It's the first Collision of the year with Elton John playing us back in the way it always should have been.

I'm running hot on about 5 hours of sleep after waking up early to watch Wrestle Kingdom 19 live. I'm ready for Collision and Wrestle Dynasty to cap off an insane Saturday of wrestling.

This week, we've got a Rated FTR trios match against The Learning Tree and I still really hate the name "Cope". We also have Daniel Garcia defending the TNT Title against Mark Briscoe which should be good-to-great if their C2 runs are any indication.

I'm in the cozy basement with wrestling on the projector and a belly full of deviled eggs. It's a recipe for delight for the next seven hours!

A great kickoff for the TNT Title

Abiding by classic G1-style rules, Mark Briscoe beat Daniel Garcia in the C2 and earned a shot at the TNT Title by way of scoring a non-title win over the champion. On the pre-show panel for Worlds End, Garcia balked at the prospect of giving Briscoe a title shot but Tony Khan made it a reality.

Both guys had very good runs in the Continental Classic and continued with more of the same on the first Collision of the year. Garcia successfully defended the TNT Title in his first defense of the title since beating Jack Perry for the belt at Full Gear.

On Briscoe's end, something needs to happen with him in 2025. He's consistently over with crowds whether he's talking or wrestling and he's too good to not pin a belt on him, whether that be singles, tag, or trios. It felt like there was an easy path to putting the Trios Titles on The Conglomeration in 2024 but that stable seems to have fizzled out with Kyle O'Reilly reuniting with the Undisputed Kingdom.

For Garcia, coming out of the gate with an improved record over last year's C2 and this great title defense, the sky is the limit. There aren't any feuds on the horizon for Garcia right now, though he did also drop a loss to Kyle Fletcher in the tournament which could mean a TNT Title shot for The Protostar. In that situation, though, it seems like it's Fletcher's match to win so maybe we save that for a bit down the road.

Working out the kinks in the tag team division

I like Lio Rush and Action Andretti as a team and I think both work much better as heels. Tonight's match against Tag Team Champions Private Party made it clear, though, that they still have a bit of a ways to go before they're a totally cohesive team.

Some of their double team moves felt a bit out of sync at times, like mistiming a double dropkick and looking a little awkward on some double suplex spots among others. There wasn't anything that looked like a deal breaker for them as a team, just some rough edges to refine as they get their tag team cohesion locked down.

Funnily enough, Lio & Action stealing Gin & Juice as an attempt at a finisher was one of their smoothest-looking tandem movies in the whole match.

This match picked up in about the last third or so but it wasn't without a little bit of awkward clunkiness here and there. The ending came with Top Flight stopping an attempt at good old fashioned cheating by Lio & Andretti, allowing Private Party to sneak out a win.

Not necessarily the best Private Party could have looked in their first non-multi-team title defense but hopefully it was simply the newness of their opponents keeping things from stepping into that next gear. It appears that Top Flight may be readying themselves for the next title shot and I love that the younger teams in the division are going to get their chance to shine for at least a little bit longer.

Wrapping Up

THE COLD-OPEN PROMOS ARE BACK! ELTON JOHN IS BACK! COLLISION IS BACK!

It's a New Year miracle, baby. I know Tony had tweeted about the theme song coming back in 2025 but the return of the promos at the top of the show were a nice surprise. I always felt that they added such a unique feel to the show not only to set it apart from Dynamite but to hype you up for everything you're about to see. I love it.

The ongoing saga of Toni Storm continued tonight with a win over Deonna Purrazzo, once again using a flash pin to get the victory. This rookie's got smarts! On commentary, Tony Schiavone speculated whether or not Toni Storm is actually out of her mind or if this is all the greatest act of all time. I'm not sure if this is the first time this has been considered or not, but it's nice to see some wheels spinning as the character continues to develop.

Earlier in the show, Top Flight interjected themselves into the Tag Title match. In a four way between Dante Martin, Komander, Brian Cage, and The Beast Mortos, Lio & Andretti attacked Dante leaving him in a pile on the arena floor. He'd get back into the match with some good offense but eventually ate the fall to Brian Cage.

So, what exactly are they doing with Top Flight? It'd be one thing if he lost the match immediately after being attacked so he could pin the reasoning on Lio & Andretti. But this didn't happen. Dante recovered enough to get back into the match and then lost to Cage's counter-wrestling. Not a great look for Dante or Top Flight if they're trying to make them a threat to Lio & Andretti or Private Party.

We got another odd, deflating end of an episode as Death Riders had the visiting Rock N' Roll Express tied up backstage drawing out The Outrunners who were handily dismantled. Death Riders then just sort of left as Rated FTR charged backstage to find them, but with no resolution as everybody just sort of milled around checking on everybody before Cope and FTR exited out the door to try and chase down Death Riders.

This came after another Rated FTR main event that floundered until the ending moments. This one didn't pick up quite as well as their match on Dynamite did and was capped off by Jericho nearly killing himself on a Lionsault that he's almost assuredly too old to attempt anymore. Rated FTR got the win, but the real star here was Big Bill who is one of the biggest success stories of 2024 in all of AEW for me.