AEW Collision Results, Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights From May 8

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of AEW Collision airing on a special night of Thursday, May 8.

It's a smart move for All Elite Wrestling to move the show to a different night so it doesn't have to compete with a WWE premium live event, and this week's show gave fans a few solid reasons to tune in.

Here's a look at what AEW advertised for Thursday:

—Willow Nightingale vs. Kris Statlander
—Mike Bailey vs. Dralistico
—Lee Johnson vs. Anthony Bowens
—Daniel Garcia vs. a member of FTR

Let's take a look at everything that happened on this week's show.

Ricochet vs. Angelico

The show opened with Toni Storm appearing in one of the balcony boxes in the venue to give a promo. She said she wanted a new challenge and doesn't want to wait for the Owen Hart Cup to be finished, but that is where the promo ended.

The first match of the night saw Ricochet take on a man we don't see on AEW TV too often these days, Angelico. Serpentico was at ringside in Angelico's corner.

Ricochet scored a quick two-count and bragged about it like he won something, so Angelico took him down and began to wrench his arm.

Ricochet got upset and chased Serpentico around with a chair as the show cut to a break. He was doing a lot of crowd work, which just made the fans boo him louder. He was getting a lot of heat and leaning into it like a pro.

We all know how good Ricochet is, but this bout went a long way toward reminding people that Angelico is a world-class performer. He and Ricochet made everything look good without having been in the ring together for over eight years.

This match included a lot of crowd participation and selling, so while it may not have been the spot fest some people expected, it was a fun back-and-forth contest.

Ricochet scored the win with the Spirit Gun as expected, but it wasn't as easy of a win as he probably expected. After the match, he gave a promo and talked some trash to Zach Gowen, who was sitting in the front row. He ended up taking out three members of security.

Gowen got in the ring to stop him, but Ricochet kicked out his prosthetic leg from under him before hitting him with the Spirit Gun. He ripped off his prosthetic leg and took it with him.

Result: Ricochet defeated Angelico

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

—The usual Collision intro didn't play this week.
—Storm has been loving making so many sexual innuendos.
—Ricochet being mad about Serpentico's streamers was funny.
—The way Ricochet yanked Angelico out of the ring looked brutal.

8-Man Tag Match

We got a big eight-man tag match this week with Kyle Fletcher, Rocky Romero, Trent Beretta and Lance Archer of the Don Callis Family taking on AR Fox, Bandido, Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd.

The ROH champion and Fletcher started the match for their teams. The masked man got the upper hand, but Beretta tagged in and turned him inside out with a running elbow strike.

Eight-man tag matches can be chaotic and hard to follow sometimes, especially in AEW, but these guys all did a good job making sure the biggest moments mattered.

As expected, this bout had a lot of fun moments and high-risk spots to keep the crowd invested. Tags stopped mattering after a little while, but everyone played their part and made this a fun showcase for eight people.

Trent and Rocky got the win for their team with a double-team move called The Jackal Driver to end a fun contest.

Result: The Don Callis Family won

Grade: B

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Notable Moments and Observations

—It's too bad Chuck Taylor isn't around. A Best Friends reunion would be fun.
—The Outrunners need some gold. A run with the ROH tag titles would be a good first step for them. The crowd loves them too much to keep them away from titles.
—AEW is trying to make sure we know the name is RPG Vice, not Rappongi Vice.
—Fox's jumping up to Bandido's shoulders for a dive out of the ring was the best spot in the match.

Anthony Bowens vs. Lee Johnson

After defeating Blake Christian last week, Bowens found himself facing Vanilla Baby's tag team partner, Johnson.

The crowd was behind Bowens and chanted his name as they locked up and began to work. The Five-Tool Player got a quick two-count with a rollup before they started trading moves.

This wasn't a squash, but it wasn't a long match and only seemed competitive for the sake of not making it a totally one-sided affair. Bowens won with the Mollywhop and Gunn ejected Christian from the ring when he tried a post-match attack.

Result: Bowens defeated Johnson

Grade: B-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—The chop Bowens hit that knocked Johnson down sounded painful.
—It will be interesting to see how often Billy Gunn wrestles now that he seems to be in more of a managerial role.

Kris Statlander vs. Willow Nightingale

The Gates of Agony came out and gave a promo directed at Big Bill and Bryan Keith. They called them out for a fight while playing to the crowd, so it seems like AEW might want them to be babyfaces going forward.

Bill and Keith showed up and immediately started fighting with them. They battled all around the ring and even broke some tables near the ring. After the fight ended, we got a video package showing the history between Willow and Stat before their match.

They shoved each other a few times before Nightingale got the first takedown. They talked a little trash in between spots and both women slapped the taste out of each other's mouth a few times as they upped the aggression.

This wasn't the kind of match with as many big spots as they could pack in. This was designed to feel like a more personal fight, and they did a good job making it feel that way. The crowd seemed very invested but didn't seem to favor one talent over the other.

This was an entertaining and hard-fought match that made both women look like tough opponents. Unfortunately, The Death Riders got involved and Marina Shafir used a chain to attack Willow behind the ref's back.

This allowed a clueless Statlander to hit her finisher for the win. Having a dirty ending for this makes sense even if it's not a satisfying conclusion. We haven't seen the last of this storyline.

Result: Statlander defeated Nightingale.

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Willow using Stat's full name of Kristen is funnier than it should be.
—The trash talk helped make this feel like a more personal fight.
—A small graphic with a spider was shown during this match. It was easy to miss, but it's apparently to hype the debut of Thekla, who just signed with AEW.
—We got a quick video hyping the return of Skye Blue next week.

The Dark Order vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Don Callis

Takeshita and Alexander attacked Evil Uno and Alex Reynolds as soon as they got to the ring, so the match wasn't officially underway yet.

Once it got started, The Don Callis Family maintained the upper hand. Uno got in a couple of moves when he tagged in, but it wasn't much.

Alexander hit a piledriver on Reynolds for the win in what was basically a squash match.

Result: Takeshita and Alexander defeated The Dark Order

Grade: Incomplete

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Notable Moments and Observations

—You never expect a hurricanrana from Evil Uno.
—The Dark Order's entrance wasn't shown, so their fate was obvious.

Mike Bailey vs. Dralistico

Speedball and Dralistico had a rematch this week following their highly entertaining encounter at the beginning of April.

Dralistico backed Bailey to the corner and hit a stiff chop, but Speedball recovered quickly and took control for a few moments. The luchador sent him into the steel steps with a hurricanrana to send the show to a break.

After we returned, they got into a striking contest. Both men hit a lot of stiff kicks and chops, but it was Speedball who came out on top. It would be surprising if neither man had any bruises after this match.

Bailey picked up the win with a spinning kick to the face to end an exciting bout that will probably be considered a show-stealer by most. Rush showed up as Speedball was celebrating, but they didn't fight. We will get that match soon.

Result: Bailey defeated Dralistico

Grade: A-

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Notable Moments and Observations

—It's nice to see Dralistico getting more ring time. He is a good talent who hasn't had enough of a chance to shine on his own in AEW.
—Bailey and Dralistico both have great kicks. They do not look like they hold back even though they are.
—The way Bailey hit a destroyer was impressive.

Daniel Garcia vs. Dax Harwood

Garcia came into this match not knowing which member of FTR he would be facing. Dax Harwood ended up being his opponent for the night.

Stokely Hathaway and Cash Wheeler were at ringside to watch as Garcia backed Dax to the corner and slapped his bald head to taunt him.

While both men are great technical wrestlers, Harwood had both a size and experience advantage, so he was able to bully Garcia at times.

Harwood tried to use the ring bell as a weapon but was thwarted by the ref. The distraction allowed Wheeler to pull Garcia out of the ring for a DDT on the ground. Daddy Magic showed up to defend his friend and fight Wheeler.

As expected, this was a hard-fought match with a lot to like. Both of these guys are great at building intensity as a match progresses, so the physicality picked up as time went on.

Harwood was bloodied and Garcia was sent into an exposed turnbuckle, but it didn't end the match. Harwood ended up having a confrontation with Nigel McGuinness and shoved him before heading back to the ring.

Stoke had the ref distracted, and that allowed Nigel to get in the ring. He and Garcia took out FTR with Daddy Magic joining in. The ref bailed and the match basically ended without the bell ringing or an official decision.

This was a decent way to set up a potential tag match with Garcia and Nigel vs. FTR, but not having an ending to the match was a bit of a letdown.

Result: No Contest

Grade: B+

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Notable Moments and Observations

—Garcia bringing back his dance here and there has made the crowd very happy.
—How do bald guys feel about all of the head slapping going on in AEW these days?
—Harwood got into a brief argument with someone in the crowd and the show censored it.
—Garcia hitting three superplexes in a row was a cool sequence.

The Final Word

This special Thursday episode of Collision had some fun matches and a couple of storyline developments, but it didn’t feel like many of the bigger feuds were addressed, which may have worked in its favor.

Fans who are tired of the Death Riders story will be happy to know their involvement in the show was minimal. The only time they got involved was during Willow and Stat’s match.

Speaking of the women's division, Toni Storm opened the show with a great promo that had the crowd rolling with laughter.

As good as most of what we got was, Bailey and Dralistico stole the show with a hard-hitting contest. This is a combo AEW would be wise to keep together for a few more matches.

All in all, this was a solid episode but it didn't feel like it did enough to build up Double or Nothing in just over two weeks.

Grade: B+