AEW Collision Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from August 12

Collision.AEW

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of AEW Collision on August 12.

This week's show was all about tag team wrestling. Not only did we see The Acclaimed in action, but we also got a women's tag bout with Krist Statlander and Willow Nightingale taking on Diamante and Mercedes Martinez.

However, the biggest match on the card was easily the Trios Championship bout between The House of Black and CMFTR.

We also heard from Ricky Starks regarding his attack on Ricky Steamboat, and we also got a few words from Powerhouse Hobbs.

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

Collision.AEW

The show opened with Tony Schiavone telling Ricky Starks that he had been suspended 30 days for attacking Ricky Steamboat. Starks said actions have consequences. This turned into a promo for Starks where he said he got a manager's license and would still be on the show every week.

The first match saw The Acclaimed take on The Iron Savages in tag team action. The crowd began to chant for the absent Daddy Ass as Anthony Bowens locked up with Bronson Boulder.

With The Iron Savages getting a non-televised entrance, this felt like it might be a squash match at first. It wouldn't have been surprising for Tony Khan to book them to look strong to re-establish them in the tag team division, but this ended up being a highly competitive bout.

Both teams had their own moments to shine, and while this was definitely designed to make Bowens and Max Caster strong, Bear and Bronson still had a great showing.

The Acclaimed got the win with a double Fameasser as an homage to Billy Gunn.

Winners: The Acclaimed

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Starks comparing what he did to Steamboat to a parent spanking their kids was a good heel line. 
• Not having Daddy Ass with The Acclaimed just felt...wrong. 
• Bear's reaction to Caster's Lizzo joke was hilarious. 
• Bear walking around holding Caster and Bowens was an impressive display of power. 
• Caster lifting Bear up for a slam was a great moment for him. The announcers did a good job playing it up as a big feat of strength. 

Collision.AEW

Statlander and Nightingale teamed up to take on Martinez and Diamante after the two pairs had issues following the TBS title bout between Statlander and Martinez.

Stat and Diamante started off for their teams with a nice exchange of takedowns and slams. The TBS champions showed her power when she caught Diamante and carried her to WIllow so she could tag in and hit a double-team move.

After we returned from a break, Statlander got a hot tag to give Willow some relief after a long time in the ring. The champ took it to both opponents as the crowd cheered for her.

Martinez and Diamante ended up getting the win with a little bit of cheating when Diamante used her legs to give Martinez leverage during a pin.

This was a decent match, but it felt like something was missing. Maybe they were holding back, or maybe there was a chemistry issue. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to keep this from being enjoyable.

Winners: Martinez and Diamante

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's been great to see Diamante getting more time in ROH and AEW lately. She i such a great talent and can add so much to any roster. 
• Martinez lifting Willow for a fireman's carry slam was impressive. 
• While it was a cool spot, Martinez powerbombing her own partner into her opponents at ringside almost ended in disaster. Diamante got lucky or adjusted at the last second to land better. 

Samoa Joe took on a literal giant this week when he battled Andrew Everett, who is billed at 7'4" and definitely isn't exaggerating about his height.

In all seriousness, Joe defeated the indie darling in just under two minutes in a match that can only be described as a squash.

Joe grabbed a mic and called out CM Punk for a fight at All In. After some video packages,

Winner: Samoa Joe

Grade: Incomplete

Christian Cage and Luchasaurus came out for a promo, but they were interrupted by Arn and Brock Anderson.

Brock ended up in a TNT title match after Arn talked Christian into it, so Luchasaurus started beating the young man down as soon as the bell rang.

What began as a match that seemed like it would be over in 60 seconds ended up being long enough to have a commercial break in the middle, but that doesn't mean it was competitive. This was all Luchasaurus other than a short burst of offense from the challenger.

This was a good way to make Luchasaurus look good, but the promo from Christian might have been a bigger highlight overall. Darby Allin showing up to attack the champion was a fun way to pop the crowd at the end, but nobody is going to be talking about this match tomorrow.

Winner: Luchasaurus

Grade: C-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Everett's counter to the walkaway spot from Joe was fantastic. 
• Christian is awesome at what he does but badmouthing Michael Jordan is going too far. This man must be stopped. 
• Getting hit with a skateboard hurts and I would be upset if I had to fight Allin and take a shot to the back with the trucks on one of those things. 

Collision.AEW

The main event was the Trios Championship match with CM Punk, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler challenging Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews. As usual, Julia Hart was there at ringside.

Punk and Matthews started in the ring with a basic lockup. They knew they had a lot of time with almost the entire final half-hour of the show, so they kept it clean and abided by all of the rules for the first several minutes. What we saw were some solid fundamental wrestling and tag team tactics.

The crowd came alive when Punk and Black got into the ring together and started trading kicks. Punk ducked Black's spinning kick and sat down, mimicking Black's own mind game. This led to a brawl with all six men that went into the first commercial break.

With two trios like this, anything short of a good match seems almost impossible. Everyone got to play to their strengths and worked together to put on a fun and physical main event.

Samoa Joe showed up and brought Punk into the crowd to choke him out as King hit a huge lariat on Harwood to get the pin and retain the titles for HOB. This was a good way to set up Punk vs. Joe while also giving HOB the win.

Winners: House of Black

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Jim Ross was brought out to be a commentator for this match. 
• Every member of The House of Black feels completely unique but also feels like part of a bigger whole. They are an awesome stable and AEW should keep them together for a long time. 
• Trading chops with Brody King is dangerous in two ways. It hurts to get hit by him, but it also hurts to hit him because you are basically chopping a walking fridge. 
• At some point, we need a good singles run with Matthews. That guy has too much talent for AEW not to capitalize on it. 

Collision almost feels like it has a completely different pace than Dynamite even though both shows are from the same company and air for the same amount of time. It's kind of impressive and gives Collision its own unique feel.

This week's show did a lot of table-setting for future matches, but we also got a couple of fun encounters along the way. The main event was an obvious highlight, but The Acclaimed vs. Bear Country and the women's tag match are both worth checking out, too.

Starks has really come into his own over the past few months and it feels like being put into a program with someone on Punk's level put him into a sink-or-swim situation. Thankfully, he has been navigating these waters like a pro.

Even though a couple of matches were nothing special, it didn't feel like there was any wasted time. Every segment served a greater purpose, which is a good thing this close to back-to-back pay-per-views.

Grade: B+