AEW Saturday Collision

[Mr_Danger]

The match was brilliant but  Danielson definitely has the look of a man who binge watched Vikings and now bases his entire identity around a historically inaccurate mid tier show. Runic tattoos are next.

Edited December 25, 2023 by Mr_Danger

[ReturnOfTheMack]

Whenever Sky Blue is on TV the sex pests come out in force on the Facebook pages.

This week made them worse. 

[Supremo]

Yes, son! Got genuinely emotional when Daddy Magic came in for the hug. Best thing they’ve ever done. Campaign starts now to change AEW to CCW and we just have rolling Continental Classic leagues throughout the year. Tag league should start in January. Imagine what that would do for the division!

There’s a real justice to the way Jericho milked these poor lads dry, then dropped them ice cold, only for them to claw it back through genuine talent and likability, whilst Jericho is left floundering, nothing going on, drunk arguing with people on Twitter.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Supremo

[LaGoosh]

These unscripted, post match promos in random locations need to be the norm going forwards. Drop the WWE style heavily produced interviews and just do these. They're fantastic and feel different in the way AEW should be. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by LaGoosh

[JLM]

Collision 16/12 

That's right, last week's Collision. I will catch up I swear, I need to before World's End as I might actually watch that one live. Also looking forward to going back and reading everyone's thoughts on this once I'm out of spoiler-jail.

Strong opener between Andrade and Claudio. Genuinely unexpected low blow from Claudio at the end, got a good chuckle out of me. Claudio has been great in this tournament. I was very cold on him for much of his WWE run. Always impressed with what he could do physically of course, but didn't engage with his work much beyond that. BCC Claudio has changed all that. This more sports-like presentation with an added ruthless bastard/bully streak is exactly how to present him. 

I've enjoyed the Abadon/Julia stuff so far. Two spooky characters and they've been doing the lights out HOB schtick, but weirdly not that spooky-bollocks a feud. Julia is intrigued by Abadon because she can't figure out what makes them tick. I'd have liked the announcers to play that up more, maybe suggesting Julia also feels a bit threatened by Abadon. Also babyface Abadon being bullied by people who don't understand them is slightly Frankenstein's monster-ish. Abadon is weird but is only beating the opponents who have presumably agreed to fight them. Just a zombie oddball going about their business who didn't ask for any of this, so I found Thunder Rosa making the save quite heartwarming.  

Bryan Keith/OC was a cracking match, elevated by how over BK is in Texas. Keith has good intensity and physical charisma about him, thought he was great in both of his matches at ROH Final Battle and again here. The sit up into the running jumping headbutt was incredibly goofy but somehow still looked good. I've loved the Continental Classic but one slight downside is that OC has been on the backburner for a bit here. Hope to see him get some more focus once it's over. 

Miro spinning his wheels again. I love his delivery and I still think the Redeemer character could be very good, but man I am tuning out when he turns up at the moment. 

FTR/HOB feud is the pits. Cash's promo had good material, quite rightly pointing out that Brody and Julia are killing it. Maybe Buddy and Malakai should be taking names and winning titles like them instead of printing out Dax's Facebook photos like a couple of fucking LOSERS. What the hell are they doing with this, honestly. 

Was not prepared for Kris Statlander's sexy Vincent Vega outfit. Good lord. I do my best not to put cringey/thirsty comments whenever I write about Statlander's matches, but this was unfair and I am allowing myself just this one. I've said this before about Willow and Stat, but I really appreciate how much they act like friends during the match, not just tag team partners. During fight they were not only making saves and doing double teams, but also chatting and high fiving and showing genuine concern for the eachother's wellbeing. Two of the most likeable pure babyfaces in wrestling and their chemistry together only amplifies it. Match was absolutely wild, a riot from start to finish, did not think they would go quite as nutty with it. Give the women a grudge to fight over and the time/bells and whistles the men are afforded regularly and they can deliver. Love to see it. The Abadon/Julia business, this match and then going straight into a thoroughly entertaining Toni Storm promo. OK Tony Khan, you're doing the thing, I see you doing the thing. 

Prince Nana is a treasure. I continue to hate Keith Lee's promo style. For one episode the other week he sounded all fired up and pissed off and I was on board, but guess it was an anomaly. 

Kingston/Garcia was outstanding. Once again having Daddy Magic on commentary for Garcia's matches has been such a great call. He was on the edge of his seat here, talking directly to Garcia for most of it and at some points I thought he might start crying. "This is our shot son!" He'll have me crying one of these days.

Garcia going in with strikes at the start and dominating, to everyone's surprise, was such an exciting start. Daddy Magic calling it out as a bad idea on commentary and then conceding that he might be wrong, Eddie looking a bit shell shocked himself after catching the chop to the throat. Eddie then shutting it down with the quick counter into the STO was perfect. Nobody saw it coming, me included. Not a characteristically Eddie Kingston move as he will typically stubbornly stay in these exchanges, sometimes to his own detriment. Here he went with the move of a more experienced veteran who has already been through a grueling tournament and had been caught off guard by a fired up young gun. It's the little touches with Eddie. After landing the move he paused on his knees for a second, you could see him weighing up his next move, calming himself down, catching his breath, still selling the throat injury. His facial expressions during his matches are as good as his promos. Also the bit later on where Danny hit him with a big saito suplex and Eddie tried to do his classic AJPW heavyweight no sell only for the knee to buckle on him. He was trying to power up and scream his way through it like he does, but Danny had done some real damage and he couldn't ignore it. Beautiful. Crowd was great for this one, too. Initially Eddie was their clear favourite but Garcia's defiance and determination are undeniable. Great moment when Eddie started putting Danny in his place in the second strike exchange and the crowd popped for the first set of machine gun chops, then ended up booing the second round of them because he'd gone past the ref's count and was being too much of a bully. Man this was so good. Whether my early prediction of Garcia over Brody comes true or not, this CC run should be the origin story for great, great things from Danny Garcia. Don't fuck this up Tony. 

Absolute slobberknocker between Brody and Danielson to finish. Easily Brody's best match of the tournament and yet another stellar showing from Danielson. Staying at my mum's for a few days over Christmas and trying to burn through my AEW backlog during the Eastenders/trash TV downtime. She walked in during this match and ended up watching the last 5 minutes of it, which is extremely unusual for her. Initially came in and said "is that real blood?" with a slightly dismissive chuckle as is the way whenever she remarks on pro wrestling. Then "ooh he is making contact with him with those kicks isn't he?" He certainly is, haha. But yeah, that's my rating: it got my mum to sit and watch wrestling for five minutes/10. Great job guys. 

What a great episode that was. Three belters from the CC, a good match with OC/BK, an excellent street fight, and multiple entertaining women's segments that all had a purpose to them. Winner. 

[JLM]

Collision 23/12

Danielson and Claudio was incredible. I love how they told the story of the draw all the way through the match. Mirror matching each other with the chain wrestling, escalating the intensity in sync with each other as they started to throw strikes in there. Danielson's face after the first uppercut from Claudio! Specific counters you'd only see from team mates who know each other so well;  Danielson escaping the giant swing and then Claudio catching a flying kick and turning it INTO the giant swing.

The growing desperation in Claudio as it went on and an ultra dramatic and heartbreaking closing stretch. I know there were complaints that draws weren't used often enough in this tournament, but what a great time to play that card. The perfect two guys to have a time limit draw. Team mates who know each other almost too well, Claudio not quite able to target his friend's eye as viciously as Andrade, or kick him in the balls to snatch the win, plus the result gives Claudio a great out for not qualifying. Claudio's run in this thing in terms of both booking and performances has been flawless. 

Acclaimed and Top Flight was good fun and an ideal switch in tempo and intensity after that opener. 

Loved Cage and Keith Lee. Felt like the Lee vs Dijakovic matches from PWG and NXT which I always enjoyed as well. Deceptively agile big lads trying to outdo each other. Great showcase for Cage's athleticism and outright freakish strength. After Shane Taylor and Keith Lee had a tedious plodfest at Final Battle, I said they should have got straight into the good shit and wrapped it up in about seven minutes. This match is what I was looking for. Keith Lee sounded pissed off and didn't dip into his thesaurus and sounded much much better again. Maybe he should do all of his promos when slightly gassed after a match, makes him less inclined to say "indubitably". 

Another fun promo from Toni Storm, though the highlight of this one for me was Mariah May saying "you ask a lot of questions don't you?" without moving her mouth or breaking her fake smile at all. 

Shayna Wayne sounded better than I thought she would. Hamming it up obviously, but hit the key points and handled the crowd surprisingly well. Stellar promo from Cage as per usual. Excited for this rematch! 

Quote

[Me on 27/11]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.

 Me on 03/12: Can't wait for Garcia to get the big win. He may have the same win/loss record as Jay Lethal but the difference in interest levels in their matches and how credible/strong they look in defeat has been night and day, and rightly so. I'm still calling Garcia to somehow beat Brody King.

 

Danny Garcia's CC run has been (Daddy) magic. Encapsulated beautifully by the lady opposite the hard cam with her sign saying "All I want for Christmas is for Daniel Garcia to win".  Me too buddy, me too. Brody was great here. He understood the assignment, played a complete arsehole bully. Garcia shaving his head to add the visual representation of his growth and transformation over the course of this tournament was a wonderful touch, Daddy Magic being the proudest Daddy on commentary once again; cannot praise his performance throughout this thing enough. Best "how 'bout it?" ever after the finish here. Daddy Magic shielding Danny from the post-match beatdown. Daddy Magic who, lest we forget, is a known blowhard but also a known coward in situations like this. Seeing him put himself in the line of fire like that for Danny warms the cockles of my heart. 

He lost almost every match and got a win at the end that means nothing to his chances of advancing. However, that win means everything for his story. The follow up will be crucial, but I will not hear Garcia's run in the CC described as anything other than a triumph. 

Dax's promo was the realest one I've heard from him in a while. "This feud suuuucks let's have the match already." He's not wrong. 

Quote

Me on 19/11/23: Skye Blue's spooky bollocks look will need some more work I think

OK I think she might have it now. The entrance visual Supremo posted is bloody brilliant; marvelous to see how far Julia and Skye Blue have come. Really strong entrances across the board here; Thunder Rosa looked the business and Abadon eating the santa hat was great too. Nice, simple TV tag match. The people want Thunder Rosa, build up to the hot tag, Thunder Rosa kicks ass. Did the job just fine. 

Amusing promo from Starks and Bill. The feud with the Golden Jets being sidelined is no great loss for them, but get them something good instead urgently please, they're far too good to be bit part players. 

Another cracker from Eddie to finish. Similar to Claudio, it's another opponent who is better than Eddie on paper in almost every aspect aside from sheer force of will. Great that they've really worked on establishing the figure-4/8 for Andrade too, so they could go back to Eddie's achilles knee as a threat. Favourite little Eddie Kingston touch in this one was after Andrade's spot where he misses the Yakuza kick and then hits the back elbow. Eddie throws his arm up on instinct to get his shoulder off the mat, then does it again two or three times, like he's doing it so instinctively he doesn't know if he's kicked out or not. 

Danielson coming out at the end, no need to bring back the "Eddie is a bum" sign because the look on his face was about 1000 times more effective. What. A. Prick. We'll see who's a bum on Wednesday you sonofabitch. Or, in my case, right now as I need to watch Dynamite before World's End. 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2023 by JLM

[Infinity Land]

Sting & Darby v. The Workhorsemen is the kind of match they can getaway with as a hot opener because its STING!!! The low stakes match formula is going to have dimishing returns coming up.

Eddie Kingston coming out recognised for each individual championship and only defending the one. They really have to sort out the presentation of the Continental Crown/Continental Championship/Triple Crown etc. Nearing the end of the C2 it was looking like the champion would be getting a bag of swag and carrying all 3 titles in an attempt to elevate them near World Title type status. Instead its a mid-card title confused by Eddie Kingston carrying around other championships. Not helped by the first defense being the 2nd match on the show against Trent. Both guys tried really hard to make this feel a big deal. Even having the Sue cameo appearances. Crowd did get into it at points and the match was great in isolation.

Now its the middle of the show with no C2 format to keep things interesting. Back to a special feature presentation of ROH and Dark level offerings.

An ROH World Tag Title Proving Ground Match against a thrown together tag team ?

The Cope Open against an ROH act ?

Skye Blue in a match with no stakes or storyline. Just tweaking the presentation ? *Since its the Women's division section. Where's Thunder Rosa? Brought back for a random tag which was about featuring Abadon's TBS title challenge more than the return. Could have done with a post-match here to give her and Skye something to do.

Claudio v. Everrett ? Which is only there to set-up Hangman v. Claudio on Dynamite next week ???

Random vignettes and backstage: HOOK setting his sights on Samoa Joe!!! Stat's Lizard! Random shout of Bullet Club stinks coming out of the Acclamed/BCG segment ?

House of Black v. FTR. Met the main event expectations. Nice to see Daniel Garcia's involvement to give a little added intrigue coming out of the show.

Really easy watch. Still has the feeling of a really great Rampage episode with an hour of Elevation sandwiched in between.

 

 

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I quite liked Griff back in the day, but he seems to have regressed on the mic. Not that he was every particularly strong there mind.

Stats lizard was a choice. And one I approved of!

[WyattSheepMask]

I honestly don’t know what was worse, that Kiera Hogan ducked a clothesline that was 15ft away or that Skye Blue throws slaps from further away than John Cleese running in Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[Lorne Malvo]

Some great action on that show. I really got into Trent vs Eddie and the commentary team touched on it enough times that it looks like Trent constantly coming up short might be going somewhere. He's always been a bit of a dick surrounded by his nicer Best Friends so I wouldn't mind seeing a heel run from him.

Your typical banger FTR main event. Garcia & FTR vs HOB will be a cracker. However, it's a sign of how muddled AEWs face/heel booking has been the past year when the heels who have insulted the faces family and are beating him up infront of his daughter are getting a huge House of Black chant. 

I've never been a massive Edge fan but I'm really enjoying his AEW run so far, his intensity is actually believable whereas in the past it's come across as corny. Also helps that his gear looks decent after he spent so long rocking those horrendous pyjama bottoms. The Cope Open (that name will never catch on) should lead to some good outings for the younger lads.

Can't wait for Hook vs Joe! 

Dyno lineup looks strong, with the exception of the Jericho storyline casting a dark cloud over everything.

[BomberPat]

Hook vs. Joe could be a really fun match with the right build; Hook looking strong in defeat is the sort of thing he needs right now, along with helping to give him some purpose. They can tie in how Taz was once Joe's mentor, so Hook knows all his tricks and his weaknesses, and make it feel like more than just a filler defence.

[Lorne Malvo]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

They can tie in how Taz was once Joe's mentor, so Hook knows all his tricks and his weaknesses, and make it feel like more than just a filler defence.

The little promo from Hook mentioned that he's had his eyes on Joe since he was growing up due to 'personal connections' so I think this is the route they're going. On paper it's a really interesting match.

[Hannibal Scorch]

11 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Some great action on that show. I really got into Trent vs Eddie and the commentary team touched on it enough times that it looks like Trent constantly coming up short might be going somewhere. He's always been a bit of a dick surrounded by his nicer Best Friends so I wouldn't mind seeing a heel run from him.

 

I got shot down earlier in another thread for suggesting a Trios run for best friends, I think a heel turn with him, chuck and Rocky turning their back on OC due to his success is possible and would be interesting 

[Loki]

Sting, in his 2149th match (so they said on commentary) threw a roundhouse kick.  I don't EVER remember seeing him throw a martial arts kick before. ?

[air_raid]

10 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I got shot down earlier in another thread for suggesting a Trios run for best friends,

Not really.

22 hours ago, RedRooster said:

You know I think you’re great Hannibal, but if we’re at the point where this is being touted as the next ‘Austin/Rock/Punk returns’ level moment, we should probably all quit watching wrestling now.

Context of the thread being "Shocking, Surprising, Unlikely" asking if there's anything left as surprising as Austin wrestling or Punk coming back. Not that the suggestion is bad, but it's not exactly on the level that the spirit of the thread is meant for.