{"id":196085,"date":"2025-04-14T16:14:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=196085"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T21:14:50","slug":"aew-collisions-hits-misses-4-12-anthony-bowens-vs-blake-christian-billy-starkz-vs-jamie-hayter-brody-king-vs-takeshita-ftr-a-threat-to-tony-schiavones-well-being-ftr-vs-daddy-magic-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/04\/14\/aew-collisions-hits-misses-4-12-anthony-bowens-vs-blake-christian-billy-starkz-vs-jamie-hayter-brody-king-vs-takeshita-ftr-a-threat-to-tony-schiavones-well-being-ftr-vs-daddy-magic-co\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW COLLISIONS HITS &#038; MISSES (4\/12): Anthony Bowens vs. Blake Christian, Billy Starkz vs. Jamie Hayter, Brody King vs. Takeshita, FTR a threat to Tony Schiavone&#8217;s well being, FTR vs. Daddy Magic &#038; Cool Hand Ang"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2817279377\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>AEW COLLISION &#8211; HITS &amp; MISSES<br \/>\nAPRIL 13, 2025<br \/>\nSPRINGFIELD, MASS.<br \/>\nAIRED ON TNT<br \/>\nBY AUGUST STRACHAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<p><em>Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuiness<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&#8211; Hey! Welcome back to another edition of the AEW Collision Hits &amp; Misses column \u2014 the best place to find the worst takes!<\/p>\n<p>A cold welcome from the lands of Australia to you all. Wait, hold on, sorry I need speak American don\u2019t I. Howdy y\u2019all from the land o\u2019 Kangaroos and Boomerangs! Once again it is August taking the reins for tonight&#8217;s column, as my incredibly wonderful fianc\u00e9 David is extremely sick, and I would appreciate your thoughts for his health and safety.<\/p>\n<p>With that out the way, let&#8217;s get to the wrestling with our surprising (in a good way) card consisting of 55 percent women\u2019s segments as per the pre-announced lineup!<\/p>\n<p>Hold on&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Okay, good; the show is still two hours long.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>COLD OPEN \u2014 MISS<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Does AEW have a love hate relationship with the Cold Open concept?<\/p>\n<p>Do they fight and slam the door on each other than call three hours later saying their sorry and want to give it another chance?<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-946261079\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Do they long for each other&#8217;s warm embrace in the cold dead of night but feel smothered when they lay together in the same bed?<\/p>\n<p>All that to say the Cold Open wasn\u2019t present to open this episode, confirming my theory that either the above is true, or the Cold Open is a cutthroat diva that won\u2019t let a man boss her around. Although this might just be my Triller feed cutting it out and I just sound insane.<\/p>\n<h3>PRODUCTION BOTCH NUMBER 400,762 \u2014 MISS<\/h3>\n<p>Once again, someone on AEWs production team gave their coffee-addicted child access to the buttons, showing the audience a preview for the upcoming Dynamite Spring-Break-Thru main event while the announcers were very much not talking about that, only to quickly cut to the match they were supposed to show a preview for just as the announcers pivoted to speak about said Dynamite main event.<\/p>\n<p>I know running these shows are hard, but there must be a point where it just feels a little like sabotage right?<\/p>\n<h3>GENUINE FEAR THAT TONY SCHIAVONE WAS GOING TO DIE \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>Well, it&#8217;s all but confirmed, FTR vs. Nigel McGuiness &amp; Tony Schiavone at All In Texas!<\/p>\n<p>I jest. However, that doesn\u2019t change the fact that for a moment there I thought Schiavone was going to take a Shatter Machine or an assisted piledriver, given FTRs reputation for safety and AEWs countering reputation for bat shit insanity that should\u2019ve never gotten past brainstorming, I couldn\u2019t fight the feeling that it was actually going to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Then of course Daniel Garcia got involved. I\u2019ll give it to him; he never stays down, even when he really should stay down.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, this show-opening segment was once again a great outing for FTR (as if they ever don\u2019t have a great outing) and I&#8217;m interested in where they\u2019re going to set their sights as a newly heel team.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2007338644\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>TIMELESS TONI STORM GIVES US THE RUNDOWN \u2014 MEGA HIT<\/h3>\n<p>This woman opens her lips and it&#8217;s a mega-hit without question, and given her disposition, I think that applies in both contexts.<\/p>\n<p>This promo only made me want to see Toni Storm get in the ring with each and every one of the women competing in the Owen Hart Tournament. Threatening to make Harley Cameron into a hand puppet, discrediting Athena&#8217;s rein, and marveling at the woman that is Kris Statlander; Storm&#8217;s chemistry with still images of these competitors makes me hyped to see the outcome of this tournament, and hopeful that some of the potential match-ups return later down the line. Be it &#8220;Electric Locomotion,&#8221; &#8220;If Mary Poppins Got Freaky,&#8221; or &#8220;Stark Tits,&#8221; these match-ups are all certain to be&#8230; Timeless.<\/p>\n<h3>JAMIE HAYTER VS. BILLIE STARKZ \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>Once again Daphne sans the gang enters the ring with the chairman of Chronic Hair Dyers Anonymous.<\/p>\n<p>Despite having a rocky start to the match, these two stellar performers wrestled their way into a good show tonight, and while resulting in the expected outcome, still came with some wonderfully creative offense from Starkz. But even such offense cannot save anyone when Fred isn\u2019t around to keep Daphne distracted from beating the ever-living hell out of anyone on sight.<\/p>\n<h3>DEATH RIDERS BACK IN THE DISNEYLAND TUNNELS \u2014 MINOR MISS<\/h3>\n<p>Once again, the Death Riders come to us live from their network of tunnels spanning across the venues of America to speak to us in riddles and Swedish, which would be funny if they started doing Swedish riddles for the handful of people that can understand Castagnoli directly, just to really get the message across in the most annoyingly complicated way possible.<\/p>\n<p>It seems Moxley, standing in for an injured Pac as an interim Trios Champion, is planning to target Hook this coming Wednesday, promising that \u201cchicks love scars\u201d while panning over to Yuta, who brushed back his hair. Presumably to try to show a scar that very much did not show well on camera and instead just looked like he was showing us the size of his forehead for an uncomfortable amount of time.<\/p>\n<h3>GATES OF AGONY VS. ALREADY IN THE RING \u2014 MINOR MISS<\/h3>\n<p>Well, there goes my statistic on women having the favor of time this episode.<\/p>\n<p>The Gates of Agony appeared tonight in an unannounced match against \u201cSmash &amp; Burn,\u201d which I can only assume is their tag team name, otherwise it\u2019s just a very cruel joke that someone put on their ring gear.<\/p>\n<p>Although it is accurate, they really did get smashed and certainly are walking out with some friction burns tonight.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/aew-dynamite-post-show-4-9-keller-narayanan-young-bucks-explain-themselves-opps-death-riders-clash-owen-tournament-more--65510885\">CLICK HERE<\/a> (or search \u201cwade Keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=65510885&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>FTR AGREE TO A MATCH AGAINST DADDY MAGIC AND COOL HAND ANG \u2014 MINOR HIT<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;m regretting doing that statistic now.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Garcia once again finds himself the centerpiece of a war. Soon to come tonight on Collision, FTR vs. Matt Mendard &amp; Angelo Parker, the stakes? Custody of their co-parented kid, Daniel Garcia.<\/p>\n<h3>BLAKE CHRISTIAN VS. ANTHONY BOWENS \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>I have many comments to make about the presentation of Blake Christian, none of which could likely get published here so I\u2019m not going to try my luck. Instead, let&#8217;s talk about Anthony Bowens.<\/p>\n<p>His return during the Zero Hour of Dynasty was easily the highlight of that portion of the show. So much so that both David and I agreed that it should\u2019ve taken place during the main show when the entire audience was looking on instead of still filing in as they do during the Zero Hour and a half.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I\u2019m not sure what I think on this new gimmick yet. I didn\u2019t even know what a five-tool player was until looking it up five minutes ago, and after doing so I am even more confused because this is wrestling, not baseball.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t try to make me think about two sports at once; one is enough.<\/p>\n<p>Given the ending to his after-match promo however, I hope we lead into a series of open challenge victories for Bowens to drive those nails even further into the coffin of Max Caster&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<h3>MEGAN BAYNE IN ACTION \u2014 MINOR HIT<\/h3>\n<p>In two-on-one action today against Kelly Madan and LMK, Megan Bayne conducted a massacre on her opponents. No surprise there.<\/p>\n<p>While this match didn\u2019t do much in terms of furthering any storyline, I respect it for keeping Bayne in the spotlight. A feat that (I hesitate to say this) AEW has been improving on. I hope it is not a fluke.<\/p>\n<h3>KEVIN KNIGHT VS. AR FOX \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>This match made me realize that Tony Khan must have some deep-seated hatred towards the concept of a slow burn story.<\/p>\n<p>From strangers on AEW TV, to allies in the 400k \u201cexplosive\u201d eight-man tag match (don\u2019t get me started) to opponents literally three days later, and they didn\u2019t say a thing!<\/p>\n<p>No little look from Fox to Knight to show his displeasure, but no handshake before this match to signify respect and friendship. This didn\u2019t have to be a story, but it certainly could\u2019ve been characterized.<\/p>\n<p>That isn\u2019t to say this match wasn\u2019t good; it certainly was. But it&#8217;s times like this when it&#8217;s clear that Khan in his early life found a rare pair fan-fiction, 10k words, slow burn dynamic only to find out it hadn\u2019t been updated or finished for five years and thought, \u201cNever again.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>GATES OF AGONY MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE \u2014 MINOR HIT<\/h3>\n<p>What in the Cheshire smile was that from Bishop Khan?!<\/p>\n<p>As with a train wreck, I wanted to look away but couldn\u2019t stop myself from staring in awe and fear that the smile would just keep curling till he looked like the Grinch having a terrible awful idea. Which is also what I call going up against the Hurt Syndicate.<\/p>\n<h3>FTR VS. DADDY MAGIC &amp; COOL HAND ANG \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>I find it hilarious that FTR came to work today with suitcases holding their ring gear, despite not having anything close to a scheduled match in place for tonight. Do they just bring it everywhere just in case someone challenges them to a sanctioned match at the drop of a hat?<\/p>\n<p>You know what, yeah, I entirely believe they do.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, on this episode of Family Courtroom, we see Garcia&#8217;s four dads fighting and bleeding for custody. FTR comes out victorious, but quickly proves that they never really loved him, causing Garcias fifth dad and first and second uncles to arrive to protect him.<\/p>\n<p>Things are really heating up in the Menard\/Parker\/Wheeler\/Harwood\/Cole case today.<\/p>\n<h3>ATHENA VS. HARLEY CAMERON \u2014 MEGA HIT<\/h3>\n<p>I am genuinely impressed. Athena is always good in action, storytelling, and character. But Harley Cameron never ceases to impress me with how quickly she is improving in all aspects of her wrestling career.<\/p>\n<p>We knew Harley wouldn\u2019t be coming out on top, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that with every outing she improves, she impresses, and she makes me want to see her hold a title on day soon more and more.<\/p>\n<p>In other news, Athena is an incredible worker, and water is wet. I cannot for the life of me decide whether Mercedes or Athena should advance to fight Toni Storm. Both matches would be astounding and both matches should absolutely happen someday soon. But I honestly don\u2019t know where the hell Mercedes would put another title on her body, and as much as I want to see Athena on AEW screens as much as possible, I want her to finish out her ROH run with pride, honor and a match worthy of her caliber before she jumps over.<\/p>\n<h3>MERCEDES MON\u00c9 PRE-RECORDED PROMO \u2014 MINOR HIT<\/h3>\n<p>I was into this until she called Athena a speedbump. Train tracks do not have speedbumps, Mercedes. The Orient Express would\u2019ve had a lot more complaints of third degree tea burns and shattered glass if they did.<\/p>\n<p>Oh god, I\u2019m becoming a stickler for trains. What is happening to me?<\/p>\n<h3>BRODY KING VS. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA \u2014 HIT<\/h3>\n<p>With how much Tony Khan loves Japanese wrestling, this should not be the last time we hear about Takeshita forever having the achievement of beating Hiroshi Tanahashi in his final match on American soil, and I think that is a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Hold on, David is calling.<\/p>\n<p>Okay so I\u2019m being told that he regrets introducing me to wrestling because my hyper-fixation has gotten much more out of hand than he thought it would, considering how now I genuinely care about such things as Hiroshi Tanahashi\u2019s last match in America.<\/p>\n<p>Switching focus, I feel for Brody King; the man has so much presence, talking ability, and ring capability, yet is always the obstacle and never the goal. I will always advocate for King to hold a singles title at some point in his AEW career, and no that is not because I have a signed photo of him in my room. Not at all.<\/p>\n<h3>FINAL THOUGHTS<\/h3>\n<p>The show started shakily without a cold open, but once it got settled in, it certainly delivered. The Owen Hart Tournament is in full swing now and, so far, has been my favorite out of the three I have seen. While some outcomes are obvious, with some of the match-ups I couldn\u2019t even hazard a guess as to who is going to come out triumphant.<\/p>\n<p>FTR&#8217;s heel turn feels refreshing, and hopefully after they finish running through the people of their past, they can turn their heads to the future.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of the past, anyone else notice that now both Cope and Christian Cage have lost their factions and been left alone after making an attempt on the title?<\/p>\n<p>Overall Match Grade: A-<\/p>\n<p>Overall Storylines Grade: B-<\/p>\n<p>SHOW GRADE: B+<\/p>\n<h3>AUGUST\u2019S DODGY MATCH RECOMMENDATIONS:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Match of the Night: Athena vs. Harley Cameron<\/li>\n<li>Second Best Match: Brody King vs. Konosuke Takeshita<\/li>\n<li>Third Best Match: FTR vs. Daddy Magic and Cool Hand Ang<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thank you all for reading. I truly appreciate it. And remember, watch out for the drop bears hiding in the trees; that\u2019s how they get you! This has been August Strachan with another sloppy attempt at the Collision Hits &amp; Misses column.<\/p>\n<p><em>(August Strachan doesn\u2019t have an \u201cArtist formerly known as Twitter\u201d account, nor an Instagram account and hasn\u2019t touched threads with an 80-foot pole since its inception. August is a trained actor, ballet dancer, camera hog and the inventor of the world&#8217;s first cement bouncy house. Less impressively, August received his bachelor&#8217;s degree in fine arts and Drama from the Queensland University of Technology)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show - AEW Dynamite w\/Wade Keller &amp; Tej Narayanan\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UN68BncljIY?start=88&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-4106785273\"><div id=\"pwtor-3528813656\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>AEW COLLISION &#8211; HITS &amp; MISSES APRIL 13, 2025 SPRINGFIELD, MASS. AIRED ON TNT BY AUGUST STRACHAN, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuiness &#8211; Hey! Welcome back to another edition of the AEW Collision <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/04\/14\/aew-collisions-hits-misses-4-12-anthony-bowens-vs-blake-christian-billy-starkz-vs-jamie-hayter-brody-king-vs-takeshita-ftr-a-threat-to-tony-schiavones-well-being-ftr-vs-daddy-magic-co\/\" title=\"AEW COLLISIONS HITS &#038; MISSES (4\/12): Anthony Bowens vs. Blake Christian, Billy Starkz vs. Jamie Hayter, Brody King vs. Takeshita, FTR a threat to Tony Schiavone&#8217;s well being, FTR vs. Daddy Magic &#038; Cool Hand Ang\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":196086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-14-at-4.13.56\u202fPM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196087,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196085\/revisions\/196087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}