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AEW Saturday Collision


Hannibal Scorch

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If the deal with these shows is essentially going to be ‘yeah, it’s somewhere between Rampage and Dark, but at least you get CM Punk’, then they need something meatier planned for Punk each week, and advertised well in advance.

I’m not sure Punk/Starks is it, especially not in a woolily branded ‘aftermath’ segment..

What happened to Samoa Joe? Shouldn’t Punk be more annoyed with him?

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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This show is in desperate need of a re-make of this, with CM Punk pushing Tony Khan or Tony Schiavone over and completely losing his rag. A major angle and/or heel turn as soon as fucking possible. Get the ball rolling on this dead on arrival show. Long, good matches isn’t going to cut it in 2023. They’re ten a penny.

I try my best to not complain too much about Punk because I remember rolling my eyes at the people who did this very thing during his first AEW run. People sulking three weeks in when he was still doing the, “happy to be there,” thing and hadn’t had a blood feud or cut a pipe bomb yet. If you knew Punk’s style, you knew that stuff was coming, which it did. Fast forward a few months and he was screaming into the camera, covered in blood, in the midst of one of the best feuds of all time with MJF.

There’s a huge difference between Dynamite in late 2021 and Collision in mid 2023 though. At the time, Dynamite was an established show, with loads of other interesting stuff going on. It could afford for Punk to find his feet and subtly build stuff. Here though, it’s a new show, with him as the feature star. There isn’t the time. If you slow burn the only thing that matters, when it’s surrounded by ice, there’s every chance the flame will just fizzle out entirely.

Failing that, just fly Danhausen in. Make him the Commissioner of Collision or something. Very nice. Very evil. Very mad with power as commissioner.

Edited by Supremo
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Another episode that will go down in history as okay. Nothing offensive, but nothing amazing either. There are definitely bright sparks here and there, and a handful of guys I'm happy to see getting the exposure they probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise, but this show is still screaming out for a big, bold direction beyond, "who's willing to work Phil this week?" Ideally, next week can be the big one, when MJF and Punk bump into each other, hopefully after MJF and Cole take the Tag belts from FTR.

Ian Riccaboni back for the second week! Result! The longer he sticks around the more obvious it will become that he needs to become a permanent fixture. He's great. Replace Nigel with Caprice and we'll have hit the jackpot.

The recent talk about AEW adopting WWE tropes has never been clearer than in that opening segment. A promo train of lads coming out, bickering, leading to an impromptu Tag Team main event? Bloody hell. It's like there's a scientific equation that dictates that after you produce four or more prime time hours of pro-wrestling TV you have to start incorporating the laziest format patterns possible. At the very least they should have sprinkled a bit of irony on top and flew Teddy Long in to announce the match, playa! The heel/babyface dynamics remain all over the shop, too. Ricky Starks is all in on being a heel again, which seems to have done his confidence the world of good. The Cody-level of pyro was hilarious. But at the same time, Punk is constantly dropping Bret Hart in 1997 lines to suggest we're not supposed to cheer him, either. So weird. Still, if nothing else this is the best Ricky Starks has looked in ages and more Christian Cage on my TV is always a plus. He's a hoot.

Another good showing from Bullet Club Gold. They've become a firm favourite, particularly Juice shouting and screaming like a maniac at every opportunity. Remember when he used to be the worst part of Dynamite and Rampage? Amazing.

Miro looked good again. Seems over, too. Give him something other than squashes already.

Unless I missed someone mentioning it, it blows my mind they didn't make a reference to Barbie vs Oppenheimer in the Trios Title match. The aesthetics were right there. Still, I'm over the fucking moon that they dropped the shitty lighting and crap Dealer's Choice thing. A huge improvement. Super interesting development with Daddy Ass teasing retirement, too. I fully expected Max and Anthony to just turn heel on him, so it's nice to be surprised. If this is the end for Billy Gunn, what a high to go out on. Imagine a time traveler telling you decades ago that Billy Gunn would retire in 2023, as a part of one of the hottest acts in the business, with the crowd begging him to change his mind. Brilliant.

Bad FTR promo. Am I supposed to like them? I don't. Dax especially has a face tailor made for a Double Clothesline.

Random ladder match announcement! There you go, Andrade. They might not have let you go back home to Triple H, but at least you can feel like you're there. Match will probably be great, but you've got to call a panicked NXT booking trope when you see it. Ratings slipping, Tony?

Main event was good, if ridiculously overlong. We can make that official; the first few weeks of this show has definitely confirmed that FTR and CM Punk were the type of fans who used to watch Raw with stopwatches, moaning if there wasn't enough wrestling on the wrestling show. They fucking love a long, drawn out, ridiculously indulgent match. What's better than one drawn out heat segment, leading to a hot tag? How about three!

So yeah. A fine show to pass the time, but still in desperate need of something big. Scorpio Sky watching from the Sky Box in your big tease in the main event? Fuck off.

Edited by Supremo
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This is almost like a Greek tragedy playing out in front of our eyes.

Punk spent most of his career in the big leagues moaning that he was being booked into mid-card oblivion, and now he’s forced into doing it to himself.

Just an abject waste of star power. It’s absolutely criminal.

This bag nonsense? Rubbish. Just make him full blown heel, get him in the gym, get him on Wednesdays, and move past this bullshit.

I love Luchasaurus as much as the next man, but come on.. this is CM Punk for fuck sake.

A million star points for the shithousery of Darby Allin calling Punk a pillar of the company and dying laughing.

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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I quite enjoyed that show, and Ian Riccaboni played a big part in that. He’s strides ahead of Kevin Kelly, and I hope he retains that position, and Kelly is just quietly exited. 

The main problem with Collision, and perhaps AEW as a whole right now, is the lack of hot stories outside of MJF/Cole. Although I enjoyed this show, if you take that storyline away there’s no real incentive to watch anything AEW is doing right now. I could watch Dynamite or Collision and enjoy it, but if I happened to skip a show, I’d imagine I’d not feel like I missed anything.

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On another point, AEW has the worst TV directors of any wrestling company in history I think. They miss everything.

Jay White literally signalled his finisher, it was clear as day what was coming, and they still cut away and missed it.

WWE might have shown the finish from 16 angles in 6 seconds, but you’d have at least seen it…

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I was listening to a podcast last week and they said that collision in the US really needs to find its feet and establish itself as a true B show rather than a glorified rampage before the fall as that's when real competition on Saturdays begin for them. 

This is the first week I've skipped. The amount of talent they have it's crazy that they can't generate a similar product to what raw and smackdown were in 99 through to the draft. 

I know they have a punk issue but having things roll onto collision from dynamite and/or having the elite air some pretapes.

I see collision as a 2 hour rampage if things don't improve 

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8 minutes ago, 2Xtreme_lives said:

I was listening to a podcast last week and they said that collision in the US really needs to find its feet and establish itself as a true B show rather than a glorified rampage before the fall as that's when real competition on Saturdays begin for them. 

This is the first week I've skipped. The amount of talent they have it's crazy that they can't generate a similar product to what raw and smackdown were in 99 through to the draft. 

I know they have a punk issue but having things roll onto collision from dynamite and/or having the elite air some pretapes.

I see collision as a 2 hour rampage if things don't improve 

I agree to a point, but I don’t think they have the ready made main event talent to support this split.

@Supremo - I think - made the point, that they’ve just dropped a somewhat hot Punk on an island surrounded by ice. But that’s all they can really do, as they can’t really spare any other main event talent at the minute.

Their main event roster is probably Punk, MJF, Kenny, Hangman, Moxley, Bryan and if you’re being generous Jericho. 
 

That’s both not a lot of people, and also half of them won’t work with Punk going on reports. And Collision doesn’t have the time to make genuine stars.

This Ricky Starks stuff is a diversion, they need to go Punk/Joe into Punk/MJF into Punk/Bryan and hope somewhere along the way the Wednesday cool kids have forgiven him as this shite isn’t sustainable.
 

 

Edited by d-d-d-dAz
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20 minutes ago, 2Xtreme_lives said:

 

I see collision as a 2 hour rampage if things don't improve 

Except that Rampage is established and hilarious at times and brilliant entertainment. Things that Collision mostly isn't....

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One sad thing about Collision is that they have another two hours of TV to fill, yet in classic AEW fashion there are still guys on the sidelines with huge upsides, doing fuck all. Tell Punk and FTR to grow up and work matches between 15 and 20 minutes, leaving extra time for Big Bill and Brian Cage to be the new Road Warriors, for Planet Jarrett to goof about and for Daddy Magic to cut a wild, coke-fuelled promo. What’s Danhausen doing whilst injured? Give me a five minute weekly update of him just living his weird little life. There’s loads more you can do beyond letting Punk and Dax decide their own time cues.

Bonus point; in checking the AEW roster page just now to make the above point, I noticed Luchasaurus is listed as TNT Champion but unlike all the other Champions, he doesn’t have his belt!

IMG_5550.thumb.jpeg.58a0af965e0c1baa1c80a30e27abdc1b.jpeg

Hilarious. I can completely imagine Christian behind the camera man, refusing to let him hold it.

Edited by Supremo
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Introducing a “nasty Nic” character month before Wembley. Get him an eastenders cameo 

Don’t let this be how daddy ass goes out. He deserves that Wembley pop for his work with the acclaimed the last year, 

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