AEW Collision Playoff Palooza Results, Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage of AEW Collision on April 26.

Here is a rundown of what AEW advertised for this week's show:

—Bandido vs. Dralistico
—AR Fox vs. Rush
—FTR vs. The Paragon
—CRU vs. Top Flight
—Swerve Strickland vs. Blake Christian
—Toni Storm vs. Queen Aminata
—Anna Jay and Max Caster in action

Let's take a look at everything that happened on Saturday's episode of Collision.

Collision kicked off with Swerve making his entrance for a promo, but his match wasn't supposed to happen until later. The Young Bucks came out and said his match would be taking place right away. Swerve wasn't even in his wrestling gear yet.

Nick and Matt Jackson watched from the stage in chairs as they got the match going. Lee Johnson tripped Swerve so Christian could get the early advantage.

The Vanilla Baby kept bending the rules to maintain the upper hand, but Strickland eventually rebounded and hit a neckbreaker on the apron.

This was a fun match with a quick pace, but it was also as predictable as it gets. Nobody expected Christian to stand a chance against the former world champion.

Swerve picked up the win and stared daggers at the Bucks until Johnson attacked him. Swerve took him down quickly, but then Nick and Matt stormed the ring and double-teamed him.

Kenny Omega came out to even the odds and helped drive his former best friends out of the ring.

Result: Strickland defeated Christian

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

—The show was delayed due to the NBA playoffs. The Nuggets and Clippers had a wild ending to their game that a lot of fans online called a pro wrestling finish.
—Vanilla Baby is such a goofy nickname for Christian.
—The corkscrew suicide dive Christian hit looked amazing.

Queen Aminata is fresh off a return from injury and was given a big opportunity this week when she faced Storm in a women's title eliminator match.

After they had a couple of exchanges, Storm suckered Aminata in with the offer of a handshake that turned into a headlock.

The Queen showed off some of her mat wrestling skills in this match, but there was a few moments that showed a lack of chemistry before the commercial break. During the picture-in-picture portion, they upped the physicality a bit to make it feel more competitive.

The second half of this bout was much better than the first. Both women hit some big moves and made this feel like an important contest, especially for Aminata.

The champion picked up the win with Storm Zero, crushing Aminata's hopes of a title shot in the process. This started a little slow but turned into a fun and competitive fight by the end.

Result: Storm defeated Aminata

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

—Aminata has the kind of charisma that is natural and unforced. She can be a big star if booked right.
—Storm looked unprepared for a hip toss, so both women fell awkwardly.
—The way Storm applies the STF looks a little painful for her too. The leg she uses to tie up her opponent's legs has to be bent in an uncomfortable way.

Caster came out for his open challenge and mocked the crowd while pretending to be popular like he always does.

His challenge was answered by none other than Hologram. Caster went after him with a clothesline, but the luchador ducked and started running the ropes.

Even with a significant size and power advantage, Caster was unable to build any momentum against the high-flyer. Hologram hit the Portal Bomb for a quick win.

We didn't get much here, but what we did get looked pretty good. Hologram is a special talent who is going to have a good run in AEW if he can stay healthy.

Result: Hologram defeated Caster

Grade: C+

Notable Moments and Observations

—There were some people who chanted with Caster, but not many.
—Hologram's gear makes him look like a big Seattle Seahawks fan.

We got some Tornado Tag Team action this week when Dante and Darius Martin took on their former friends, Lio Rush and Action Andretti.

After an initial brawl with all four men, CRU regrouped at ringside before trying to rush the ring. It didn't work and Top Flight took them down for a two-count.

Once they started using weapons like kendo sticks and chairs, CRU took control as the show went to a commercial.

Matches like this have a high level of chaos, so you lose some of the flow of a normal tag bout, but you gain a lot more intensity and violence. This was an exciting match, but it lacked some of the high-flying excitement we expect from these teams.

They still utilized some big spots, but not the way they would in a traditional match. That being said, this was still highly entertaining just because all four of these guys are fantastic athletes who are capable of doing great things.

CRU was able to get the win after Top Flight became distracted due to Leila Grey being knocked off the apron by accident. This feud probably isn't over, which is a good thing because these teams work very well together.

Result: CRU defeated Top Flight

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

—Darius looks like he has been trying to add some muscle. He is noticeably bigger than Dante when they stand next to each other. They used to be much closer to the same size.
—Do people know that taping a kendo stick from top to bottom makes it hurt more? When they are tied normally, they still hurt but the flexibility makes it less impactful. Taping them up removes some of that flexibility.
—The bag everyone though was full of tacks being full of Mardi Gras beads was a funny moment.

Anna Jay was back in action after being away for a few months. She took on a local talent named Taylor Gainey.

This match was so quick that it was over before we could finish typing this sentence. Jay picked up an easy win, but while she celebrated Penelope Ford came down to the ring.

She attacked Jay to set her up for Megan Bayne to attack her and leave her laid out. It looks like this will be Bayne's next feud. This was short but it did its job of creating a new feud that will likely play out over the next few weeks.

Result: Jay won

Grade: Incomplete

The ROH world title was on the line this week when Bandido defended the belt against Dralistico.

The Code of Honor was barely observed before they locked up and started trading holds and takedowns. Dralistico clearly saw this as a big opportunity because he was bringing his full energy to this match.

Whenever you get two lucha wrestlers in the ring together, the action is going to be fast and frenetic. These two worked together to put on a fun showcase of their skills.

Bandido scored the win with his patented 21plex. Since Rush and The Beast Mortos were not at ringside, this was a clean match with a good finish.

Result: Bandido defeated Dralistico

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

—Having the challenger pretend like he is going to leave the match was a weird choice.
—Doing a backflip off of someone else's chest is the kind of thing that looks impossible until you see a luchador do it and make it look easy.

LFI had its second match in a row when Rush took on AR Fox. El Toro Blanco immediately nailed Fox with a forearm to take control as soon as the bell rang.

He took Fox out of the ring and ran him into the barricade in a few different places. The ref tried to get him to bring it back into the ring, but Rush kept hitting knee strikes to the face.

Fox began to make a comeback once they got back into the ring, but it didn't last long. He just couldn't match the level of aggression the former ROH champion brought to the ring.

Rush got the victory with a running knee strike to end a short but energetic match.

Result: Rush defeated Fox

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

—Rush never misses with the entrance gear.
—Even though he felt unnecessary most of the time, it's weird seeing Rush without Jose by his side sometimes.
—Fox's diving crossbody over the top rope was perfect. He cleared the ropes easily and hit Rush dead center.

This week's main event saw Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler take on Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong. Stokely Hathaway was with his new clients at ringside.

All four of these men are known for their technical ability, but KOR stood out as the best striker in this match by a large margin. All four guys can throw a punch, but nobody hits a kick like O'Reilly.

The Paragon had control for most of the first half before the show went to a break. When we returned, FTR was beginning to mount more offense. They used the steel steps and ring apron to try to injure Roddy's leg.

This was a hard-fought match that helped solidify FTR's heel turn. They fell right back into their bully patterns whenever they were in control.

This was a solid main event from bell to bell. All four men brought a lot of energy to the match, but KOR was the standout. Unfortunately for him, FTR won with a spike piledriver to O'Reilly.

Adam Cole came out to help his friend, but when he was cornered, Daniel Garcia ran down to the ring with a crowbar to help drive FTR and Stokely away. Garcia grabbed a mic and said he is going to torment FTR until he gets his revenge.

Result: FTR defeated the Paragon

Grade: B+

Notable Moments and Observations

—Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta were shown attacking The Outrunners backstage.
—Wheeler has gotten much better at adding little things between moves. Facial expressions and trash talking are underrated skills in pro wrestling, but he has improved a lot in that area.
—KOR repeatedly looking for a tag but finding nobody in his corner was a good way to build some tension before FTR took over again.

This week’s episode of Collision being delayed by the NBA playoffs didn’t stop them from putting on a strong episode.

In terms of in-ring action, most of what we got was good. The couple of shorter matches were of little consequence, but a few bouts stood out.

Swerve and Christian opened the show with a good performance, Dralistico and Bandido had a fun lucha libre-style match, CRU and Top Flight added another chapter to their story, and Storm beat Aminata in an entertaining encounter. 

The best match of the night was the main event between FTR and The Paragon. They combined good storytelling with classic tag team wrestling to give us a great bout.

Grade: B