AEW Saturday Collision

[d-d-d-dAz]

A lot of people speculating about Edge currently, which I’m broadly fine with… but it feels a massive waste to bring him in and have him work Christian, which seems to be everyone’s prediction.

Christian’s having a great fresh run, I don’t think we need to pull him back into his past. Plus, the novelty of an Edge coming in would be him working people you’ve not seen before, surely?

If Edge does come in for a year, I reckon it’d be better to save Christian for his last programme (either as opponents or partners) and let him go out hugging his mate.

[RedRooster]

2 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Christian’s having a great fresh run, I don’t think we need to pull him back into his past. Plus, the novelty of an Edge coming in would be him working people you’ve not seen before, surely?

Maybe he needs to be a heel for that to work, though - which would be compatible with an association with Christian. 

The interesting fresh opponents for Edge are almost all babyfaces - Hangman Page, MJF, Adam Cole, Kenny Omega, Eddie Kingston, Sting, Darby, The Bucks, The Lucha Bros and FTR - for example. 

On a totally unrelated note, where the heck is Rush these days?

[d-d-d-dAz]

15 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

 

On a totally unrelated note, where the heck is Rush these days?

I’m assuming him and his mates are going to rescue Andrade from Jay White and the Bangers.

[LaGoosh]

21 hours ago, RedRooster said:

The company needs to do better at this, otherwise they’ll find themselves in a world of trouble down the line.

I think this is very accurate. AEW's genuine main eventers right now are basically MJF, Kenny Omega, Danielson and Moxley and except for MJF any or all of them could physically crumble to dust at any moment. They need to promote a few more guys to that top rung and soon. Luckily they have a really big selection of potential main eventers they can test out but at some point they do have to fully commit to getting someone over the line and keeping them there.

Between Dynamite and Collision it's been a tremendous and enjoyable week for great wrestling but I think it also has highlighted Khan's biggest strength and weakness. Khan is great at booking wrestling matches but he's not great at booking wrestling. This week and at Wrestledream there are a whole load of incredibly fucking exciting matches booked, but none of them have the momentum, emotion or anticipation around them that they should and that's really the main issue continually holding them back from greater success.

I enjoyed the episode. Danielson/Starks was an absolute brutal classic - nothing better than a Danielson babyface comeback. The TNT title match was put together perfectly and storywise had the best possible outcome. The Bang Bang Gang as a whole are brilliant must see viewing and feel on the cusp of being really huge. Jay White in particular is just an absolutely excellent wrestler. The way he sells complete exhaustion throughout his matches make every bout feel like an absolute war. He's so great - he should be the one they slowly build up to take the title from MJF. Worth noting that he's probably the most well protected guy on the roster at the moment - he hasn't been pinned or submitted since his debut. I liked HOOK and RVD together, feel like they should have a short fun run together. It'd be a good use of HOOK and also would free up Orange Cassidy to get back into something meaningful. 

 

[Merzbow]

Daniel Garcia should have had a constant and solid build nearer to the top after beating Danielson, but no he had to be dropped back down to comedy dancer in the background for Jericho. Is he great in that role? Sure, but he was right on the edge of something bigger. Typical AEW booking of younger guys.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I’m harping on, but the Orange Cassidy stuff at the minute is inexcusable.

Even if the tag team with Hook is the direction, the factory reset on his character after the International Title reign is madness.

He’s just… fine. All those battle wounds, the scars, the injuries… for nothing. After losing to Mox surely he’s held off TV for a bit before a triumphant return where everyone goes *fucking mental* as he saves someone from something.

[Infinity Land]

16 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

I’m harping on, but the Orange Cassidy stuff at the minute is inexcusable.

Even if the tag team with Hook is the direction, the factory reset on his character after the International Title reign is madness.

He’s just… fine. All those battle wounds, the scars, the injuries… for nothing. After losing to Mox surely he’s held off TV for a bit before a triumphant return where everyone goes *fucking mental* as he saves someone from something.

- massive bandage across his forehead and his in-ring promo that he's not going anywhere

- mid- sized bandage on his forehead for a backstage promo with HOOK that led to missing his title, and still being tired

- interaction with the former JAS to set up the trios match slightly smaller bandage

- comes out for the match. No forehead bandage, no athletic tape. Right hand still heavily taped up. HOOK & Statlander carry the load in the match. While on the apron he gets blindsided first by Hager, and then later by Menard. Spends most of the time selling those attacks, grimacing along to HOOK getting beatdown, or trying to get the crowd into the match.

Finally gets the hot tag. Gets through a very brief sequence when he's in control, but after the tope to the outside on Hager, both Menard and Parker stop him in his tracks leading to the triple suplex spot. Goes for the Orange Punch after that but immediately stopped again, ending with Parker's elbow drop onto his back where OC is fucked after that. It's HOOK and Stat that take control of the match. OC just gets the finishing blow with the Orange Punch. Which he sells the pain of because his hand's still not 100%. Despite barely being in the match he's shattered at the end.

Not sure where the factory reset is on a guy that could do it all by himself. Now knackered, still beat up and dependent on others getting him out of trouble.

[d-d-d-dAz]

4 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

- massive bandage across his forehead and his in-ring promo that he's not going anywhere

- mid- sized bandage on his forehead for a backstage promo with HOOK that led to missing his title, and still being tired

- interaction with the former JAS to set up the trios match slightly smaller bandage

- comes out for the match. No forehead bandage, no athletic tape. Right hand still heavily taped up. HOOK & Statlander carry the load in the match. While on the apron he gets blindsided first by Hager, and then later by Menard. Spends most of the time selling those attacks, grimacing along to HOOK getting beatdown, or trying to get the crowd into the match.

Finally gets the hot tag. Gets through a very brief sequence when he's in control, but after the tope to the outside on Hager, both Menard and Parker stop him in his tracks leading to the triple suplex spot. Goes for the Orange Punch after that but immediately stopped again, ending with Parker's elbow drop onto his back where OC is fucked after that. It's HOOK and Stat that take control of the match. OC just gets the finishing blow with the Orange Punch. Which he sells the pain of because his hand's still not 100%. Despite barely being in the match he's shattered at the end.

Not sure where the factory reset is on a guy that could do it all by himself. Now knackered, still beat up and dependent on others getting him out of trouble.

I didn’t read any of that from that match. RVD was blowing harder after a spin kick than OC was after their match.

I stand by that point that when you peak OC with that valiant, close but no cigar defeat against Mox, you have to follow up with something of equivalent heft and really lean into how this guy pushed himself to hell and back for that title.

I don’t think he should even be considering mid card tag team matches with comedy fodder, where even if there is a slight nod to his severe fatigue and injuries of 2 weeks ago - which, again, I didn’t read at all - he’s broadly fine and having a nice time.

To someone’s point earlier, they’re in desperate need of homegrown main eventers and yet for the most part when they get close, they then back out. Garcia is another good example, and I’m sure there are others.

Edited September 25, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[LaGoosh]

The biggest fuck up is Hangman. So bad they did it twice!

Won the title after an epic story then booked his reign as an afterthought and after he lost the title had nothing worthwhile for him for absolutely ages.

Then Mox bled buckets and damn near killed himself to get Hangman hot again and they booked him as an afterthought again straight after it and now they have to build him back up again! 

It's inexcusable. 

[BomberPat]

I'm just not sure Tony knows how to book a babyface champion, which is a killer for what generally aims to be a feel-good promotion. The chase is usually pretty good, but once they've won? Hangman disappeared into the midcard, and MJF is spending two straight pay-per-views in tag team matches against guys that barely make TV, after main eventing the biggest show in company history as champion. 

[Supremo]

Fair play to Tony. For as much as I moaned last week about Collision being invaded by ROH nobodies, it only took a week for me to take a shine to both The Workhorsemen and The Righteous. It probably helps that both teams feature a big, athletic fatty. Right up my street. It’s the Big Bill Rule, innit? When you have a roster that’s 85% small flippy guys, anyone who doesn’t fit that mould is a welcome addition.

It doesn’t let them off the hook though. They’ve got to stop assuming everyone watches everything and knows who everyone is. You already produce five to ten hours of TV a week. It should be considered a given that only maniacs have time for ROH too. Treat anyone coming from ROH as a brand new character, slowly introduce them, and stagger it so you aren’t flooding the show with a tonne of new guys at the same time.

For example, those vignettes they produced for The Righteous were really cool, like a modern-day Wyatt Family, but my first taste of them shouldn’t be a week away from them getting a title shot at the pay per view. It’s like Tony can never find the balance. Everything he books is either crazily rushed or presented at such a glacially slow pace that you forget it’s even happening. Miro’s stuff is particularly bad for how slow it unfolds. For a company producing so much content, with so much time to fill, it shouldn’t have taken them a whole pay per view cycle to just give CJ Perry a fucking name.

[RedRooster]

I really hope that the current influx of ROH title defences on AEW TV is leading up to a bunch of unification matches, with ROH Final Battle 2023 being exactly that. Khan has a habit of essentially using a title in place of a story. It's no coincidence, in my opinion, that the best era of AEW was when that didn't happen - there were barely any titles, so he was forced to book stories that were unrelated to the title scene. There are obvious examples - Cody/MJF, MJF/Jericho and The Elite vs. The Inner Circle; but then you have a bunch of less obvious feuds/stories that were really fun - Pac/Orange Cassidy, Men of The Year vs. Sting/Darby and Colt Cabana's gradual recruitment into The Dark Order, for example - none of which involved titles. 

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Won the title after an epic story then booked his reign as an afterthought and after he lost the title had nothing worthwhile for him for absolutely ages.

Then Mox bled buckets and damn near killed himself to get Hangman hot again and they booked him as an afterthought again straight after it and now they have to build him back up again! 

That Mox feud was exactly what he needed as champion, I think. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was the plan before Punk got hot-shotted into the title picture and Mox got tied up with him for a while.

The Hangman title reign was telling a story about him becoming more confident as champion - it felt like that needed a big, signature win, before plans presumably changed. With any story, how it finishes is always really important, and the story of Hangman gaining confidence in his reign and being able to hang with the legends got absolutely stamped down by a guy who made clear he wasn't in his league, and then badmouthed him for the next year.

The Mox feud as a showpiece in his reign, before losing it to... let's say MJF... would have made it seem like a much bigger deal.

There's still been good stuff with Hangman, and there's still a main eventer there. The Swerve storyline seems like it should be a really good thing for both of them. They seem like a really good fit.

[LaGoosh]

Let's not forget that the Mox feud was basically an accident. They faced eachother in a nothing tournament match and Hangman was shoot knocked out cold and the entire story built out of that incident. Without that there's no indication that a Mox/Hangman feud would have even happened. 

Anyway, God bless Bryan Danielson that wonderfully violent man:

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by LaGoosh

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Let's not forget that the Mox feud was basically an accident. They faced eachother in a nothing tournament match and Hangman was shoot knocked out cold and the entire story built out of that incident. Without that there's no indication that a Mox/Hangman feud would have even happened. 

I'm not saying it would have been the exact same feud. But a big, violent feud that decisively puts over Hangman? I'd be shocked if that wasn't the plan.

Edited September 25, 2023 by Chris B