AEW Saturday Collision

[LaGoosh]

Absolutely tragic.

Andrade/Garcia was absolutely cracking. Garcia is really good at the story/character stuff in his matches, especially for his experience level. The match told a good tale: Garcia tried wrestling Andrade 50/50 on his level but Andrade outmatched him physically and skill wise with ease. Therefore Garcia had to up his aggression to stay in the match and look for the smallest missteps in Andrade's game and take advantage whenever a gap opened up. Andrade beat him solidly as he should've but Garcia didn't look bad from it. It felt like the story was Garcia is good but not quite good enough to hang with the top guys...yet.

[The King of Old School]

I really like Garcia.

Would love him to be in that continental tournament and at least get to the final.

Actually I think I would like a Garcia/Danielson final and have them revisit the whole sports entertainer/wrestler thing, with the pair linking up afterwards,

[Hannibal Scorch]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

A bad day for Colliders…

 

That was announced a while ago. But Kevin Kelly was supposed to step down after Wrestlekingdom. He also missed Collision this week for family commitments according to commentary.

[Supremo]

Looks like Collision is going head-to-head with Smackdown this week, since the pay per view is on Saturday. Surprised nobody has lost their minds stacking the shows or going nuts on Twitter yet.

[Cannibal Man]

adding to the Garcia praise, he's been great in PWG and i want more of the weird little bastard on telly

[Supremo]

This was a much better show for just doing a normal episode of Collision and accepting what will likely be a massacre in the ratings going head-to-head with Smackdown. A solid go-home show.

No denying the poor turnout though. Some of those wide shots of the crowd were shocking. Empty seat Jones. Hopefully they’ve sold a lot more tickets for the pay per view.

Great opening promo from Christian. Heel of the year. I haven’t watched Rampage yet but I’m praying he mixes it up with Trent’s mum somehow.

Yet more examples that House of Black are  a phenomenal act when they actually wrestle rather than spook about. All three had a good showing here.

Brian Cage having a quiet career revival recently. He’s been great. That mega superplex rules.

Unbelievably, they’ve managed save this Daniel Garcia thing. He was on the brink of irrelevancy when Jericho fucked him off without finishing his arc, but incredibly he’s managed to salvage his momentum and course correct. Real drama by the end of that opener. I was on the edge of my seat for that Sharpshooter spot. Damn you Miro! I need my boy to get his big win and do his victory dance!

Wardlow back on the gas! You love to see it! Brilliant squash. It doesn’t matter how many times they ruin his momentum, he just needs to start a new cycle, get jacked to fuck, then wreck someone. I’m back on hype train.

Forget your elaborate stunts or crazy head drops. The best spot in pro-wrestling right now is when Rush just goes mental and violently throws some poor twat into the barricades over and over again. Great, wild match with Dax. Extra points for Ricky Starks taking the piss out of FTR Bald throughout on commentary. Ladder match feels like an unnecessary risk to the participants, but if anyone can do something new and different in a ladder match it’s Rush in 2023, the new king of babyface violence.

Really good sit down with MJF. Talking about how he needs to keep his promise to Adam by defending the belts, as highlights of their friendship aired behind him? Yeah, Cole’s The Devil. I’m convinced of it and I cannot wait to watch this character have to deal with the ultimate betrayal. He’s the best character in wrestling. Even the way he’s turned calling Schiavone a fat old prick into a weird endearing bit that they both chuckle about. Majestic.

Two good shows, nobody lost their mind on Twitter and we didn’t have to suffer a shitty Undertaker appearance. Lovely stuff. 

Edited November 18, 2023 by Supremo

[69MeDon]

I think, last I saw, they'd sold about 10,000 or so for the PPV, so we can have an AEW show where the crowd isn't lit like they're at seedy donkey show somewhere @Supremo. Between tomorrow, Chicago on Wednesday, the PPV at the end of the year, and running the Prudential Centre and the Target Center in Jan, they have the opportunity to have some big crowds - if they can draw - to wipe the taste of the last few months of awful TV attendances out of the mouth.

But, yeah, I really enjoyed that epsiode of Collision. Three cracking matches, I thought, in the four-way and and Garcia vs Miro and the Rush vs Dax match. Say what you want about FTR Bald, the dude is an excellent wrestler and the more I see Rush - after being initially underwhelmed when he first showed up in AEW - the more I see what everyone else sees. AEW really does have a huge amount of potential in the "upper mid-card" for lack of a better term. Between the likes of Hangman, Swerve, Starks, Rush, man, I could go on, the future *should* be bright if they can just get the booking in order. The other thing this show demonstrated to me is that AEW can really be a variety show, in terms of the styles of wrestling on display. You can have that SoCal, PWG-style the likes of the Bucks and others do, but you can also have two dudes just beating the shit out of each other, or another two dudes doing some excellent mat stuff.

Still hate Kevin Kelly.

Someone PM me a link for Full Gear later. I'm broke.

Edited November 18, 2023 by 69MeDon

[LaGoosh]

This absolutely needs to be his catchphrase going forward. Definitely some magic there. Shout that shit in every promo he does, ending with "ANYONE CAN GET IT!". 

Genuinely feels like Hobbs has cracked it with this. You could almost feel it in the immediate crowd reaction.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by LaGoosh

[SuperBacon]

28 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

This absolutely needs to be his catchphrase going forward

Until they print it on a t-shirt and all the white fans start wearing it. 

[Hannibal Scorch]

The issue with the tapings last night @Supremo is Collision was at 5pm local time and LA traffic is a nightmare. Evidence of this was Rampage looked far better attended. But the PPV has sold well and should be a hot crowd. 
 

Absolutely fine episodes of TV leading into a PPV with a cracking go-home segment ending with the MJF/Joe handshake. I cannot wait for Full Gear.

[The Gaffer]

Yeah the ticket sales for this were quite decent apparently. It's a big ol' bowl though. I genuinely tried to turn up the brightness on my laptop multiple times even though it was at max! That's a Colliders special, right there. 

Decent show, though. This might have been happening for awhile because I background watch a lot of this stuff and am poor at keeping track of it, but they seem to be throwing a lot more talent onto it now. 

Kevin Kelly's still just the worst though. He's like a soundboard of himself that someone's pressing the buttons to at all the wrong times. "And uh...fans this week...have been sending me...your screenshots...of the...showing you've bought the PPV!" Just fuck off. 

[Supremo]

It’s a shame nobody watched, cares or will ever talk about this show, because it was a decent little episode. Loads of good promos I’d recommend seeking out, especially.

Not entirely sure if it was on Rampage or Collision, but that backstage promo with Daniel Garcia talking about his frustrations was excellent “I’m not in this tournament to eat pins!” Real underdog story to be told here. I’m hoping he goes a long way. Maybe have him win the whole thing. There’s something there with my boy.

Ricky Starks and Big Bill are a hoot together. What an act, bragging that they don’t even know each other that well and yet are still the best when they team up. “Bill! When’s my birthday!” “No idea!” Brilliant. Big Bill needs to be careful though. Touching on his previous issues and how he came back to be so fucking great? Lad’s gonna accidentally turn himself into a huge babyface. Love him.

Copeland screaming down the camera, challenging Christian for the TNT match after murdering his sons. Top stuff. Between this promo and the pay per view gear and face paint, Copeland has pulled it back. Also great to hear them set it up for Dynamite in less than a few weeks. Keep it going. A steady churn. You have a dream roster of infinite possibilities. Don’t go back to dragging everything out for six months to a year. The big question now though; do Edge and Christian actually have good chemistry against each other? I know it was a different time, but I don’t remember any of their matches in WWE being anything particularly special.

Makes no sense whatsoever how Dante Martin is already recovered. Feels like only yesterday his leg went Full Psycho Sid. Good for him though. These three could make a nice Trios team, if they ever wanted to actually try with that division again.

Bringing back the stupid House Rules now Julia is Champion? Tony, why are you the way that you are? If I knew this could happen I wouldn’t have supported her winning the belt! Dumb, dumb, dumb. I hate it.

Malakai Black dropping the CM Punk reference. Bet the company regretted that twenty minutes later.

I love Nigel McGuinness. Kevin Kelly continues to just sort of be there, but Big Nige’ has really found his feet as the heel-supporting wisecracker. He pops me all night long. The constant bashing of Bryan Danielson is really funny, too. They’re going to do it, aren’t they? McGuinness vs. Danielson at Wembley, provided Danielson isn’t dust by that point.

Two really fun Eddie Kingston promos, doing the Truman Show thing where he’s the only person aware that he’s trapped in a pro-wrestling TV show and has to follow the format and rules, then a great main event with Brodie King. Really hard hitting stuff, with a great upset finish. Exactly what I wanted. It’s early days, but I’m already enjoying the Continental Classic more than any tournament they’ve done before. Hopefully they continue doing this great little recap each week too, to keep track. Riccaboni rules!

 

[The King Of Swing]

Was Gravity hurt or is he just really, really shit? 

Yeah decent little show. 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

Not entirely sure if it was on Rampage or Collision, but that backstage promo with Daniel Garcia talking about his frustrations was excellent “I’m not in this tournament to eat pins!” Real underdog story to be told here. I’m hoping he goes a long way. Maybe have him win the whole thing. There’s something there with my boy.

When I thought about this whole tournament, I honestly think my preference would be for Daniel Garcia to win the whole thing, beating Moxley in the final. He's so obviously the Jay Lethal of the blue group, the designated job guy, but I think that's a massive misuse of him. He's got some charisma and a decent character arc so far, and winning his group the long way round could be a great story. Going through all those bigger names to win the thing could turn him into a star straight away and I think he'd undoutedly benefit from winning it more than anyone else in the whole tournament. He's also someone that could do really well with a touring belt, tapping people out and racking up wins across the world and developing. Let the dragonslayer loose!

[JLM]

Garcia vs Claudio was great. Garcia defiant and determined as all hell, Claudio playing the veteran bully brilliantly too. I loved Garcia kicking out after taking the big backbreaker at the start and then throwing a petulant little kick at Claudio afterwards. If Garcia is going to get a big win or two in this thing then it makes sense for him to lose here and build up to that. Going to be a lot of fun rooting for him in these matches.

Eddie Kingston casually firing off a quick promo about how he doesn't want to be cutting a promo that's better than most guys cutting promos when they actually do want to be cutting promos. The best. 

Dalton Castle is a worse father than Christian Cage. Where was he when his Boys were in peril. Killswitch is going to keep jump scaring me by chokeslamming people onto the apron isn't he? God damn I wince every time. 

Copeland coming out after one of The Boys had already been chokeslammed through a chair was pretty cold too. I didn't think Copeland quite pulled off the minimalist back stage guy handcam Mox/Eddie type promo. Maybe it was a bit jarring because for a lot of his WWE return the story was simply the real life one of him miraculously getting to do the thing he loves again, whereas here he's pretending to hate his friend and doing something more typically wrestling-y. I dunno, I just didn't quite buy it and it felt a little forced. Still on board for the feud but I'm giving Christian a lot of the credit for that so far.

Komander has improved a fair bit since arriving in AEW. Over the past few weeks he's looked much smoother and is fluid and fun to watch outside of his big rope walk party tricks. He also has much better gear and nicer masks than when he first arrived. Gravity, on the other hand, remains TERRIBLE. The gimmick, the outfit, the botches, the fact that seeing him makes me remember I haven't seen Bandido for ages. It's all bad. 

Oh good, House Rules. The most beloved and clearly defined stipulation returns. Maybe have Julia Hart do a quick pre-tape stating it's House Rules, maybe have Lady Frost respond and explain she's picked "no count outs" to remove one of the champion's advantages. Make a thing of it or don't bother. I would prefer don't bother. At least they didn't mess with the lights. Lady Frost does some fun stuff but this wasn't very good. Very rough looking bit at the end with the STO/trip spot. They're going to have to pick Julia's opponents carefully for these defenses to be good. She's progressed a lot but still needs a fair bit of carrying. They've done a lot right with Julia so far, so I hope this was a blip. 

Righteous and FTR was a fun little TV match. I enjoy FTR's long form 40 minute wankathons a lot, but it's cool to see them doing the speed run version of it just as effectively. Great promo from Big Bill. I suppose they're meant ot be heels for ragging on Kenny and attacking Jericho two on one, but it was a pure babyface promo from Bill and a very well earned one at that. His little look to the camera after dropping the Golden Girls line was hilarious. This team is going to be a tweener one at most I think; they're both too over and too likeable to be full heels. 

Much better promo from Keith Lee, more of this please. I've never particularly liked his smug/aloof promo style as a babyface. I think he goes for a Hank McCoy/Beast thing where he looks like a big grizzly bear but is actually an eloquent smart guy. That's neat but I would much rather hear him pissed off and ready to fight somebody. 

Hobbs sounded good again too, to the point where I don't think Callis needs to talk for him quite so much. Let him tell us he's big, black and jacked and that anybody can get it and then give us The People's Upper lip. It's very simple and, as @LaGoosh has already said, it is WORKING. Don't over think it lads. If I ever see that book again I swear to gawwwd. 

Good scrap in the main event. Did not expect Brody to win but was pleased to see him get on the board. Wondering if this frees him up to lose to Garcia somehow as Brody's now already on the board and has a statement win. Maybe I'm being optimistic there. 

Pretty good show. Solid set of matches with the tournament automatically adding a ton of interest to them. Strong promos from Eddie, Bill and Starks. Please don't fuck up Julia's title reign and PLEASE put Gravity in the bin. 

EDIT: Forgot to mention it was lovely to see Dante Martin back after that truly horrifying injury. I still can’t stand Action Andretti. Incredibly unlikeable babyface, bland look, bland wrestling. I would be open to the idea of him Sami Zayning it up. Call himself Madlad Martin, pretend he grew up with them and has been there the whole time. Or they could quietly get rid of him when his deal’s up. That works for me too. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by JLM