AEW: Dustin Rhodes Match Set for 2/8 AEW Collision Show, Tony Khan on His Approach for Working with Others & Collaborating with Talent to Formulate AEW Creative, More News

Feb 7, 2025

Dustin Rhodes Match Announced for Saturday’s AEW Collision Show

AEW announced one new match for the card of this Saturday’s AEW Collision show at the Fort Bend Epicenter in Rosenberg, Texas.

This new match announced was Dustin Rhodes vs. mystery opponent.

#AEWCollision
THIS SATURDAY!
Houston, TX
LIVE, 8pm ET/7pm CT on TNT + MAX!

Dustin Rhodes in Action This Saturday!

ROH World Tag Team + 6-Man Champ @dustinrhodes faces @the_mjf next Wednesday on AEW Dynamite, but THIS SATURDAY The Natural will be In Action LIVE on TNT + MAX! pic.twitter.com/KEHHoGBgWW
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) February 6, 2025

Current card for Feb. 8th AEW Collision show:

Three-way Trios match – Undisputed Kingdom (Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong, & Adam Cole) vs. Daniel Garcia & 2.0 (“Cool Hand Ang” Angelo Parker & “Daddy Magic” Matt Menard) vs. Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & The Infantry (Carlie Bravo & Capt. Shawn Dean))
Glamorous Exhibition match – “The Glamour” Mariah May vs. mystery opponent
Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe
Bandido vs. Bryan Keith
Penelope Ford vs. Thunder Rosa
Dustin Rhodes vs. mystery opponent
Harley Cameron concert
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and Buddy Matthews face-to-face segment

Tony Khan Comments on His Approach for Working with Others & Collaborating with Talent to Formulate AEW Creative

TV Insider held a recent interview with AEW CEO Tony Khan. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about his approach when it comes to him working with others and collaborating with talent to formulate creative for AEW shows.

“I love working with talented people. I really do enjoy the creative collaboration. It’s a really exciting time for AEW. We’ve been on a strong run of shows. We kicked off 2025 with a very successful debut on Max and had some great shows to launch this new era of simulcasting. I love pro wrestling so much. I’m very focused on the shows each week. Seeing some of our greatest stars return to the fold and adding some very exciting stories. There have been stars who have been there from the beginning and flourishing right now. In particular, the return of Kenny Omega. There was also Will Ospreay and Ricochet and many others. I think it’s a great mix of some of AEW’s greatest names ever. One of the great things about AEW is our wrestlers seizing an opportunity. I believe AEW is where the best wrestle. When they latch on to something special, it’s amazing to see how far they’ll take it.
I’m very impressed by both a long-time star and former AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland and Ricochet, who is a relative newcomer in AEW and arrived on a big stage at All In London. I offered a new opportunity for Ricochet in recent months and am so impressed how he has seized it. In November, when we announced the Continental Classic participants and upcoming matches, I made an opening for Ricochet. What he did with it was very impressive. I thought Ricochet had one of the strongest stories coming out of the Continental Classic with Swerve Strickland. There are a lot of times it’s possible to create specific opportunities for wrestlers to thrive, but it’s really a testament to the wrestlers and their talent when they seize those opportunities and score big. I love collaborating with talent and giving them those opportunities and trying to take the best ideas. My own ideas or suggestions that people make along the way, either the staff or wrestler’s themselves and trying to build the best version of it.”

AEW News & Notes

Former WWE ring announcer Samantha Irvin reportedly was in attendance backstage at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in College Park, Georgia, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that the reason for Irvin’s visit was to be in support for her husband Ricochet. Irvin reportedly had also attended Chris Jericho’s Jericho Cruise event this past weekend with Ricochet as well.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that several AEW talents and staff spoken to stated that the morale backstage at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show was “way up.” Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that the great live atmosphere and excited fans at the show helped contribute a lot with the energy level for the talents performing.

AEW recently released a new AEW Stories video featuring current TNT Champion Daniel Garcia.

AEW also recently released a new AEW Timelines video focusing on the Swerve Strickland vs. Ricochet rivalry in the company.

AEW’s Being The Elite series is currently rumored to be making its return within the near future based on the YouTube channel recently reverted from its Being The Dark Order name to its original Being The Elite name.

As noted before, AEW CEO Tony Khan had stated in a recent interview with TV Insider that AEW’s Grand Slam Australia event had always been planned to be a television special. Fightful Select reported that their sources spoken to within AEW when the event was initially announced had said the same thing about AEW’s actual plans for the show. AEW reportedly had never planned for the show to be a pay-per-view event as had been speculated online for some time.

Fightful Select also reported that their sources stated that AEW officials have had internal talks for a long time regarding potential plans for the Renegade Twins to be paired together with Mercedes Mone.

As noted before, Trent Beretta has been out of action for AEW since this past May’s Double or Nothing 2024 due to arm, shoulder, biceps, and neck related injuries and neck fusion surgery. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Beretta was in attendance backstage at recent AEW shows. No other details were given regarding Beretta’s current recovery status from his injuries.

MJF was recently involved in an online argument with former WWE referee Jimmy Korderas over MJF’s issues with Korderas’ criticisms of his promo segment with Dustin Rhodes that referenced Cody Rhodes during this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show. Korderas stated “Great job MJF of reminding your audience about the man who is on top in the other company!” MJF responded stating “His brother. My mentor. A guy who helped shape me early on in my career. Your old boss brainwashed you into believing we need to treat the fans like morons and pretend other Wrestling companies don’t exist You dumb ignorant bald grifting f*ck…respectfully.“

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Chris Jericho gave his thoughts about the origin of Big Bill and Bryan Keith joining his Learning Tree stable. Jericho stated “Now with the Learning Tree, Big Bill, what a great suggestion that was to work with him. It was Bryan Danielson’s suggestion for Big Bill and Tony’s suggestion for Bryan Keith. Didn’t even know Bryan Keith, same thing as Daniel Garcia, same thing as Sammy Guevara. Don’t know this guy, know nothing about it, alright. Now, it’s really cool to work with those guys because they’re coming into their own. Bryan Keith is just hilarious with just everything he says. Bill has really embraced this wise man following the guru of the Learning Tree. He’s just a killer and people chanting his name nightly, that’s something we’ve noticed as well. It’s just been really cool to work with all these people and they’re all getting more TV time and learning and working with major players. How is that a bad thing in any way, shape, or form?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)