AEW Saturday Collision

[tiger_rick]

I've seen many worse B level PPVs. I just think it's a shame AEW have gone down that route at all. Their model was absolutely fine with a handful of big PPVs a year and special feeling Dynamites to fill in gaps. Fucking content, content, content is killer.

I'm struggling with what they've got going on that is any better. I think their biggest problem might be that the big picture is really hard to see. I know that some unpredictability about who might be the next champion and when is great fun and there are a bunch of candidates in Moxley, Darby, Hangman, Swerve and Ospreay for starters. But they don't have those matches you can see on the horizon or those destination shows you can feel things building towards. WWE have Rock/Cody and Rock/Reigns which feel like they're inevitable and one will headline Mania and everything at the moment feels like they're playing with the pieces with that as the long game. Whether you want to watch it or not, you can see it coming.

AEW could put Hangman and Swerve back together and it would feel big again. They seem to be building to Hangman and White. There are some women's issues that aren't on this show but are bubbling under. There's nothing else with much of a big picture beyond the next Dynamite. They used to be awesome at that.

[TheBurningRed]

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

AEW could put Hangman and Swerve back together and it would feel big again

I want to see them back together again. As strange bedfellows. Give them a tag team title run. 

[organizedkaos]

It's possible the number of big shows in the last month might have slightly undercut this one... The rush around Danielson (that as others have pointed out is quite possibly due to circumstances beyond their control) means that what should be the super big match up between he and Mox still feels kinda cold because he's been off TV then fighting Nigel.

Main event complexity aside everything else is just coincendentally in not a very hot place.  The three way will be a banger i'm sure but this is the sort of card where Ospreay or Takeshita in some sort of "dream" match would add a lot of spice to the card, instead it's a rematch, a rematch of an incredible match but a rematch with added Ricochet which is probably subtraction by addition?

Then you've got a few of the AEW insists you want this in Jericho and Private Party. Again, those matches on another card wouldn't seem too bad, here they just take up more things that could be interesting or build to well.

They'll probably throw in some extra stuff on Dynamite that might at least liven things up a bit, there aren't really any fun party matches or inexplicable gimmick matches. For all the criticism some might throw at TK's booking those sort of matches (sans build) at least inject lots of energy and anticipation into the card

[BomberPat]

I'm sure Wrestledream will be fine, but it's the first AEW PPV in a while that has me asking, "what is this for?". Last year's was an Inoki tribute show, and while that didn't play into the booking too much, it at least meant it felt like it had some kind of purpose, and gave us a couple of Forbidden Door-lite matches. 

This time around, the main event and the triple threat are the only matches that don't feel like they could have just happened on Dynamite. Nobody's buying a PPV for the Young Bucks at their coldest in a foregone conclusion with Private Party, who were just shoehorned in with about a week's notice after they forgot they had been feuding with the BCC, or an equally cold Mariah May and Britt Baker, or Chris Jericho dragging Mark Briscoe into the vortex. Given Jericho is just rehashing feuds from years ago, I'm expecting this is him going on another run as ROH Champion, but with none of the storytelling possibilities that gave him last time.

Darby Allin and Brody King I just don't get. It will be good, but I don't see why it's happening, and given the only reason AEW could come up with was an open challenge, I don't think they know either. Why isn't Darby furious at the Blackpool Combat Club for screwing him out of his World Title shot? Why is he dicking around with open challenges rather than being singularly focused on making their lives hell? 

Obviously there's a week of TV to go, and still time for more matches to be added (though more matches is rarely the solution to anything), but as far as stories playing out on TV go, there's nothing here for Hangman Page and Bullet Club Gold, no Swerve or any other follow-up on MVP and Prince Nana. No Mercedes Moné. No Okada. Jamie Hayter returned two months ago and has yet to be back on PPV. 

Moxley vs. Danielson should be good, but I'm not sure it can deliver on what it needs to. When you start a feud with the heel trying to suffocate the babyface, where do you escalate from there? 

[The King of Old School]

16 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

 

Obviously there's a week of TV to go, and still time for more matches to be added (though more matches is rarely the solution to anything), but as far as stories playing out on TV go, there's nothing here for Hangman Page and Bullet Club Gold, no Swerve or any other follow-up on MVP and Prince Nana. No Mercedes Moné. No Okada. Jamie Hayter returned two months ago and has yet to be back on PPV. 

Moxley vs. Danielson should be good, but I'm not sure it can deliver on what it needs to. When you start a feud with the heel trying to suffocate the babyface, where do you escalate from there? 

Usually is AEW's answer unfortunately.

Fully expect another 6 matches at least to be added this week.

[LaGoosh]

Yeah it definitely feels like they've squandered all the stories/excitement coming out of All In/Out. All these stars and potential and just nothing coming out of it right now. 

I would change up almost all the Champions right now just to inject some fucking life into things.

But I wouldn't give Private Party the straps. The booking of this is a joke - no way I'm accepting those scrubs as Champs. Also Marc Quen is rubbish. Kassidy is pretty decent and should be doing something else.

Jamie Hayter is back, has killed Saraya - now what?

Kris Statlander is randomly a babyface now?

Britt Baker is back from shitting the bed and back at the top of the division?

Willow lost her big grudge match but is now straight into title contention?

Rush reformed LFI but hasn't been seen since.

Just lazy, weird and bad booking all over the place. And it's all SO EASY to fix. Infuriating. 

[Supremo]

I’ve been certain Moxley is winning and sending Bryan’s corpse to the retirement home, but the closer we get, the more it just doesn’t feel the right time or place. In my head, it was a great idea, doing the Ric Flair Retirement angle properly, where it’s self-imposed rather than a stipulation Vince McMahon forces upon you.

But now we’re likely coming to the end, the psychology’s a bit silly if he loses, isn’t it? You’re going to adhere to your own stipulation and retire because you lost to your former best friend, who suffocated you with a plastic bag? All honour and respect would go straight out the window. You’d just keep fighting him. It doesn’t work at all in a blood feud.

[LaGoosh]

If the main event was Danielson vs Darby I would definitely have been more interested in this PPV.

[Lorne Malvo]

59 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

 

Rush reformed LFI but hasn't been seen since.

 

This sums up their scattershot confused booking for me. Not to mention Rush was in the Don Callis Family for a cup of coffee about two weeks before this, and that never got revolved/explained.

And talking of the Don Callis Family, what's happened to Trent? 

Kayfabe-wise, the Family must be one of the worst factions in AEW history. People either join then never show up again (Trent), join then unjoin (Rush, Guevara) or join then lose a bunch (Takeshita, Fletcher). Fuck off Don!

[JLM]

Trent had neck surgery in August and they used OC hitting him with a wrench to write him off TV. Completely agreed on the scattershot booking and the crapness of the Callis family though. 

[tiger_rick]

The Callis act feels like Paul Heyman when he was working with Claudio and Mr Perfect's kid. Callis was pretty good as Kenny's mouthpiece when Kenny was freshly turned, hot and had great people to work with. Just like Heyman was good with Punk, Brock and Reigns. That leads people to think they're magicians who can get anything and anyone over and it's just not true. 

In the case of Callis, it's made worse by the fact it was clearly shit early and they've kept on going. The booking seems atrocious too. Just the placing of Takeshita and Ospreay in the group as heels or tweeners is insane.

[BomberPat]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

I’ve been certain Moxley is winning and sending Bryan’s corpse to the retirement home, but the closer we get, the more it just doesn’t feel the right time or place. In my head, it was a great idea, doing the Ric Flair Retirement angle properly, where it’s self-imposed rather than a stipulation Vince McMahon forces upon you.

But now we’re likely coming to the end, the psychology’s a bit silly if he loses, isn’t it? You’re going to adhere to your own stipulation and retire because you lost to your former best friend, who suffocated you with a plastic bag? All honour and respect would go straight out the window. You’d just keep fighting him. It doesn’t work at all in a blood feud.

Yeah, I'd been assuming Wrestledream is where Bryan packs it in even before the match was announced, but it's too early, surely? He needs to get some measure of revenge on Moxley first, and I hadn't even thought about the silliness of honouring a self-imposed stipulation against a guy who tried to murder you. I guess they could go with Bryan losing and then weasel their way around that stipulation by doing the rematch as an Unsanctioned Match, but that feels like the kind of bait and switch AEW try and avoid.

[Infinity Land]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Rush reformed LFI but hasn't been seen since.

I get that this won't go anywhere overall like every other Rush attempt, but its not like its been entirely dropped. And part of this seems more about Mortos than Rush. 

Happened on Collision Grand Slam. Collision at the weekend had the segment with Mortos & The Kingdom about it. 

[LaGoosh]

4 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

And it's all SO EASY to fix. Infuriating. 

Currently waiting for kid to fall asleep so here's my 5 minute fantasy booking dump to short term improve AEW:

- The Elite vs The Conglomeration feud (Daniel Garcia as the 4th man, eventually wins either Continental or TNT title)

- BCC vs House of Black mega violent feud.

- Jericho done as singles. Jericho/Bill do strictly comedy feuds with MXM and The Outrunners. 

- RUSH joins Blackpool Combat Club.

- International title scene booked like a modern day Smackdown 6 with Ospreay, Takeshita, Jay White, Fletcher, Mortos, Strong, Ricochet (yes that's 7)

- immediately start building up Hangman to be Champion by end of the year.

- clearly set the top women's stars and have them all interacting and fighting every episode. No more obvious pointless exhibition matches. Multi women tags with the top acts with stories crossing over and intersecting. Start building up the first women's Anarchy In The Arena for PPV by the end of the year.

- no more title challenger or whatever they're called matches.

- start building Mark Briscoe up to be a breakout singles guy.

- more Christian Cage in general. Add Kip Sabian to The Patriarchy. Christian plays him and Wayne off eachother for his love.

- start building The Gunns up to be the next Tag Champs long term.

 

Edited October 8, 2024 by LaGoosh

[Supremo]

Ignore.

 

Edited October 9, 2024 by Supremo