JLM

Collision round up. Spoilered to try and keep this post even slightly manageable in length. I do appreciate reviewing the older shows might be screaming into the void a little, but I'm in the habit of putting some thoughts down after I watch the shows now. Also helps to break them up when I have a backlog and let them sit a little bit, so they don't all blur together. My hope is also that I can refer back to my own posts at the end of the year to remember what was good and actually nominate some stuff for the awards this time, rather than going "ohhh yeah that was good wasn't it?" reading everyone else's picks. Collision steadily got better as April went on. As @LaGoosh says it is in such a good place as the B Show right now. Good mix of snappy promos, reminders and smaller developments for the main ongoing stories and a consistently strong set of matches. Collision 06/04/24 Collision 14/04/24 Battle of the Belts 14/04/24 Collision 20/04/24 Copeland/Briscoe/Kingston vs Top Flight and Andretti was a cracking opener. Great choice to do the whole thing at 100mph, crowd red hot throughout, and it was immensely satisfying watching Action Andretti get smashed by everyone's finishing moves at the end. Delightful squash from Hobbs against an especially sorry looking jobber. POWERHOUSE HOBBS TO WIN THE IWGP TITLE ON DYNAMITE??? Probably not like. I have to be honest, I thought Jericho's promo about the FTW title match was good. I hate the direction, I would rather Hook be doing many other things as I've stated repeatedly, but Jericho's disingenous tone here (and how many fucking times he said 'The Learning Tree') were spot on. Acclaimed vs Gunns was great as well! Frantic pace, wall to wall shenanigans. Mind-boggling how they were able to time everything so well with the interferences and misdirections when the whole thing was done as a sprint. Best thing The Acclaimed have done in weeks, and it would be a throwback match against the Ass Boys wouldn't it? BCG will make fantastic unified trios champs, I hope those titles become relevant and we get belting Collision main events for them. Toni Storm promo was excellent. A lot more serious than the usual Timeless Toni promo, really cool to see she can do that whilst still playing this whacky character. Bunkhouse brawl was yet another belter on this show. Nigel was hilarious during this. His Clamdigger disclaimer, claiming Hobbs was not 100% in his fight with Moxley because he had a "match" earlier, he was relentless with it. Credit to this match and the very satisfying BCC post-match revenge that they were able to power through the ever-annoying "we want tables" chant. That chant is "What?"-esque to me at this point. They're putting on a barn burner here guys, shut up about bloody tables. That said, the crowd overall was brilliant throughout this episode, so I'll let them off this one time. Excellent go home promo from Danielson afterwards. Hirsch/Skye Blue was an OK little TV match with an unfortunate slip from Hirsch at the end. The big flipping German suplex type thing off the top from Hirsch looked devastating. Main event was incredible! Phenomenal six man tag, crowd once again red hot for the duration. Loved Pac being ready for the Bucks sneak attack at the start after Dynamite. I'm a sucker for little nods to previous matches like that. I also like how The Bucks do cowardice on Okada's behalf a lot of the time, like they'll pull him out of the ring by the legs to get him out of trouble etc. rather than him running away. But yeah, all six on fire in this one, amazing match to round off a near perfect episode of Collision.

Wrestlemania gave me one hell of a backlog. Still not up to Dynasty yet but almost there. Rampage round up: Rampage 05/04/24 Skipped Malakai Black vs Chris Daniels. Roddy vs London Lightning was loads of fun because the London, Ontario crowd really got behind their man. Similar to Jake Haeger in Oklahoma, it massively elevated the match and made it a surprise highlight of the show. She's been around for ages but, after watching ROH, Leyla Hirsch challenging Julia felt like an NXT call up. Serena Deeb vs Trish Adora was solid. I hope Deeb gets something to do soon, I'm a fan. Deeb should definitely keep using the Paradise Lock, it's a perfect fit for her. Appreciated Riccaboni namedropping Milano Collection AT. Saraya and Harley are having such a blast doing these Rampage skits. Those two taking the piss out of Alex Marvez while Zak Knight gurned in the background looking like an Aardman Animations character was quite a scene. He also did a promo. Main event was good stuff. Doing this elimination style instead of a fatal four way made it much better. I knew Danny Garcia was winning but the order was harder to call. Rare for me to credit Action Andretti with anything, but he and Garcia had great chemistry and the ending with them as the final two was very strong. Rampage 12/04/24 Pissed off Orange Cassidy was great, as was John Silver being total dickhead. The Chuck Taylor tease was good. I bought it. Best Friends break up is so sad. Leyla Hirsch/Julia Hart wasn't much of a match. Was hoping Hirsch would get a little flurry and throw some suplexes at least. Ah well. Cool Hand vs Zak Knight, the big match at last. This was good but it didn't have heat because nobody watches Rampage. A real shame as Cool Hand put in a great fiery performance and I have loved following this saga. Good main event. I was hoping Jay White doing his thing would make a Matt Sydal match more engaging for me and it did. Love me some Jay White. It sure was a Rampage alright. Rampage 20/04/24 Komander vs Isaiah Cassidy vs Lee Johnson vs Rob Van Dam is extremely Rampage-y. 4/20 elimination match on 4/20. Because RVD smokes weed, you see. I hope these four way elimination matches on Rampage continue, infinitely preferable to a fatal 4 way. This was fun. Crowd very hot for RVD, Isaiah and Quen being annoying dickheads to add more heat, cool to see Komander and RVD have a solo showdown at the end. They didn't quite nail everything but they were close enough and were trying some ambitious stuff. RVD's AEW appearances are a consistent delight. I love it. Lee Johnson was also present. Yuka Sakazaki vs Emi Sakura. Was so happy when I saw the graphic for this match, but it was ruined almost immediately by a horrendous looking accidental fall from the top rope to the floor which legit injured Sakazaki's leg. Should have stopped it there, but she seemed determined to walk it off and finish the thing. It did allow Sakura to show us again what a seasoned old pro she is though, throwing cans of Woo Energy about, teasing throwing them into the crowd and denying them, jaw jacking with the ref etc. It was awkward, but if Yuka was determined to continue it was still very quick thinking to buy her recovery time. A real shame and I hope Sakazaki is OK. Ruby and Cool Hand pregnancy announcement was just lovely. Main event was fine. I love Daddy Magic but I don't care about Kyle O'Reilly vs The Undisputed Kingdom AT ALL.

My stalkers travel in sync they on timers They be movin’ in herds, Gallimimus

I haven’t hit the worst I can do yet. I feel there is a depth these can still sink to. This is my truth now. Do not silence me.

Biters be stalkin’ Copying my voice like I’m Christopher Walken Please stop stalkin’ I don’t need that noise like cinema talkin’ You should stop stalkin’ Take your cue from me, that’s a tip, no chalkin’ At the pub stalkin’ Lookin’ into Stella like Stephen Hawking.

You’re really starting to sound like someone who doesn’t support are boys.

They be stalkin’ Challenging my faith like Richard Dawkins Fuck these stalkers Starin’ ‘cause I’m lookin’ like a snack, that’s Walkers Whole gang stalkin’ That’s a lot’o’mans I ain’t talkin ‘bout the Balkans. Bars for you there. Free of charge.

I wrote my own social media nostalgia poem a while ago. Most will be too scared to share or repost it but like if u agree. We set off for school in the morning We respected our teachers in class Everyone these days is vegan My lunch was a big bowl of glass I don't like change or progress I long for those rose-tinted days Nowadays people get all offended When we deny basic rights to the gays The kids now all play on the Fortnites We used to play down at the beach If you disagree with my transphobia You're attacking my freedom of speech I didn't like that advert Where the family had brown skin When will white people get on the Telly? So I feel like I can fit in? My parents both beat me daily It didn't do me any harm I share credit for both World War Wins Though I never took up arms I'm nostalgic for a time Which never really existed Things were better whenever that was, Now everything's PC and twisted My opinions are all being censored An oppressed and unheard straight white bloke. If anyone questions my world view. I let them all know they are woke. I wear my poppy with pride I bet someone out there's offended There's no evidence for this anywhere, But this is the year Christmas ended I read the Daily Mail To keep me scared and angry "Everyone's offended by everything!" I scream As I complain about the colour of that family. I voted for Boris and Brexit So desperate to leave the EU At least I was for those few months, When Nigel told lies on the news. I don't know too much about Covid, But it’s definitely young people's fault. They keep telling me I’m a gammon, When I say immigration should halt. Share if you agree with me That things were better then. I don't know when that was exactly But we need to get back there again.

I will try to come up with more, but RVD and Sabu vs Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki from ECW Heatwave 98 is a big one for me. It wasn’t the best work from any of the four involved but I thought Hayabusa was the coolest wrestler I had ever seen. He remains in my top 5 favourites of all time. Sent me down the tape trading route and led me to Toryumon, which I then watched religiously for a number of years, and more broadly got me into exploring Japanese wrestling as a whole.

Oh also, this is not my dog so apologies for veering off topic, but I got to meet and feed some tapirs the other week and it was a magical experience. I think at my core I’m a guy who appreciates a long snout. I should add that they don’t live in this little shed. They have a massive outdoor habitat, this is just where they come in to sleep if it’s cold, to eat and to do signings/meet and greets with fans.

Her use of emblazoned there is extremely cromulent.

Yeah at the end of her AEW run she had good matches with Kris Statlander which required a lot more than kick -> Jaded, but Statlander is awesome so it was hard to tell how much Jade had improved there too. I’m sure they’ll get her where she needs to be but yeah, even if she improves enough to be able to do a 25 minute epic I don’t think she ever needs to be doing that. I’d book her Lesnar style where it’s throwing bombs from the opening bell and it feels like it could end at any time.

Good to see Jade Cargill is booked for a house show this weekend. Hope she gets to do a lot of these. If she can get to the point where she can work a solid ten minute match consistently I don’t think she needs much more.

I assume after the dissolution of the JAS that Cool Hand will not be required to hand over the baby to Jericho so he can drain its life essence.

I had just assumed it was legit because I don’t believe Ruby is a good enough actress to fake the on screen chemistry they have.

Fucking hell that motion from the athletic commission is appalling. Absolutely gross.

ROH 11/04/24 Skipped: Action Andretti vs Isiah Cassidy. Good grief that's an unappealing match. Shane Taylor Promotions vs Jobbers, Nyla Rose vs Jobber, Caren Kartier vs CHristopher Daniels, Anna Jay vs jobber, Zak Knight vs jobber, Kyle fletcher vs Rhett Titus. I watched The Righteous kill jobbers because they do it with such panache, but other than that did not watch any of the matches. Lovely open to the show with Briscoe and Eddie all bsnged up after the supercard main event, talking about how they're gonna destroy House of Black at Dynasty. "We like each other and look what we just did to each other, what do you think we're gonna do to you?" Tremendous. Kingdom Promo with Wardlow. Taven and Bennett brag about how they beat The Infantry at Supercard all on their own. Wardlow interfered and won them that match, so he was giving them a lot of side eye. Is he finally going to start questioning the terrible, terrible career decisions he's made? He beat Joe and his next move is to help these scrubs defend the nothing tag titles. Come on buddy, you can work out what you need to do. I believe in you. Infantry promo. They're mad that Taven and Bennett didn't beat them at Supercard all on their own. They will bounce back. I cannot WAIT. Billie goes to meet her mum backstage at Supercard after winning the title. If you can power through Mrs. Starkz's acting, the ending made me laugh: https://x.com/DrainBamager/status/1776629309790359945 Bad acting aside I also thought this was a great addition to the Starkz/Athena story. Lexy interviews Lee Johnson. It's not good. He amost stuck the landing on it though. He said the match at Supercard was a win for him because he got to show what he can do and he got a big opportunity based off his hard work etc. He closes saying "Even though I didn't win the title, I didn't lose". Perfectly fine summary of his promo. Then he goes "I won.. in some way". He was so close and then he Jumpin' Jeff Farmered the ending. Kyle Fletcher's promo was better in delivery but the content was baffling. He says Lee Johnson made the feud personal when he made jibes about Fletcher not turning up to work. Fletcher explains the real life reason for that; that he was kicked out of the country and had to renew his visa. He gets a bit choked up talking about it. Made Lee Johnson (the babyface he just beat!) seem like a real asshole for using that against him. Dalton Castle promo celebrating his win. Paul Walter Hauser is rubbish and made the whole thing worse. Dalton was great as usual. Mariah May and Mina Shirakawa celebrate their respective wins at Supercard. Mina gives Mariah a big kiss and tells her she was amazing, Mariah is clearly blown away, like she's forgotten how it feels for someone to be this nice to her. Lovely to see the genuine chemistry between these two, and Shirakawa did the whole thing in English too. This was mostly a Supercard fall out round up show, only took about 10 minutes to watch because I skipped all the matches. More importantly though, ROH Youtube channel has put up the complete Johnny TV/Dalton Castle saga in one massive video!! They need to change the title of this video and put it on the AEW main channel.

He made me an instant fan at Hard to Kill. Absolutely cooked Top Dolla here:

Also found out that the legendary Jim Johnston has zero memory of writing the song:

Very authentic sounding 1950s doo wop, a love song about falling in love with being cool. I have a soft spot for this whole act if I’m honest.

ROH Supercard of Honor Zero hour. Skipped: Premier Athletes vs Tony Deppen/Rhett Titus/Adam Priest, Garrison/Carter vs Angelico/Serpentico The Beast Mortos vs Blake Christian Black Taurus returns at last! So happy about this. I think the new mask is an improvement. I want to see him vs every small flippy man on the roster immediately. Line them up. Thoroughly enjoyed this match. Christian might look like he smells of sour milk but he is consistently very good in-ring, and Taurus is the one of the best bases I have ever seen for flippy opponents. He can work just as fast as them, his offense looks fucking devastating against them, he enables them to do all of their best flippy things and also has the best counters to all flippy things. Komander coming out to challenge Mortos after the match made me very happy. If I don't get Mortos vs Jack Cartwheel on ROH TV I'll be very disappointed. Mariah May vs Momo Kohgo Solid match. Kohgo was a good fiery underdog, Mariah the bully. Not surprising that one of Mariah's better in-ring performances under the AEW banner would be against someone from Stardom. ROH TV Title: Lee Johnson vs Kyle Fletcher This was a pretty wild match. The fact that I didn't buy Johnson winning for a second detracted from it a bit though. As they continued to kick out of more and more improbable things, I found I hit near fall fatigue quite early. You can do this if a match could go either way or if people are very invested in the result/want the underdog to win etc. Here it felt more like two guys trying to have a five star epic when the stakes and circumstances didn't warrant it. Mina Shirakawa/Maika/Mei Seira vs AZM/Saya Kamitani/Tam Nakano This was a lot of fun. It wasn't mindblowing and I've seen better Stardom matches, but still a strong showcase match. AZM and Mei doing the high speed exchanges was lovely. Saya Kamitani was an incredibly sympathetic weak link for her team, she sells being hit like death and was hobbling around like Bayley at Wrestlemania as Shirakawa went to work destroying her leg. Shirakwa was the star of the show. Tonnes of charisma but also drew great sympthy for Kamitani as she bulled her into submission. I'm really glad the Stardon roster is appearing in AEW, they have some amazing talents but I just don't have the time to watch their shows. The Infantry vs The Kingdom Noooope. Billie Starkz vs Queen Aminata Starkz seemed a little bit off with her timing at the start of this. Got much better as it went on though, turned into a good back and forth. All of Aminata's offense looks fantastic; incredibly explosive and snappy with everything she does. The injury angle was very well done and it was a very Athena thing to do. I continue enjoy the development of the Billie Starkz character. I did feel a bit uneasy about them doing it with a neck injury and having the commentators go all serious voice with it though. Nothing wrong with the good old fake knee injury. It's a heel classic and it doesn't make the audience concerned that they've just witnessed a life changing injury to one of the performers. The swerve itself and the follow up/finish were great though and got a tremendous reaction. Aminata looked utterly devastated. Bullet Club Gold vs Monster Sauce and Minoru Suzuki Very unexpected surprise addition to the card. Suzuki was the highlight, calling Jay White a Young Boy, Austin Gunn an Ass Boy and generally delighting the crowd with his invincible Murder Grandpa schtick. Jay White was terrified of Suzuki for the whole match, so they built up Suzuki getting his hands on him. Alex Zayne is Lance Archer's regular tag partner in New Japan, he is the sauce to Archer’s monster. He does cool moves but he has no connection with the audience and has a horrendous look. An amusing, entertaining but unspectacular match. Dalton Castle vs John Television:: FIGHT WITHOUT HONOUR Tremendous video package for this match, highlighting one of the best feuds in wrestling that hardly anyone watched. Amazing entrance from Dalton. Brand new jump suit, substitute boys of all shapes and sizes, looking clean and well rested. Finally time to Smash Jonny TV. Johnny TV had some wild trash talk. Imagine being able to utter the line "you're mad 'cause your Boys are bear food, bitch!" and getting paid for it. I mostly loved this. Paul Walter Hauser making a surprise appearance and spending too much time prancing about to not much reaction was bad, but I enjoyed everything else about it. The long "Bring me a Boy" spot with all the spare boys running down was excellent. All building up to a giant superheavyweight boy not pulling off the suicide dive, only to be topped by Boy Cartwheel(!) hitting his beautiful space flying tiger drop. Taya getting carried off by The Boys after interfering throughout the match was also a great spot. Meltzer gave this one star and I've seen the reviewers on Cagematch absolutely seething over it too, but for me a completely silly comedy hardcore match was the only way to blow off this feud. The live crowd was behind Dalton, booing Johnny and Taya, they reacted big for all the major spots and the win for Dalton at the end felt like a well earned triumph for him. The Lee Johnson/Kyle Fletcher match got 4.5 stars but was way less fun than this to me. Star ratings are silly. ROH Women's Title: Athena vs Hikaru Shida Slightly clunky at the beginning until Athena settled nto attacking Shida's leg to take away her kicks. Built very well from there, a strong second half and a bloody brilliant closing stretch. The story of Athena doubting that she can beat Shida was well told throughout the match. After Shida's first really big kick out Athena looked like she was going to cry, a loud Shida chant started and Athena briefly looked around the audience almost pleading with them to chant for her instead. One great spot where an Athena powerbomb was countered into a 'rana over the ropes to the outside, but Athena held on and countered *that* into a powerbomb onto the floor. Match kicked into high gear after that and had some fantastic counters, teases and near falls. Took a little while to get going but ended up being very good. ROH World Title: Eddie Kingston vs Mark Briscoe Briscoe entering to Gimme back my bullets was a lovely touch. This was superb as you'd expect. I was hoping the crowd would be hotter for Briscoe though. Eddie worked slightly heel and the people were behind Briscoe, but both men had to work quite hard to keep them into it. But yeah, a great match regardless. Briscoe incredibly sympathetic as ever, bleeding buckets and refusing to die. Eddie wrestling a more reckless and violent style as promised. Wonderful celebration after the match, ROH wrestlers past and present, streamers, papa Briscoe and the family all in the ring. I know the ROH titles aren't seen as valuable and many want ROH scrapped entirely, but this clearly meant a lot to Mark Briscoe personally and that was heartwarming to see. He really, really deserves it. This was a good show. Not a bad match on the card and I thoroughly enjoyed the main event and Athena/Shida. Dalton vs John TV was fun for the handful of us who have followed this feud. Nothing hit the heights of the absolute best stuff on the previous Tony Khan ROH PPVs. Definitely the least essential one of these so far but I still had a good time.

ROH 28/03/24 Skipped Griff Garrison and Koal Qatar vs jobbers, Brandon Cutler and Colt Cabana vs Jobbers, Top Flight vs Jobbers, Blake Christian vs Kyle Fletcher. Standard PPV build angle to open. Athena kills a jobber, post-match jobber beatdown longer and more violent than usual, prompting Shida to run out and make the save. Very simple build for this title match but I'm looking forward to it. Lee Johnson had another go at a promo. It was not good. He was trying to liven up the delivery a bit but he is devastatingly dull. Nick Comoroto vs Dalton Castle Woooah Nick Comoroto looks wrong without a beard. He, like Dalton, has lost his mojo and is acting a bit weird. No Jacoby Watts this week but the commentators suggest Comoroto is still under his influence. Very short match, highlighted by Dalton hitting a massive deadlift german suplex. I love how Dalton's character continues to evolve. He's doing the full entrance with the single use disposable back up Boys and he has a fresh jumpsuit, but he also has soaking wet hair and goes into unhinged fits of rage at the slightest provocation. He is trying to pretend he is OK but he is definitely not OK. Post match Taya cut another hilarious promo. I love her in this feud so much. The actual on-screen explanation to write off The Boys is that Mr. and Mrs. TV lost them in the woods and they may have been eaten by bears. Incredible. Taya says that the original boys were Bad Boys because Dalton didn't raise them right, then Johnny TV jumps Dalton and the TVs kiss standing over his fallen body. If Dalton doesn't smash that man's face at Supercard of Honor there is no justice in this world. Wonderful video package for Briscoe/Kingston. Absolutely loved this: Kiera Hogan vs Diamante This was an OK match but Kiera Hogan is just not over as a babyface. Crickets for her every time. She has had a few more chances to speak recently on the plus side. The TV title has added something for the women in this division to aim for but they still need some stories and rivalries outside of that. Hopefully the increased promo time they've been getting will continue to help with that. JD Drake vs Evil Uno Was intrigued by this match up and I'm so glad I watched it. The crowd adores Uno, JD Drake responds with his textbook old school heel schtick and it means this ROH TV filler match actually has good heat throughout. They start off doing comedy but it ends up being a mad brawl with the two fat lads slapping and chopping and smashing into each other at a fast pace and with a ton of intensity. An unexpected highlight of the episode. Dalton stuff was great as always, Drake/Uno over-delivered massively, everything else entirely skippable. ROH 04/04/24 Skipped: The Infantry vs The Kingdom. I saw they actually did the proving ground thing where The Infantry got a title shot via a time limit draw against the champs, but I just do not care to watch these two teams fighting to a time limit draw. Anna Jay vs Jobber, Evil Uno vs Jobber, Top Flight/Andretti vs Jack Cartwheel/Chris Daniels/Matt Sydal. Lee Johnson/Kyle Fletcher face off backstage. Lee Johnson's delivery is so flat. It's bad. I appreciate that they're using ROH as developmental here and getting behind a guy. He's a good looking guy and is very capable in-ring, but he needs a persona or a confidence boost or something. It's so bad: Brilliant unhinged promo from Dalton. He is a peacock-phoenix hybrid. He will rise from the ashes like a PEANIX. He will destroy John TV at Supercard. Enjoyed Nick Comoroto vs Lee Johnson. I broke my streak of skipping Lee Johnson matches because I'm oddly intrigued by this Nick Comoroto/Jacoby Watts business. Also big man/little man. Never tire of it. Comoroto is such a big brutish oaf of a man. I feel like he's really leaning into it with this new character and I think it sets him apart on this roster. Jacoby Watts liked what he saw despite Johnson picking up another win for his streak. Later in the show they make it official. Watts definitely sounds the part: Serpentico HILARIOUSLY tricks Kawl Kawter into signing a contract for a match. Garrison/Carter vs Angelico/Serpentico at Supercard Zero Hour. Gross. Nyla Rose killed a jobber. Finished with a delightful Spicy Drop into cutter thing. Very slick promo video for the return of The Premier Athletes. Shida/Athena contract signing was a strong go home segment for both of the women's title matches at Supercard. Impressive that Shida can cut live promos entirely in English these days. Athena is scared of Shida, Shida knows it. Billie is full of self belief again and they keep sewing the seeds for her eventually taking another shot at Athena. Good little brawl to end it. Aminata's surprise headbutt spot looks great every time. Wonderful sitdown interview with Eddie and Mark Briscoe. Amazing that Supercard is on the anniversary of Jay Briscoe's first ROH World title win. Mark Briscoe doesn't need any more storyline motivation on top of that real one, so this was more about Eddie giving his side and it was excellent:

Odd criticism to say that his WWE promos have all been the same since he won. There was, quite justifiably, a massive amount of good will towards WWE, Cody and his title win after Wrestlemania. After the two year long chase and finally finishing The Story, I don't know what anyone expects him to do in the first few appearances after that, other than proudly proclaim that he is the champion and bask in the crowd's adoration. We'll see how he does in promos trying to heat up feuds against filler challengers etc. going forward as that will be a bigger test, but surely he deserves a bit of a grace period after Mania before people start turning on him. Everyone loves the underdog until they make it eh.

Canadians are far too polite to dispute it so I can’t see it causing any issues.