AEW Collision returns to Toledo (photos by Brad McFarlin)

Contains spoilers for AEW Collision in Toledo, Ohio, taped on October 3, 2024. 

Since their inception in 2019, AEW has only visited Detroit, Michigan twice, the first time in June 2022, followed up by May 2023, nearly one and a half years ago. I don’t know why this is, but based upon the reception to these two shows, it feels like they’re missing out on a major US market. So, when AEW ran an episode of Collision in Toledo, Ohio (it’s THIRD time since August 2023), about one hour south of Detroit, Brad McFarlin and I made the drive to the Huntington Center, to catch some live All Elite action. 

Personally, I really like Toledo, and I have visited it pretty regularly since moving to Metro Detroit in 2005. No offense to Ohio, but Toledo feels sort of like an extension of Michigan, especially since it’s home to the currently red hot Detroit Tigers’ AAA baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens, so there always seems to be a fair amount of people from Michigan in Toledo, and you run less of a risk of someone flipping you the bird for wearing a Tigers hat (opposed to when you visit Cleveland).

I’m aware that Toledo (and by extension Ohio) has a pretty strong professional wrestling history, but this was my first time attending a wrestling show in Ohio, and I was really looking forward to it, but by the looks of downtown Toledo, you could barely tell there was a major wrestling promotion in town.

Now, I’m not going to dwell on attendance, or the number of empty seats in the Huntington Center on October 3, 2024, you can find that information elsewhere, but it was a little disheartening, and I think it impacted the overall ambience of the show, regardless of the quality of matches and the talent on display that night.

The Huntington Center is home to the Toledo Walleye, an East Coast Hockey League team, and can seat up to 8,000 people, so I wouldn’t call it a small venue, but it seats less than half of Little Caesars Arena, in Detroit, so you’re pretty much guaranteed a good, clear view, wherever you’re seated. 

The first match was a pre-Collision Ring of Honor tag team match between The Spanish Announce Project, Angelico and Serpentico, and local talents Derek Dillinger and Ren Jones. While I wasn’t familiar with Dillinger, I’ve seen Jones at several Michigan independent shows, and he looked great in the ring against Angelico and crowd-favorite Serpentico. Jones spent more time in the ring than his tag partner, and Jones was the one who tapped out at the end of this match, but he looked like a good fit in Ring of Honor, if not AEW. 

After this, they introduced the commentary team of Nigel McGuinness and Tony Schiavone, then it was time for a quick Tony Khan appearance, with all three receiving a warm welcome, and then Collision began, at 8pm on the dot, which was impressive for a taped program.

There were no matches announced ahead of time (that I could find), so the evening’s events were a mystery, until the wrestlers made their appearances, and the first to come out was Darby Allin, to a sizable pop. Allin’s challenger this evening would be Johnny TV, and it took me a second to remember who that is. Allin and TV had a good, physical match, with both competitors willing and able to move and contort their bodies in a variety of maneuvers, but in the end, Allin hit Johnny TV with a Coffin Drop, and pinned him for the victory. 

After the match, Allin cut a promo issuing an open challenge to wrestle him at WrestleDream, not for a belt or anything, just the opportunity to face Allin on his home turf, and after it appeared like no one would accept, Brody King came out and brutalized Allin, securing their match on WrestleDream. 

After a quick break, Christian Cage came out with Mother Wayne, and his AEW championship match contract. Christian said he wouldn’t wrestle in a “sh*thole” like Toledo, but his son, Nick Wayne, will, and after he garnered some good old fashioned heat, he and Mother Wayne vacated the ramp.

The Toledo crowd was then shown a video montage of The Outrunners and FTR, which people enjoyed, especially when the end of the video hinted at an Outrunners/FTR team up, and a graphic announcing the “FTRunners.” Then the Outrunners were introduced for their tag match against the Grisled Young Veterans.

The Outrunners might have been the most over act of the night, even though the crowd at one point got distracted by an untied bootlace, and began to chant, “Tie your shoe!” It was an example of one of those small fixations wrestling crowds can have, that they can think is more entertaining than it is. Call me a curmudgeon, but I was a little annoyed by this chant. Anyway, it seemed like the Grisled Young Veterans were going to pull out a victory against the Outrunners, but Zack Gibson got rolled up for the quick one, two, three, and the Outrunners scored another victory.

Before the next match, Tony Khan came back out to hype up the crowd, celebrate the new AEW/WBD deal, and mention his favorite movie, Time Cop. He then announced the main event of the evening would be a tag team eliminator match between Private Party, Top Flight, and House of Black.

Next up, Willow Nightingale was introduced to a very warm reception. How can you not love Willow? Then it was time for “The Afro Punk” Trish Adora. Personally, I liked this match because I have independent wrestling cards of Willow and Adora, from their time wrestling as part of GCW’s The Collective, so it’s cool to see them together now in an AEW ring. Before the match began, Women’s Champion Mariah May was escorted to ringside, where she watched the match while sitting with the fans in the front row, so one could safely assume she would eventually become involved. Overall this was a technically sound match, with Willow and Adora both having a good showing of their talents. As expected, Willow pinned Adora, and after the match, Willow went down to confront May, who shoved her championship belt in Willow’s face, prompting Willow to pound May until she ran away, up the ramp, leaving her belt behind. I think many wrestling fans would be very happy to see Willow become the new women’s AEW champ.

Backstage, Wheeler Yuta is being interviewed until he’s interrupted by PAC, Claudio, and Marina Shaffir, then he’s introduced for his match with Beef, who’s escorted to the ring by Anthony Henry. Beef’s gimmick is maybe a little too similar to WWE’s Otis, and the fans are lukewarm to him. It’s fun to see Yuta pulling out Bryan Danielson’s moveset though, and Yuta submits Beef with Cattle Mutilation. Isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think?

After a quick backstage promo by Hook, we get a tag match between Orange Cassidy and Kyle O’Reilly of the Conglomeration, and Premier Athletes’ Tony Nese and Arya Daivari, with manager Mark Sterling. All around, these two teams feel like a random mishmash of parts, but at least with the Conglomeration, they seem to recognize that, hence the name. There’s a lot of moving parts here, including Mark Sterling and Marc Briscoe, and after Orange Cassidy delivers an Orange Punch to Sterling, Cassidy pins Nese, and the Conglomeration savor the taste of sweet victory.    

Next it was time for the Nick Wayne match Christian Cage promised earlier, and it was a four-way match between Hologram, Nick Wayne, Action Andretti, and Komander. Of all the matches so far, this was the high-flyingest match of all, aided by the skills of the masked Hologram and Komander. Everybody had a chance to shine, but in the end, Hologram pinned Andretti, so it seemed like Cage promoting a Nick Wayne match was a little pointless. 

Suddenly, Mercedes Mone was on the big screen, and just as I overheard someone say, “I bet she isn’t here,” she shouted out Toledo, and the crowd couldn’t help but pop. Her promo was cut short by Kris Statlander, who then came out to the ramp and pinned her opponent in a 10 second squash match.

Then it was Mone’s time to interrupt, as she and Kamille came down the ramp, and I think the audience was legitimately surprised she was actually there in Toledo (I know I sort of was). Mone then sicced Kamille on Stat, who got in a few good shots, but took a beating from Kamille. 

At last, it was time for the main event tag team eliminator match. House of Black came out first, and even in a smaller venue like the Huntington Center, their intro still looks cool, and Buddy Matthews is absolutely jacked.

Next it was time for Top Flight, with their flight attendant Leila Grey. And third, it was Private Party, who are enjoying a bit of a push right now, who came out to their new theme song, “Flex On ‘Em.” You can tell AEW is investing in Private Party, and their new theme, because they let the full song and video play, while Zay and Quen flexed and amped up the crowd. 

Similar to the four-way match, there was a lot to pay attention to in this match, a lot of moving parts, and I can’t say if they were really keeping track of who was “legal” or not, but at one point, near the end of the match, Action Andretti (who is now part of Top Flight) came out and threw a water bottle at House of Black, which upset Matthews and Malakai Black more than you think it would, and distracted both of them just long enough for Private Party to pin Top Flight. So, I can’t say Andretti’s choice was very good, since it cost his team the match. With this victory, Private Party are now set to do battle with the Young Bucks at WrestleDream. 

And that was the show! Granted, there was more Ring of Honor wrestling to take place after a short break, but Brad and I had to drive back home, and I had to be at work at 9am the next morning, so we called it a night. Overall, It was a fun night of AEW in Toledo, Ohio, but I really hope they return to Detroit soon. Tony Khan owes us a PPV.