AEW Collision: December 28, 2024: AEW World's End (+ the last Rampage, December 27)

December 28, 2024 4:57 PM - Season 2 (Specials)

With AEW's streaming deal starting next week, the final Rampage ever is followed by the second annual World's End PPV occupying Collision's slot. (Link to last year.). The Continental Classic will be decided in three matches, Kris Statlander gets her Mercedes Moné rematch, Thunder Rosa gets hardcore, and Jon Moxley (who brought Rampage to an end in violent fashion) faces his three challengers.

ZERO HOUR FREE PRE-SHOW

Toni Storm vs. Leila Grey
Jeff Jarrett vs. QT Marshall
Eight-man tag team match: The Outrunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd) & Top Flight (Darius Martin and Dante Martin) vs. Lio Rush, Action Andretti, and The Murder Machines (Lance Archer and Brian Cage)

MAIN CARD

Continental Classic Semifinal Match: Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher
Continental Classic Semifinal Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Ricochet
AEW International Championship Match: Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
AEW Women's World Championship: Mariah May (c) vs. Thunder Rosa -- "Tijuana Street Fight"
AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring Match: MJF (c) vs. Adam Cole
AEW TBS Championship Match: Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Kris Statlander
AEW Continental Championship Final Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) or Ricochet vs. Kyle Fletcher or Will Ospreay
AEW World Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Orange Cassidy vs. "Hangman" Adam Page vs. Jay White -- Four-Way Match

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (7 comments total)

Will wasting little time in reddening this match after an early ringside spot -- white ropes plus Kyle's white boots showing the bloodstains in stark relief. "For the sickos", indeed. He's wrestled a very Japanese strong style, going strike-for-strike with Fletcher and finding ways to evade. Surprising to win with the Styles Clash, it seems he's truly made that part of his finisher moveset (despite not changing the name).
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:28 PM on December 28

Ricochet's heel turn has been fully embraced by the fans -- they're already mocking his baldness even though he's far from the only one, and throwing toilet paper into the ring has already become de rigueur. (It doesn't hurt that a friend pointed out he and Andrew Tate share a look.) This may be the most character development he's had in years, going back to his superhero gimmick in NXT.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:53 PM on December 28 [1 favorite]

Does the Diamond Ring match exist purely to give MJF something to win? Like, will a day come when it exists as something other than a conversation piece in Max's story? Turns out the real Dynamite Diamond Ring.... was the friends Adam Cole made along the way a long time ago back in NXT.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:38 PM on December 28

Takeshita puts up his best title defense so far against Hobbs, even though Takeshita is not usually presented as a meaty muscle wrestler. He might have technically been the underdog against Hobbs' superior strength, but the storyline builds in an "out" for Hobbs by having his knee give out. He gets to look like the tough babyface by pulling off his knee brace to push through.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:02 PM on December 28

There's such a weird dichotomy between the two women's matches on this show.

For the Women's Championship, Mariah has been doing textbook-perfect heel work on the microphone, and all her opponents so far have been someone with whom she shared an emotional justification. It's just that when she gets in the ring, nothing she does is very thrilling unless its part of the match's gimmick (like the slam onto thumbtacks tonight).

By contrast, the Statlander/Moné TBS Championship match seemingly came out of nowhere (apparently Kamille said something on social media that's caused genuine heat with the company, so the setup of her turning on her "boss" Moné was abandoned) and had a tepid build-up. And yet these two women just put on an incredible match. Moné met Statlander's superior strength with slippery tactics and just a bit of heel shittiness. Although she wasn't above doing a little bit of crowd-pleasing, chaining her Three Amigos suplexes into seven suplexes instead. Statlander looks great in defeat although she is 0-2 vs. Moné, so I hope the company has someone else ready in the back.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:39 PM on December 28

Ospreay comes out for the championship match looking like he stumbled out of a car wreck -- he hasn't even gotten all the dried blood off his face and neck! -- while Okada's hair just looks slightly mussed.

I feel for Ospreay's loss, but it's nice to have Big Match Okada show up. He's been maxin' and relaxin' in his heel persona for a while so it's nice to be reminded that he was one-half of Meltzer's only seven-star match in history.

AND SPEAKING OF THAT

Here comes Kenny Omega, back after months and months away, already scheduled to fight Gabe Kidd at Wrestle Dynasty a week from today, to personally award the CC belt.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:04 PM on December 28

A PPV with zero title changes? Mox predicted that having all his enemies in one match would mean they'd lose to infighting, and he was right. I myself predicted that something would prevent Christian from cashing in his title contract and I was also right, although I was expecting the Kenny Omega entrance to go here, not for FTR+Copeland to make the post-match appearance.

Onwards to 2025 and HBO Max streaming!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 8:42 PM on December 28