New TNT Champion crowned on AEW Collision
Image: JJ Williams
Kyle Fletcher has finally won his first AEW title after defeating Dustin Rhodes for the TNT title on Thursday’s AEW Collision.
Held under street fight rules, Fletcher won the bloody affair after kicking out of a small package, hitting a running knee, and then landing his Protoplex brain buster for the win.
That followed a sequence in which Fletcher stabbed Rhodes’ right knee repeatedly with a screwdriver, sticking it in the knee at one point. At Rhodes is wont to do, however, he didn’t give up. After the match, Fletcher further inflicted damage on the knee, wrapping it around the ring post, and then slamming it with a chair.
It’s Fletcher’s first AEW title since debuting with the company in June 2022, then as a tag team wrestler. He and Mark Davis held the ROH Tag Team gold for 37 days in 2023, and then won the ROH TV title in December 2023, holding that title 196 days.
For Rhodes, it ends a brief run that began at July’s All In with his victory in a four-way match for the title vacated due to Adam Cole’s concussion. He had one successful defense, defeating Lee Moriarty last Saturday.