, ELP and Perry defeated Briscoe, Rush and Martin

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• Toni Storm gave a great promo from backstage. 
• ELP looks way too much like Logan Paul. 
• The dropkick that took out Perry through the ropes looked great. Nobody telegraphed it in any way, so it was genuinely surprising when it happened. 

The final segment of the night was a weigh-in with Ospreay and Strickland, which never really makes sense in pro wrestling when weight classes are non-existent. It was just an excuse to get them in the same segment one more time before the PPV.

Ospreay ended up taking out Swerve with a Hidden Blade to end the show standing over his opponent for Sunday night.

Saturday's Collision had a couple of entertaining matches and helped push Sunday's Forbidden Door PPV with a few segments and video packages, but it didn't really feel like a go-home show before a big event for some reason. There was no sense of urgency to anything if that makes sense.

This show was pre-taped and that may have had something to do with the availability of talents, but you would think you would want more of your biggest stars on the final episode of AEW TV before one of the company's bigger shows.

Butcher and Garcia had the best match of the night, but Frost and Vaquer did a good job in their performance, too.

Grade: B-