AEW Saturday Collision

[Supremo]

Reminder. MxM rule.

 

[JLM]

Collision 06/09/24

Tremendous opener from Briscoe and Archer. Mark Briscoe with the crimson mask fighting for his life is when he's at his best, and he was there from the opening bell for this one. One of Archer's best singles matches in ages too, he looked so dangerous and the whole match had a brilliant chaotic feel to it. Briscoe winning was almost a certainty but it felt like he was in peril for the whole thing. 

The ref running in and asking Jericho, still with his boot on the chair around Ishii's neck, "what happened?" was peak referee stupidity. They really are the thickest people in pro wrestling. As LaGoosh says, it's horrible that The Conglomeration are being sucked into The Vortex. Why can't he let us have nice things? 

GYV's finish looked better this time with Gibson doing a running clothesline for his bit. Done like that it also feels like they could land it spontaneously out of nowhere if Drake quickly moves into position behind the opponent for the leg sweep. I'm warming to it a little. Boulder is so terrible. I am all about gigantic fat guy powerhouse wrestlers but he is just so rubbish. God I hate the Iron Savages. FTR know what's up giving that dickhead a Shatter Machine. 

Angry Orange Cassidy promos are one of my favorite things in pro wrestling. I love how sparingly they're used so they always have a ton of impact. "I'm gonna punch Bryan Keith in the face for what he did." Excellent. Bryan Keith's Bad Apple theme is passable and sounds vaguely like Still Tippin', but his previous theme was secretly one of the best in the company so I am a bit sad it's gone. This result was even more predictable then Briscoe/Archer and I don't find Keith engaging, but the fantastic fired up performance from OC made this better than it should have been. Jericho said he's keeping the backpack until he gets his cash, but OC said the cash is in the backpack. Who cares though really. 

Best bit of Mone's promo was Lexy's reaction to it. Mone sounded OK though, same as Dynamite it was a passable delivery and that's about the best I'm hoping for from her promos. 

Lovely to see The Outrunners killing some jobbers instead of being the jobbers. Well deserved. 

WIllow/Stat sit down did the job. Statlander's best effort so far at sounding pissed off and getting grievances off her chest without being a big goof at the same time. That match will be superb.

Mortos vs Takeshita was every bit the slobberknocker I knew it would be. Glorious TV sprint match. Mortos is killing it with every appearance at the moment, easily one of my favourites on the roster, just never lets me down. Takeshita is one of the best on the planet right now and this felt like a continuation of his incredible G1 run. Takeshita in the Continental Classic this year is going to be absolutely outrageous. I refuse to believe there is any scenario where he isn't in it, and I cannot wait to see it. 

Saraya and Harley Cameron vs The Iiconics is my dream Rampage feud that I'll never get to see. 

Mariah May celebration at All Out! Going to call this one again: Mariah smashes a champagne bottle over Mina Shirakawa's head. 

Good back and forth match from Shida and Purazzo. Shida's been on fire lately, looked like a total bad ass fighting off Mone and Kamille after the match too. She won't win at the PPV, I just hope she doesn't fall back into obscurity after it. 

FTR/GYV on Collision next week. Yessss. 

Oh my god MXM popping up in the back of The Acclaimed promo might be my favorite MXM bit yet, though honestly I've loved every single thing they've done so far. "That's WROOONG!" made me laugh out loud. 

Main event was a belter. It lost a bit of steam shortly after it bled over into Rampage, but the first 20 minutes were stellar and it picked up again for the closing stretch. These all star multiman TV tags have been consistently strong for a while now, great way to get loads of big names on the card and keep multiple feuds ticking over at the same time. Loads of great pairings and heat building moments for All Out, Jack Perry being a right little shit. Claudio was my MVP for this one though, and I loved the finish with him catching Nick Jackson out of the air mid TK Driver. 

Top notch episode of Collision there. Loved it. 

 

Edited September 8, 2024 by JLM

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Have barely watched any AEW in the last year or so but I went out of my way to see Takeshita vs THE BEAST MORTOS at the weekend.

What a match. Both of these guys rule and I would rather see them almost all of the most pushed guys on the roster at present. 

[Supremo]

Chris Jericho putting the backpack over Orange Cassidy’s head a week after the plastic bag angle with Mox and Danielson. The man has no shame. There is nothing he will not leech on to.

Must be a nightmare sharing a company with him.

”Cool angle/segment/character/idea/concept you’ve got there. Would be a real shame if someone did a shitter version of it…”

Great to see them pushing The Outrunners on this show. Clock starts now on how Jericho can somehow copy their homework.

[Chili]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

Chris Jericho putting the backpack over Orange Cassidy’s head a week after the plastic bag angle with Mox and Danielson. The man has no shame. There is nothing he will not leech on to.

Must be a nightmare sharing a company with him.

”Cool angle/segment/character/idea/concept you’ve got there. Would be a real shame if someone did a shitter version of it…”

Great to see them pushing The Outrunners on this show. Clock starts now on how Jericho can somehow copy their homework.

I'm really tired today so I'm asking, is this a bit now?

[Hannibal Scorch]

During Collision this package was aired announcing Jericho won. But he didn’t. They have corrected this video but what happened? Either when they pre-recorded Collision they thought Jericho was going over so just recorded that and the result changed. Or did they record different versions and the wrong one played out? Either way, not a good look.

 

[LaGoosh]

Collision was fine but mostly skippable this week however Wheeler Yuta vs Anthony Henry was really good and well worth seeking out. Told a story I'm not sure I've ever seen in a wrestling match before - a wrestler coming in depressed, heartbroken and lifeless but slowly finding his inner fire as his opponent beats it into him. Cool stuff.

Edited September 17, 2024 by LaGoosh

[Lorne Malvo]

On 9/17/2024 at 8:01 AM, LaGoosh said:

Collision was fine but mostly skippable this week however Wheeler Yuta vs Anthony Henry was really good and well worth seeking out. Told a story I'm not sure I've ever seen in a wrestling match before - a wrestler coming in depressed, heartbroken and lifeless but slowly finding his inner fire as his opponent beats it into him. Cool stuff.

Wheeler Yuta is really good at getting character and story over during a match, it makes up for him not being the most charismatic or great on the mic. Him going from happy-go-lucky babyface to sadistic violent prick under the tutelage of the BCC played out entirely through in-ring action (and a good chunk of it on ROH) but was one of my favourite stories of the past few years. Hope this new direction gives him a bit of a boost.

[JLM]

Collision 14/09

Perry/Daniels was fine but didn't do the job it was meant to for me. There was a bit of blood, but Perry wasn't especially sadistic or vicious nor did he cheat. He just won a fairly competitive match clean against a veteran. Dunno, thought there was scope for Perry to get more heat out of this. A babyface has to steal his little bus at some point. 

Once again I am a huge fan of Mortos-for-hire, available to any heels in need of a beast, and to any match which needs to be made instantly much much better. Saraya and Harley should club together and see if he can get Jamie Hayter off their back. Of the many many things I love about The Conglomeration, this time I was thinking about what a win it's been for Kyle O'Reilly. He is at his best as a part of a faction and in tag team/multiman matches, but this allows him to do it without being anyone's lackey or sidekick. He's still doing his own thing but he's doing it in the company of like-minded non shitheads. He also gets to be a bit goofy and riff off the other guys in the group, but Briscoe can be the BIG personality and stop Kyle veering into overly try-hard territory and going from likeable to cringeworthy. It's such a great sweet spot for him. I still need that Mortos/O'Reilly singles match too. Every time they interact it makes me want to see it more. 

Anyway yeah, very entertaining match. Wonderful reception for Hologram and the crowd was red hot for the closing stretch, particularly the big sequence of dives ending with Briscoe launching off Mark Sterling. Lastly, I was literally just thinking to myself "is this the Conglomogram or the Hologrameration" or similar now that they've teamed up with him multiple times. Trust Mark Briscoe to confirm after the match "It's called HOLOGLOMERATIN', we conglomerate with anybody, as long as you ain't a shithead!". Fantastic. 

Orange Cassidy teaming with Satoshi Kojima in Arena Mexico is brilliant. I love the pro wrestling cinematic universe. Just counting down the days until he finds himself free of The Vortex. 

Stokeley researching tag teams there. Intriguing. 

Nige's "All I can say is I hope it improves her voice" was a very necessary line after the Sakazaki/May backstage thing. 

Yuta coming out with his solitary trios title belt was so sad. As LaGoosh mentioned, really strong in-ring storytelling from Yuta here. Going through the motions, a step behind Henry, no fire in his eyes. I *loved* him going for his rewind back into the ring spot on the bottom rope and just flopping to the floor instead. Utterly tragic. Credit to Henry for playing the bully very well, and a special mention to BEEF, whose reaction when Wheeler's fire returned was absolutely spot on. Felt genuinely sorry for him when he got booted in the face. Cracking stuff this. For two guys criticised for not being good promos and struggling with character work, we're definitely in a spot where Claudio vs Yuta could be a real emotional rollercoaster. Much like Yuta, Claudio gets the message across in-ring better than he does on the mic, and him in his "vs. Eddie Kingston" bully mode against a betrayed Yuta sounds excellent to me. 

Big fan of the Anna Jay Stardom vignette, though they should have used way more clips from the Xena match with the audio of those thunderous chops included. Best Anna Jay match ever, I'd have made it the main focus of the video. 

They actually DID put Komander and Private Party vs jobbers on the card for real this week. At least it was short. 

Nice to see Sakazaki back. I remember looking forward to her match with Emi Sakura only for it to go horribly wrong when she took a nasty fall. Sakura had to stall and mess about with some Woo Energy cans before they finished the match. Hadn't realised it was a broken leg though! Of course she finished the match anyway. Wrestlers are nuts. Nigel and Mariah fawning over each other in front of a disgusted Uncle Tony was fun. Some decent zingers from Mariah too, better than what she's had in her promos as champion. The match had a decent closing stretch and was a good match up on paper, with Deeb doing her bullying/submission stuff against an opponent who is "plucky underdog" personified. Unfortunately the crowd was flat and Sakazaki looked a bit off the pace after the long absence. 

Outrunners vignette was sensational. I'm still not clear if they're old enough to be members of that gym.

Action Andretti's tantrum certainly happened. You know what, I appreciate that they're trying different things with this very cold Top Flight/Rush/Andretti/Grey act. I still think they should keep Lio Rush and bin off the rest of them, but hey, maybe they can change my mind. Leila Grey calling out "Action" after him like that's a person's first name was very funny to me. 

Can't believe they replayed the Cage of Agony going "Gates... Open". It was painful enough the first time. BBG vs Cage of Agony was very average. These two teams can have a much better match than this and have done in the past. They struggled to keep the crowd on board tooo. Disappointing as I liked this a lot on paper. Even in front of this slightly disinterested crowd though, Juice Robinson was incredibly over. The guy is magic. 

Aminata squash was violent, I love all of her offense. Really happy to see she's getting into feuds on the main shows now, she needs to graduate from ROH. 

Why oh why doesn't Zach Gibson do a promo on his way to the ring? It's such easy heat and you're wasting one of his biggest strengths by not doing it. Was initially relieved to hear an FTR chant from this sleepy crowd, but once again they couldn't generate any sustained heat. It was a good match. Definitely the first in the series and not at the top level this pairing *could* produce, but man this was a tough crowd. They cheered or got involved when wrestlers specifically looked at them and asked them to, but were largely silent in between. Made the second half of this show quite tough to watch even though there was a lot of stuff I'd normally enjoy in there. On the plus side, that was another lovely moment for the youngest men alive to close the show. 

Edited September 20, 2024 by JLM

[LaGoosh]

12 hours ago, JLM said:

I still think they should keep Lio Rush and bin off the rest of them

I agree! Shane Taylor seems to have disappeared which is a shame but chuck Lio Rush in with Shane Taylor Promotions and you've got a good little squad of nasty, rocky trash talking bastards right there.

Top Flight and Andretti are going nowhere. Some time away to force them up develop and up their game is required.

And while we're talking about binning people off I'd bin off Bishop Kaun. He's such a non entity. Keep Toa Liona and Cage together and put them with Lance Archer and you've got a cool trio of old school wrasslin' monsters right there. Call them the Monster Squad or something. 

Edited September 21, 2024 by LaGoosh

[LaGoosh]

Is Darby Allin one of the best wrestlers ever? He genuinely never has a bad match. Even a nothing match against Evil Uno on a nothing episode of Collision was an absolute fucking banger and I highly recommend seeking it out. He's incredible. 

Speaking of which I dig Evil Uno's new Mankind attire and that he's fatter now suits him. He's underrated and watching him in this made me want to see an Evil Uno vs Dutch fatty face off.

[Lorne Malvo]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Is Darby Allin one of the best wrestlers ever? 

He's my second favourite AEW wrestler ever after Orange Cassidy.... But that just reminds me that I'm still waiting on that dream match!

[JLM]

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

 

Speaking of which I dig Evil Uno's new Mankind attire and that he's fatter now suits him. He's underrated and watching him in this made me want to see an Evil Uno vs Dutch fatty face off.

Oh that would be awesome. It's the sort of thing I desperately hope for when skimming through the wasteland of ROH on Honor Club undercards. I was reminded of how underrated Uno is earlier in the year when he and fellow underrated big lad JD Drake had a fatty face off singles match and it was bloody brilliant. It's rare for anything on the undercard of ROH TV episodes to stick in my memory, but that match was in March and it immediately sprung to mind. 

[Supremo]

Bless me Daddy Magic, for I have sinned. It has been many weeks since my last Collision.

As Raw and Smackdown have improved, becoming must-watch, Collision has gone the way of Rampage in recent weeks. I skip it, catch a couple of clips and half-read the results. But most importantly, I never feel like I've missed anything significant. Hardly anything is even mentioned on Dynamite, most weeks. Another non-canon forty minute Dax Harwood match is it, lads? Nah, you're alright.

Streets were saying this week's was worth a watch though, so I gave it a go and wasn't disappointed. Brilliant Plunder Brawl opener. Great all-action Ten Man Tag. The Outrunners running so wild that FTR have had to leech on to generate any kind of reaction. Cracking little match between Darby and Uno. Ace promo from Nigel and Schiavone. But most of all, Harley Cameron! She's hilarious!

"Rule Number Nine...Jamie Hayter...is a slag!"

No idea how long this has been going on, but Harley has completely revolutionised Saraya's act. They were a hoot here. Promote them to the proper show, ASAP!

Edited September 25, 2024 by Supremo

[JLM]

Yep, all hail the Queens of Rampage, I love it when they manage to get on the other shows as well. Harley is tremendous, and yeah, she is exactly the partner in crime Saraya needed. They're the act The Outcasts never managed to nail as they tried to play it a bit too seriously. Harley on her own in ROH and whenever she squeezes onto the other shows has been great as well, she is such a natural entertainer. The delivery on rule number 9 was flawless. Loved her eating the list of rules to hide the evidence even though she'd just read them all out on television too. 

Collision 21/09/24

Opening match was nuts! Didn't have the first quarter star power to hook in a TV audience like the legendary Chris Jericho though, so probably a bad call to put it here. As dull as I often find The Kingdom, Matt Taven has proven himself to be 100% down to clown in whacky plunder situations like this. Anyone remember his Texas Death match against OC at the beginning of the year? Easily the best thing he's done in AEW for me.  Bennett got stuck in here as well, fair play both of them. What a fun opener. The bulldog off the stage was probably my favourite bit completely took me by surprise like some of the stunts in the WIllow/Stat All Out match. 

Rocky Romero was utterly blessed to be able to deliver the line "Conglomerators, there's only one way to neutralise a shenanigator". What an exceptional collection of words. Have I ever mentioned that I love Mark Briscoe. 

The little Britt Baker teaser was cool. As underwhelming as the All In match was, she is still over and she is one of their stars, so I think it's something worth promoting ahead of time and it's worth presenting as a big deal. 

Loved the Uno/Darby face to face. Showing Mox's message has had an impact on Darby, reiterating that he intends to be world champion and clearly establishing rank between him and Uno. Really good stuff. 

Mark Sterling gets to cut a promo for every Premier Athletes match but Zack Gibson remains mic-less. Ridiculous. Six man tag was another excellent showcase for Hologram. Briscoe's hot tag also excellent. Premier Athletes need to save up their pennies and pay for Mortos again next time.

Lady Frost no longer billed from Imperial Iceland??? Kayfabe is truly dead. Bit of a nothing match. Mariah's reign has been a lot of nothing so far, just killing time until Mina's back. Sakazaki match should be good at least. Even as a filler challenger Yuka should be able to get the crowd behind her. 

Great to see Willow back. On board for Don Deonna Purazzo. Taya as a mouthy lackey is a great role for her. Would like 1-2 more goons though. Get Diamante mobbed up. 

MXM vs The Acclaimed feels like a torch that needs to be passed but sadly won't be. 

Uno vs Darby was a belter. Such an intense, dirty, scrappy match between two pissed off guys with a point to prove. Loving everything Darby is doing at the moment, both his performances and how he's being booked. He is defiance personified, he has a lot of real shit to stand up against and he's looking so god damn heroic doing it. This crowd was not the liveliest, but a "Darby" chant broke out as soon as his music hit. That happens every time he appears, even when he's in low stakes TV matches. It doesn't matter, the people are behind him 100%. Fans chanting for a wrestler is not something normally worth pointing out, but it's more that he gets it instead of any of the other typical chants. He'll be putting on an absolute banger against a Mortos or Takeshita or whoever else, and at the moments where in 9/10 matches the modern wrestling audience would be chanting "This is awesome" they're chanting "Darby" instead. That's the magic he has and it's exciting to see him on the path to the main event scene for real this time. He's up against it because he's always up against it, but he feels like he belongs more than ever before. 

Jarrett SEETHING and punctuating his promo with strap slaps was superb. One of those situations where tripping over what he wanted to say was fine because he was SO MAD. "I've had it with your deranged ass!" Tell him Double J. 

Really enjoyed Deeb vs Aminata. Deeb's best singles match in a while. Nice simple story of Deeb having the technique and experience advantage but Aminata bringing the rage and explosive offense. Great crowd heat for Aminata's comeback and fire up. Also gave her an out with her landing the big headbutt but Deeb rolling to the outside. This feud had a bit of a rocky start but they showed great chemistry here, up for seeing them do this again. 

Guevara vs Okada was highly unexpected. Not the Okada grand slam match of my dreams. The Guevara/Dustin tag run has been surprisingly wholesome and enjoyable though, helped along by the Arlington crowd when they first started it. 

Ten man tag, man what an awesome line up. What the hell happened to this RUSH/Callis family thing? I wasn't particularly excited about it as he shouldn't be anyone's lackey, but still, did Tony forget about it? Maybe Callis just hates Preston Vance and now he's had his satisfaction he no longer cares. Also, as much as everyone is quite rightly giving Mortos his props right now, I think the most impressive thing nobody talks about is that he's Roman Reigns as well. What a worker: 

Yet another stellar multiman tag match on AEW TV. They're just so good. Plenty of shine for Hook, the Black Taurus/Toro Blaco dream team up, lovely stuff. 

Excellent closing promo from Nigel and Uncle Tony. Definitely ended this show extremely pumped for Grand Slam! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2024 by JLM