AEW Collision Results: Winners, Live Grades, Reaction and Highlights from July 8

Welcome to Bleacher Report's live coverage and recap of AEW Collision on July 8 from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

A huge match in the Owen Hart Cup Tournament took place on this show when CM Punk and Samoa Joe stepped into the ring for only their third singles encounter ever.

We also saw Ricky Starks face his former tag team partner, Powerhouse Hobbs.

Finally, Jay White and Juice Robinson faced FTR in a Tag Team Championship Eliminator match.

Let's take a look at everything that happened on the fourth episode of AEW Collision.

The show opened with some backstage promos that led to CM Punk coming out to the ring to grab a mic and speak his mind. He talked about the Owen Hart Cup Tournament and how none of this would be happening if it wasn't for Owen. He gave a great speech to get the show started. This was followed by a short video recapping Joe and Punk's history.

The first match of the night was between two former tag team partners who became bitter rivals. Hobbs had the QTV crew with him as he faced Starks in this semifinal bout.

Starks tried to corner Hobbs for some right hands to the head, but the big man quickly used his power to get himself out of that situation. They had a couple of moments that felt slightly miscalculated early on, but once they got their bearings, they found the chemistry they had during their initial feud again.

Every time it seemed like the former FTW champion was making a comeback, Hobbs would put him right back down on the mat with one move.

This match had a steady pace and was more about Hobbs methodically inflicting damage than trying to squeeze in as many moves as they could.

It helped make Starks look more like an underdog so whenever he would try to get the upper hand, the crowd would get behind him. It worked well because whenever he started to make some progress, the crowd popped.

Aubrey Edwards was too distracted by QT Marshall to see that Hobbs had the match won, so it gave Starks enough time to recover and hit a Spear for the win. Hobbs was irate and pushed Marshall to the mat when he tried to explain himself.

He delivered a spinebuster to Aaron Solow before Harley Cameron threw herself in front of QT to save him from Hobbs' wrath.

Winner: Ricky Starks

Grade: B-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Before the show began, Tony Khan announced that Willow was injured and would be unable to compete on this show against Athena. That match will take place on Rampage. 
• Nigel McGuinness did a great job recapping the history between Starks and Hobbs in a short amount of time. 
• The black and pink gear was a nice touch by Hobbs. 
• Starks is an underrated striker. He has a good punch, which is not something that can be said about every pro wrestler. 
• The tornado DDT Starks tried to hit did not work out well at all. It's unfortunate because that is one of his better signature moves. 

To help fill time to make up for the canceled Willow vs. Athena match, AEW booked Julia Hart to battle a local competitor named Bambi.

Hart was giving up a lot of size and power to her opponent, but she used some quickness to take her down before slamming her head into the mat with no regard for her wellbeing.

Hart won by submission in just a couple of minutes. This was short, but Hart looked great defeating a much larger competitor with relative ease.

Winner: Julia Hart

Grade: C

Notable Moments and Observations

• The commentators noted that Hart is on a 23-match win streak right now. 
• The crowd was quiet at first but you could hear more people getting into it as the match progressed. 
• Hart has one of the best entrances in all of AEW. 

The third match of the night featured Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler facing Jay White and Juice Robinson in a tag title eliminator match.

The crowd was heavily in favor of FTR, as expected. Harwood and Switchblade started for their teams with some trash talk and a standard lockup. They had a great exchange of takedowns and counters that earned a round of applause from the live crowd.

The crowd popped again when all four men came to a standoff and began fighting. The champs hit simultaneous German suplexes to send us into a break.

The champions had momentum and the crowd on their side for a long time before White helped turn the tide in his team's favor by attacking Wheeler to give Robinson some breathing room.

This was a great back-and-forth match that showcased both teams well. FTR looked like fighting champions and Bullet Club Gold looked like opportunistic heels. They were given three segments for this match, so they had plenty of time to tell a story.

After several close calls and near-falls, Robinson barely managed to get the pin on Harwood before Wheeler was able to break it up. This was outstanding and definitely worth taking the time to watch if you did not see the show live.

Winners: Bullet Club Gold

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• FTR might have the most perfect entrance music for their characters. 
• White is such a great heel. His mannerisms and body language all seem calculated to make you hate him, but he's so good at his job that it's hard to hate him at the same time. 
• Robinson almost didn't make it over when Wheeler used a monkey flip. He was fine, but it was almost a bad landing. 
• Harwood was not holding back with some of the chops he was using on Robinson. 
• This match likely got more time due to Athena vs. Willow being postponed. 

Scorpio Sky was back in action this week when he took on Action Andretti in singles competition.

The former TNT champion used his veteran experience to counter a lot of the moves Andretti tried, especially during the first couple of minutes.

Both men worked as babyfaces, but the crowd was definitely on Sky's side. Andretti wasn't being booed, but cheers could only really be heard during Sky's moments of offense.

The 25-year-old was able to gain the upper hand after a commercial break, but Sky blocked a moonsault with a pair of knees to regain control so he could hit the TKO for the win.

This was exactly the kind of match Sky needed for his return. He and Andretti had great chemistry and they put on a fun display if high-energy wrestling.

Winner: Scorpio Sky

Grade: B

Notable Moments and Observations

• It's too bad SCU isn't a thing anymore. That was such a fun group. 
• Andretti is so agile that he almost went too far when he kipped up to his feet. 
• Andretti's suicide dive was about as perfect as it gets. He made zero contact with the ropes when he flew between them. That takes a lot of precision. 
• Sky helping Andretti up and shaking his hand was a nice touch. 

The main event of the night was the Owen Hart tourney semifinal bout between longtime friends and rivals, Samoa Joe and CM Punk.

The Second City Savior was doing his best to avoid Joe's strikes early on by employing a stick-and-move strategy. It worked for a while and even made Joe get a little frustrated with each miss.

The story they were telling in this match was that Punk knew the strategies he used during their first three encounters in ROH didn't work, so he was trying different tactics. Unfortunately for him, Joe has seen it all.

Once the Samoan Submission Machine had him cornered, Punk suffered a barrage of short punches to the face that sent him down to the mat.

They paced themselves so each sequence became more and more competitive. When Joe countered the GTS and locked in the crossface, Punk really sold the possibility of him tapping out, but he was able to break free.

In a somewhat surprising but logical finish, Punk was able to win with a victory roll pinning combination instead of one of his finishers. Not only does this make sense based on their previous encounters, but it leaves room for a rematch on a bigger stage down the line.

Joe was clearly mad that he lost but extended his hand to Punk as a sign of respect. Punk shook it, but that allowed Joe to grab him in the Coquina Clutch to choke him out. FTR ran down to prevent Joe from using a steel chair. The show ended with Starks on the stage looking at Punk and FTR in the ring.

Winner: CM Punk

Grade: A-

Notable Moments and Observations

• Joe is one of the most intimidating men in the history of pro wrestling. Everything about him comes across as legit. 
• Punk has some Owen tribute shorts on for this match. It both referenced Owen and called back to his ROH ring gear. 
• They made quite a few references to their previous encounters throughout the match, but they didn't do it too much so it felt like a greatest hits of their past fights. 
• Joe's snap powerslam is a thing of beauty. 

Out of the four episodes of Collision we've had up to this point, this was arguably the best in terms of action and storytelling.

Starks got a nice win over Hobbs, Sky had a great showing in his return match against Andretti, Hart scored another win to extend her streak to 24, FTR and Bullet Club Gold put on a banger, and the show closed with another great chapter in the story of Punk and Joe.

It's hard to say what the match of the night was though. If you like storytelling, Punk vs. Joe is where it's at. If you like exciting in-ring action, then the tag match was probably your favorite.

AEW's newest show has established a slightly different vibe than Dynamite, which seems to be working in its favor. All in all, this was a great two hours of graps.

Grade: A-