AEW announced a boatload of matches for their upcoming events during this week’s AEW Dynamite. Not only did the show confirm a few matches for this week’s AEW Collision, but it also managed to round out the AEW Grand Slam lineup for next week’s annual show at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The two world title matches for the show were made official as Toni Storm escaped a four-way to challenge for Saraya’s AEW Women’s World Championship while Samoa Joe closed the show by winning the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament. Joe was the obvious frontrunner to win ever since his altercation with MJF back at AEW All Out.
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While Max hyped up the match by giving his own version of the “Steiner Math” promo, Joe took a much different direction. He swore in a promo that he was going to take “everything” from Max and closed the show by choking out an unsuspecting Adam Cole on the entrance ramp.
AEW Collision Card (Sept 16)
- Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Ricky Starks & Big Bill
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. The Iron Savages
AEW Grand Slam 2023 Card (Sept. 20)
- AEW World Championship: MJF vs. Samoa Joe
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Saraya vs. Toni Storm
- ROH World Championship & NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston
- AEW International Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Rey Fenix
- Chris Jericho vs. Sammy Guevara
- Darby Allin & Sting vs. Christian Cage & Luchasarus
AEW WrestleDream Card (Oct. 1)
- Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
- Hangman Page vs. Swerve Strickland
- Konosuke Takeshita vs. Kota Ibushi (Yet to Be Confirmed)
Bryan Danielson on His Retirement Plans
Despite announcing last week that he plans on ending his full-time wrestling career next year, he explained in an interview with Sports Illustrated this week that he never sees himself fully retiring. He’ll be in action on this week’s Collision and at WrestleDream.
“I don’t think I’ll ever reach a point where I declare I’m absolutely done,” Danielson said. “I want the ability to show up when I want to show up. Terry Funk is someone I always admired. He retired a million times, but he loved it so much he couldn’t help but keep doing it. And he did it when he wanted. For me, it might be a couple times a year, or it might be years between matches.”
“In my mind, it’s around August of next year,” he continued. “My daughter will say, ‘Daddy, are you going to be done wrestling when I turn seven?’ And I’ll respond, ‘Well, not exactly when you turn seven, but I’ll be on the home stretch.’ I didn’t get a chance to do All In this year. I would like that chance next year. We have a show, WrestleDream, this October 1 in Seattle where I’m wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. If we have another next year in Seattle? Maybe it will be then. My daughter turns seven in May, so it’s a good time to close down the shop.”
