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AEW Collision Recap – 12/13/25

No one is topping AEW this month.
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AEW Collision Recap

December is a sacred month in All Elite Wrestling, and as I noted on Wednesday, AEW is absolutely cooking with its Continental Classic, while also cooking with everything else that’s going on in the company! Today was no different, as my AEW Collision Recap will prove!

Yeah, that’s a stacked card, and it all began with…

That’s right! Whose house? SWERVE’S HOUSE!!!! This was a very important match, not just for what is to come, but for the fact that this is the first singles’ match since Swerve’s injury back at Forbidden Door. While we saw him do well in the tag match with Hangman on Dynamite, it was important to see how he would do on his own.

It also didn’t help that Josh Alexander was doing this to him during the match…

Ouch! Yeah, they made it clear that Swerve is legit still worried about his knee, and so the match became one of Alexander trying to do as much damage as possible to it, while Swerve had to persevere through it.

I thought Swerve looked great throughout the match, and he even had some new stuff to show!

Yeah, I don’t think he’s ever done that before. Not that Josh Alexander wasn’t just as impressive, to be clear. He’s been doing great matches with various wrestlers over the last month or so, and this was another example of that:

While the match was great, my favorite part was easily the ending, where Swerve straight-up KNOCKED THE HEADGEAR OFF ALEXANDER’S HEAD with the “House Call!”

That’s just poetry, right there. Great match. After it, Swerve made it clear that he wants his belt back, and he’s coming after Joe to get it. It was later confirmed that at World’s End, we’re getting a Revolution 2024 rematch! It’s Samoa Joe vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland!!!! Yeah, that’ll be a great main event.

Next up, it was time for the women to shine once again. Remember, on Dynamite, we got our first women’s tag team champs, and this was not only to help build up that division, but to forward the looming battle between Statlander and Hayter (and possibly Thekla…).

I, for one, really enjoyed the fact that the match started off fiery.

I also liked the fact that, despite not really working together in the past, Statlander and Hayter had some nice combo teamwork against the Sisters of Sin.

There was a lot of back-and-forth action, and I was all for it. The Sisters of Sin are a legit tag team, and it makes me happy that they keep getting big moments to shine, like they did in Blood & Guts, as they are a key staple in this women’s division.

In the end, though, Kris and Jamie were able to pull out a victory, and right after the match, Hayter called her shot…for World’s End!!!!

As of right now, it’s set for Jamie vs. Kris. But…Thekla was looming…and this could be another triple threat if things heat up…

Following that was a matchup many of the AEW faithful had been waiting on for a while. As Tony Schiavone correctly noted, this was a very special match, a history-making match, as this was the CMLL world champ vs. the IWGP world champ, and we all knew this was going to be hard-hitting!!!

For those who haven’t been around too long with AEW, Claudio was the Ring of Honor world champ previously, and one of his defenses was against a slightly younger Takeshita, and it was a classic bout. So, now, we get to see them both in “top form,” and the match absolutely delivered.

As I noted in a previous recap, I felt that this match would go to a tie, and the longer the match went, the more I felt I was right about that. Every year has had a tie happen, and that made it all the more appealing, because this doesn’t happen too often in AEW, but the option is always there. The key thing about these matches is that you have to make it interesting all the way up to the end, and both Claudio and Takeshita took every effort to keep the crowd going and be invested in every hit that was laid down.

As the crowd (who was hot all night) heard the various countdowns toward the time limit break, you could feel their anticipation building. Remember, Bailey/Fletcher (which Meltzer did indeed rate over five stars!) went just over 19 minutes. So, would this happen here? Or would it go to a full-on tie? Well…

“They want to fight forever!” – Nigel McGuinness

Yeah, that was the right call, not just for the Continental Classic, and continue building intrigue with it, but for the belts and their respective promotions. Plus, seeing them duke it out well after the bell rang and the crowd chanting “Fight Forever!” throughout was a ton of fun.

Moving on, we heard from the Babes of Wrath as they celebrated their victory from Wednesday:

Then, we had a lot of “special guests,” as the Timeless Love Bombs showed up…and then the C-E-O showed up!!!

Yep, we’re going to have an 8-woman tag on Wednesday, and this could set up the first title defense for the belts at World’s End! I’ll definitely be intrigued to see how it all goes down!

Following that, we had a bunch of AEW wrestlers declare for the Dynamite Diamond Ring battle royale on Wednesday. Remember, the last two in the battle royale will face off in the following Dynamite, and the winner gets a guaranteed men’s world title shot at Maximum Carnage in January:

After that was the fourth match of the night, and after what happened on Wednesday, arguably the match that everyone was looking forward to the most! It was the battle of “Jetspeed” as Kevin Knight took on Speedball Mike Bailey!

I forgot to mention in my last recap that I like Renee Paquette’s “sideline reporting” to help provide further insight into the matches. The reason I appreciate it is that it adds to the story and makes you wonder how things will turn out. For example, in this match, we heard about how in other companies, the two had faced off before, and that Bailey won both times. So, would it be three in a row, or third time’s the charm?

While Claudio/Takeshita was a brutal slugfest, Knight/Bailey was all about high-impact moves and blinding speed. I loved how they played up the “I know all your moves” angle, including doing a repeat of their Full Gear sequence, while adding new wrinkles to the mix throughout.

There were numerous big spots in the match, and I loved watching every single one of them. What was my favorite? That shouldn’t be too hard to pick…

Yep, they did that, and then Kevin Knight followed it up with ANOTHER perfectly executed coast-to-coast.

Clearly, no one told them to “just take it easy” in this match…AND I’M GLAD NO ONE DID!!! This is the C2! You should be going full-tilt in every match, and that was very much the story here. Both men had 3 points in their league, and they NEEDED the win, which meant they had to keep going until they couldn’t no more.

I had never seen Bailey do the “Rubik’s Cube” before, but that was a great way to end it, with him getting a definitive victory versus a “clever rollup” as he had done against Fletcher. My only complaint is that the match didn’t go longer! Eh, they’ll run it back in the future, I’m sure.

Speaking of the C2, next Wednesday will have a STACKED card for the tournament, including Kyle Fletcher vs. Pac! And, naturally, both men had things to say about one another:

Finally, it was the main event! Mark Briscoe was ready to defend his TNT championship for the first time against former champ Daniel Garcia. I was a little concerned about this match going after the great C2 matches, but they did well, and the crowd appreciated all they did.

While it may have seemed like a “sure thing” that Briscoe would win, they made it clear that Garcia was going to give him all he had, and then some:

When Danny went and did his classic slap combo…it was loud. Like, REALLY loud. Ouch. As if that wasn’t enough, Tony Khan gave all of Cardiff a heart attack when Wheeler Yuta showed up to give a low blow to Briscoe! That couldn’t be the end…could it?

We avoided disaster! YAY!!! Mark really is a worthy champ, and I hope he gets even more matches as TNT champ, and electrifies the crowd as he always does with each one.

And with that, my AEW Collision Recap is done! Another fantastic show in the books, and next week, Dynamite and Collision will be COMBINED for yet another 3-hour spectacular! Let me see what matches we got…oh, and let me know what you thought of tonight’s show in the comments below!

AEW Dynamite/Collision Matches Next Week:

  • Kyle Fletcher vs. Pac
  • Máscara Dorada vs. Orange Cassidy
  • Jon Moxley vs. Roderick Strong
  • Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale
  • Mercedes Mone, Athena, Marina Shafir, and Megan Bayne vs. Babes of Wrath and the Timeless Love Bombs

 

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A self-proclaimed Nintendo fanboy, born, bred, and Mushroom fed! He’s owned every Nintendo handheld and every console since the SNES. He's got a degree in video game development, is a published comic book writer and an author of several novels!