AEW Saturday Collision

[Hannibal Scorch]

17 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Julius Creed is amazing. Assuming he doesn't do something stupid, he has future Wrestlemania main eventer written all over him. He's so impressive. 

 

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

A perfect example right here. 

 

[Loki]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

A perfect example right here. 

Ouch!  I'm never convinced there's a "safe" way to land on a ladder, but that's not it.  I assume he's meant to land flat back, but over-rotates. 

What I would say is, it's one bump on a PLE.  If there's a time to take a risk, perhaps it's a ladder match on PPV.  If you watch the tag they had on Raw, in fact every match I saw on Raw looked pretty safe.  No head drops, shoulder drops, unsighted rolling elbows.  NXT is a bit more Wild West than the two main brands for sure.  The era of Cole/Gargano/Ciampa in NXT was basically the same style as AEW.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Loki

[Infinity Land]

44 minutes ago, Loki said:

What I would say is, it's one bump on a PLE.  If there's a time to take a risk, perhaps it's a ladder match on PPV. 

That's not a PLE, that's just Tuesday Night NXT in the warehouse with Halloween Havoc night 2 on the label.

[Loki]

It's one of the NXT "Premier" Events right?  The point being they're only doing this a few times a year, Julius isn't bumping onto a ladder every Tuesday night?

It's a stupid bump anyway, even if you land right it's going to hurt.  The definition of "safely" now seems to include "won't immediately paralyse you, probably".

[BomberPat]

premium event or not, absolutely bonkers that NXT do the amount of gimmicked up ladder and weapon matches as they do, considering they're a developmental. Guys at the level of Kenny Omega, or the experience of PCO, I'm not going to wring my hands about big bumps or weapon spots because I think it's a safe assumption that they know the risks and have the clout to turn down any spots they're not comfortable with, but guys who have only been wrestling a couple of years at most being pressured into taking mad ladder bumps on the show that's supposed to be about teaching them how to work TV is mental. 

[Supremo]

Super late to watching this show again, but that main event was so great that even knowing the result, and hearing the acclaim it got, I was still on the hook for some of those near falls and was completely blown away.

Phenomenal match. Up there with the top tier TV matches in AEW’s history. Omega’s so fucking great. Didn’t even take the easy way out and have Don Callis factor directly into the finish. He gave Max a match of a life time and then still put him over relatively clean. Fantastic to see considering how unusually quiet and unmotivated  both Kenny and The Bucks have seemed recently. Hopefully a sign of things to come and they can start looking and acting like they give a shit again. You won. Punk has gone. Cheer the fuck up and contribute! Will someone remind The Bucks they won a fucking Tag Title shot already!

Considering some of the hand wringing I’d already read about the main event, I was also shocked at how wild it wasn’t. On the scale of Omega matches, I wouldn’t have even put this in the top half of nutcase performances. He’s done far worse. Plus, whenever anyone does fixate on the supposed dangers of Kenny Omega matches in this day and age, I always come back to what was the best response I read when everyone lost their minds after his Forbidden Door match with Ospreay. “Have you considered he might just be the best to ever do this, so knows exactly what he’s doing and is perhaps even working you into thinking it looks worse than it is?”

Other quick thoughts….

Has anything been said about Kenny Omega headlining Collision wearing Bret Hart colours? Wonder if that was a petty shot at Punk or a reference I don’t understand. I admire a good troll as much as anyone.

When they cut to Samoa Joe watching at the end of the main event it looked like a bead of sweat fell down his cheek. I like to imagine it was actually a tear of joy, imagining the match he could have with Omega. Get it booked Tony! Keep the dream match train going!

I want Abadon’s work schedule. Works once a year, every Halloween. Sweetest gig going. The match was dumb fun. I hope Abadon sticks around a bit more. Not that’s she’s blowaway in the ring or anything, but that’s a fun character they could do more with. I want to see Timeless Toni Storm react to her. Or Danhausen!

Has any match been teased so much, and yet anticipated by so few people, as Keith Lee and Shane Taylor? If anything, seeing clips of them made me want to just see them team together rather than fight. It’s not like Keith is setting the world on fire since splitting with Swerve. Maybe tags are the future for him.

Samoa Joe did a really funny walk when he came out of the curtain that I hope he keeps for the rest of his career. Can’t even explain why it made me laugh so much. Like a smug toddler strutting into McDonalds.

Cracking Claudio squash. Hopefully he main events Dynamite against Cassidy. That’s going to rule.

Lads like FTR, House of Black and Starks and Big Bill need to hurry up and fucking do something. I swear it’s been months now where Collision has featured a Nitro brawl that teases a load of six and eight man tags, and yet none of them ever materialise. At one point, Adam Copeland, Christian and the Blackpool Combat Club were amongst these brawls but they’ve gone on for so long that those guys have moved on! It reminds me of those videos you see of football hooligans shouting, “come on then!” at each other from across a train track, bouncing up and down, without ever actually having the fight. Shit or get off the pot, lads.

Thoughts and prayers to everyone who thought Malakai Black not wearing eye makeup that one week was a sign of him being less of a spooky idiot. Turns out he just forgot to bring the eye shadow that one time.

The trailer for World’s End, showing highlights of 2023, really hammered home that for as much as everyone nitpicks and complains in the micro sense, it’s still been an amazing year that would hold up against any other company at any other time. We’re all just spoilt brats.

Anyway, thinking about World’s End, I wonder if the plan is for MJF to eventually be exposed as the heel all along in the Adam Cole storyline, they go back to the idea that he’s going to take the title to WWE in 2024, so they do a play on the idea of Tony Khan needing to get the belt off him, resulting in the mad multi-man? Maybe I’m reaching, but now I’ve heard someone suggest Armageddon Six-Man Hell in a Cell I can’t stop thinking about it. Imagine AEW’s version of that, with the talent they have. Good lord.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Supremo

[Infinity Land]

4 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Has anything been said about Kenny Omega headlining Collision wearing Bret Hary colours? Wonder if that was a petty shot at Punk or a reference I don’t understand. I admire a good troll as much as anyone.

Halloween episode and a tribute to his main Street Fighter character. Omega and the Bucks and anime/computer game characters for big events isn't a new thing. Admittedly you could argue over the choice as the character has had different looks, 

 

[Infinity Land]

Rush!!

After that confrontation last week its going to be 8-man tag. Better than nothing.

RUSH, Preston Vance & FTR v. Starks, Big Bill, and House of Black Gates of Agony

Keep cashing those cheques House of Black. Pretty much guarantees spooky bollocks if they've bothered to turn up at all.

[The King Of Swing]

Honestly I've given trying to work out just what the fuck is going on with House of Black. 

[The King of Old School]

Is there anything more sure than Lance Archer winning a couple of squash matches before losing against anyone who has any kind of name value?

AEW's Kane.

[Merzbow]

Yeah, first thing I said way back after Hangman won the title was that he'd been Kane'd by being given Archer.

Isn't Japan still his number one priority? I think there's been genuine potential in him but if he's not got his mind on America full time.. at least he's a fun monster to watch once in a while.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Merzbow

[d-d-d-dAz]

Collision needs a big singles star to revolve around, it’s the only thing that separates it from being Rampage 2.0.

If Punk’s fired, Bryan’s injured and Edge doesn’t want to work Saturdays regularly, they need to have a word with Kenny, or do Mox’s murder hour. Base the entire show around a Mox/Kingston feud for a year.

Edited November 5, 2023 by d-d-d-dAz

[Supremo]

Same energy.

A grovelling on-air apology and promise to be better going forward.

Obviously Tony has read the criticisms, and it’s nice to see he’s at least attempting to listen and adjust, returning to his bread and butter, but it’s a bit fucking late, isn’t it? Sex pest’s out the bottle.

It’s not even that I subscribe to half the doom and gloom posting about AEW. For the most part, I still think the shows have been above average, with lots to enjoy. But there’s no defending signing Ric Flair. What a colossal own goal.

I can’t decide which is worse; did he believe that everything surrounding Ric had calmed down, meaning he could quietly sign him without any complaints, or did he know what the reaction would be, but signed him anyway just so they could ride in limos and watch Royal Rumble 92 together? Not a great look either way.

Good show though. Have some quick thoughts.

Brilliant, wild opening. Can’t remember ever seeing that before, guys scrapping down the ramp as the opening pyro went off. Madness that they wasted such a great spot on AR Fox though. Imagine Hangman doing that to Swerve at the start of Dynamite as retaliation for the home invasion! Perfect!

Swerve’s powerbomb-into-a-powerslam move giving Penta’s new F5-Jackhammer a run for its money. I love that I watch so much of this and yet guys still come up with new, cool moves.

It took Mark Briscoe less than a week to return to being one of the funniest wrestlers in the world. He was a hoot on this show. “Lexi, I cannot divulge that information!”

They never truly recovered from losing the Tag Titles earlier in the year, but god bless them. Somehow, The Acclaimed can still make any old shit work. Max Caster beaming at the MJF cameo video was great. Really funny they couldn’t get a clear shot of the trophy without exposing the empty arena though. I swear the camera man nearly broke his neck trying to shoot it whilst simultaneously keeping to the mandate of never airing empty seats. 

Jake Roberts creating a faction of weirdoes works for me. Anything that keeps Lance Archer appearing more regularly. Great little match with Darby. Big bloke murdering Darby always works. Jake did not look well though. Beetroot face. I’m not sure flying around the country is the best thing for his blood pressure right now.

Joe vs. Keith Lee! Return of the meat division!

Willow and Emi delivered again! Great chemistry.

I did not have Rush as the hyper-violent babyface on my 2023 bingo card, but here were are and I’m 100% in. He looked great here. Hasbro action figure physique, just wrecking fools. Hell yeah.

Anyway, highlight of the whole show was Nigel McGuinness’ brilliant joke.

“In Bryan's time off he's created a website for people recovering from orbital bone surgery..."  

"Really?"  

"Yeah, it's a site for sore eyes."

Edited November 5, 2023 by Supremo

[Infinity Land]

16 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Same energy.

A grovelling on-air apology and promise to be better going forward.

Obviously Tony has read the criticisms, and it’s nice to see he’s at least attempting to listen and adjust, returning to his bread and butter, but it’s a bit fucking late, isn’t it? Sex pest’s out the bottle.

 

I've seen some people say this is a reaction, but it honestly just looks like TK's usual booking and we happen to be getting a good week match wise. MJF v. Garcia was set-up on Wednesday when they filmed Rampage.

The token women's match to me is one of the worst bits of booking in that it's a returning Red Velvet and back from hiatus Julia Hart. Both could do with the win. It was said that Velvet has been backstage. Instead of doing promos or vignettes to hype or explain her absence. She's just randomly dropped into a match on Dynamite.

Then we're lucky that Swerve, Jay White, and Samoa Joe are getting decent opponents. Still foregone conclusions on winners.

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

Just to add to @Supremo’s excellent post, I cannot believe that opening. Back to the SNME Opening vignettes (woo hoo), but for AR fox to start attacking Swerve during it, the the regular opening, followed by them fighting down the ramp with the pyro going off. Never seen before and if it wasn’t a swerve idea to do that, I’ll be shocked. He is such an innovator who just gets wrestling. Strap a rocket to him!

Rest of the show was really good. I didn’t really understand why Dalton Castle came out to be a party pooper, but I don’t care because I love to see him and the boys. Was getting sleepy by the main event so I’m going to rewatch it again later, but seemed good.

After a few weeks of floundering, it does seem Collision is finding its grove again. Also, and I know it’s a small thing, but I do love that the opening video is always changed to the matches/wrestlers we’re seeing during the show, it’s a little detail that I think adds a lot. Unlike the impact move/symbol crash which worked so well with the GTS, not so much with Edge’s spear.