AEW Saturday Collision

[King Mal the Glorious]

I assume it's been explained on ROH, but is there a reason Maria isn't with Bennett and Taven anymore?

[JLM]

She’s been on a talent recruitment drive and now manages Cole Karter, Griff Garrison, Leyla Hirsch and (sort of) Rachel Ellering in ROH. 

They haven’t done much of a formal explanation as to why she no longer comes out with The Kingdom though. She has just started doing other things. Wondering if it’s mostly that Taven and Bennett have been and will be travelling a lot more going forward and she still wants the very light schedule she’s on. 

Edited January 9 by JLM

[Loki]

35 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

For every Rick Rude staying Rick Rude,

And although he was the same character, he did update his look!  What's more he looked different the same night on two separate channels.

For me it comes down to whether a look or a character/name has a value and fits with the new federation.  How far would El Generico have got in WWE?  Not nearly as far.  Whereas if Samoa Joe had come (back) to WWE as Joel Seanoa or as Umaga even, that would I think have lost the aura he'd built up as Samoa Joe.

The Kingdom are absolute bottom of the rung jobbers, and always have been.  This is a perfect moment to reinvent them as something, anything more than that.

On the other hand... shouting "Aaaadam" is the most over Roddy Strong has ever been in a long career, he'd be mad to throw that away.

[RedRooster]

15 minutes ago, Loki said:

On the other hand... shouting "Aaaadam" is the most over Roddy Strong has ever been in a long career, he'd be mad to throw that away.

But was he over because of the "Aaaaadam", or because of the obsessive best friend gimmick? Within the context of the gimmick, he was like a jealous child trying to get the attention of the popular kid. Outside of that, it's just shouting - to me, he's turned into a one note character; but after seeing his performance on Hey EW, I'm not sure he's capable of anything more than that. He doesn't seem to have the wit or timing to develop the character beyond what it was. That's not his fault, of course - but I certainly fall into the camp of thinking that he needs to move on and evolve in some way. 

Edited January 9 by RedRooster

[BomberPat]

19 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

But was he over because of the "Aaaaadam", or because of the obsessive best friend gimmick? Within the context of the gimmick, he was like a jealous child trying to get the attention of the popular kid. Outside of that, it's just shouting - to me, he's turned into a one note character; but after seeing his performance on Hey EW, I'm not sure he's capable of anything more than that. He doesn't seem to have the wit or timing to develop the character beyond what it was. That's not his fault, of course - but I certainly fall into the camp of thinking that he needs to move on and evolve in some way. 

that's the problem - the character taken as a whole was a revelation; from him throwing strops and tantrums, to over-selling the neck injury, and just being a petulant jealous child, that was drawing, in my opinion deserved, comparisons to Owen Hart as a comedy heel, and it was something I'd have never expected from Roderick Strong. Shouting "ADAAAAAM" made sense in the context of trying to get his friend's attention while Cole was busy with his new mate, but when he's starting interviews by shouting "RENEEEEEE" or just shouting Adam's name instead of saying it, it doesn't make any sense, it's just a catchphrase, and what made the character actually work has been reduced to its most obvious, but least logical, component.

The absolute killer is that he has merch for it, which means the Roderick Strong character is self-aware enough to monetise it, rather than it being an irritating character trait.

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

I hate that it became such a trope in WWE that you'd have somebody show up in NXT under one name, and then reveal what their new NXT name would be, without ever explaining why you'd give yourself an entirely new name as a professional athlete.

The thing that rankled me about NXT was the lack of consistency. They would bring in Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode and let them use the same names as those that their audience knew them as, and have them mixing it up with Hideo Itami and Kassius Ohno. I suppose we should just be grateful AJ Styles is still AJ Styles.

My favourite wonkyness about names, and I hope I'm not remembering this wrong..... didn't Nigel introduce himself to Kurt Angle on Impact with the words "I am currently known as Desmond Wolfe"? Struck me immediately as "I'm sorry, viewers. There's no legal impediment to them calling me Nigel McGuinness, but TNA have decided to give me a terrible name that's uniquely theirs. Because that's what WWE would do, and we have a giant inferiority complex. But you know who I am." Which is quite an inference to remember, if that's not what he said...

Edited January 9 by air_raid

[69MeDon]

Seems Collision, to some degree, has found itself searching for a point after the end of the C2. Outside of the main event (which was great), this show is completely skippable. Why is Hangman going 50/50 with JD Drake?

[LaGoosh]

Yeah Collision could definitely do with a shot in the arm. It's always a solid show but it really needs at least one hot story to heat things up. Though FTR/Garcia vs House of Black was really great and I'm loving this little story they've got going.

[HarmonicGenerator]

It’s felt like most of the matches the last two weeks have been AEW Star vs Someone From ROH and we’re meant to consider them equals. But they’re not, and I don’t. I think I enjoyed Battle Of The Belts more than Collision this week, which shouldn’t ever be the case.

[LaGoosh]

18 hours ago, 69MeDon said:

Why is Hangman going 50/50 with JD Drake?

Totally agree, Hangman should be smashing through guys on his level with ease. On the flipside though, the match was good and the Workhorsemen are a really good team - unfortunately they have a terrible gimmick. If they could sort that out they'd definitely be a team worth getting behind. 

[Infinity Land]

Its back in its Thunder era. Hampered a little further by BOTB taking some talent that otherwise could have been used in the main program. Might have Eddie Kingston on the show instead of Rampage if it wasn't for his NJPW commitments.

[WeeAl]

Collision as a concept is a bust. I feel they should have upgraded Rampage to 2 hours at first before adding a third TV show. Friday night is a poor night, but it's a better night than Saturday.

You could still record a 2 hour Rampage on the same night as Dynamite as well - 1 hour of in ring matches/promos taped after Dynamite - then backstage pieces totalling 20 mins for the TV show and you have your 2 hours when you add the adverts in. 

Collision comes across as a total B show. Drop it - keep ROH if you must but record it in a small building in the same town as Dynamite on the Tuesday or Thursday, with a totally separate roster - if your stuff gets over there then you graduate to Rampage and leave ROH behind, until you happen to be exiting stage left. 

[JLM]

12 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Friday night is a poor night, but it's a better night than Saturday.

 

Who are you to doubt El Tonjohn? 

[Supremo]

Not sure if Battle of the Belts discussion counts in this thread, so spoiler tagged just in case.
 

Spoiler

*whispers quietly*

That Jericho match at Battle of the Belts was brilliant fun.

Everything else still stands. They've handled the accusations horrendously. The cynical attempts of avoiding a fan backlash at the shows have been pathetic (pumped in cheers during that promo with Sammy? Doing a street fight almost exclusively in a street with no fans). And ultimately, Jericho is still on an output ratio of about 95% dogshit to 5% enjoyable, in desperate need of fucking off for at least six months, but yeah. That match was great. Those video-game-style backstage brawls always deliver in AEW. Big Bill flattening a car with a single bump was fantastic.

That’s me realising that if I want to keep up with everything there’s three hours of AEW television, a TNA pay per view and a New Japan pay per view, all on the same night.

 

Edited January 15 by Supremo

[JLM]

Collision 13/01

Appreciated the video package for Lee Moriarty as the Cope Open challenger. Can't remember if they did it for Griff Garrison because Griff Garrison segments do not stay in my brain. Unfortunately I cannot possibly care about Shane Taylor promotions. I feel like I've enjoyed Lee Moriarty matches in the past but he now has the ROH TV skip button stink all over him. Highlight of this was Copeland murdering Shane Taylor with a particularly satisfying spear on the outside. 

Mogul Embassy vs Archer/The Righteous... OK now this match up speaks to me. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Dutch from The Righteous is my guy. Great intensity, slightly unhinged, best Bossman slam in the biz, pleasingly fat. Ticks a lot of boxes. Also a big fan of all three Mogul Boys, especially Toa. Archer mixing it up with several other big dudes instead of tiny jobbers is a novel twist. First half of this was pretty ropey and they all seemd out of sync with each other. After the ad break it delivered more of what I was after. Dutch Bossman slamming Toa and busting out his crazy tope, Toa hitting a murderous pounce and screaming in everyone's faces. That sort of thing. Laughed when one of the commentators told Jake Roberts to hit a DDT. If he did that I'm not convinced he'd get back up. I feel like these six can have a better match than this and I hope they do it. 

Dustin Rhodes vs Willie Mack was a match on the show. I wasn't sure why it was there, but then he walked into a segment with Christian and my dead father alarm went off and I understood. 

Hangman and JD Drake was a cracking little match. JD Drake is very dependable, nice to see him get a substantial singles match like this. I didn't mind Hangman going even with him as there was a good amount of interference from Henry. Still looked like a strong win for Page essentially overcoming both of them. 

Deonna Purazzo vs Red Velvet was... OK I guess. I don't know why Red Velvet started working on Purazzo's arm. It looked like they were going to do Velvet's speed and kicks vs Purazzo's grappling/submissions, and they established that right from the start. Should have stuck with that, Purazzo is at her best when she's catching people with counters straight into koji clutches and arm bars. Finish looked brutal thanks to Velvet being so flexible, her arms were at a horrid looking angle. For both Purazzo and Mariah May's debuts why couldn't they have just beaten someone up for for 4 minutes and won? Get some of their good shit in and win in dominant fashion. Instead they were both somewhere between a match and a squash and didn't do a good job of being either. 

So to further examine the Red Velvet lore for a moment...
She is from straight out yo' mama's kitchen, but then when she came out she said "it's time to step into MY kitchen". She pointed to her wrist but she wasn't wearing a watch. I'm guessing she left the watch in my mama's kitchen, which means she can't keep time and her cakes are liable to burn. Unless of course, as has been speculated, she IS the cake, but then why is she wearing the apron? Cakes don't wear aprons. Also why, as a cake, would she be transferring from my mum's kitchen into her own kitchen? Perhaps to let herself cool before adding the icing. That is more character development than she has had since she returned. 

Hook squash was good. Always enjoy him throwing much larger dudes around just like his dad. Gradually getting more comfortable speaking too. Still keep it to a minimum as it suits him much better, but he can do it where necessary. 

Main event was stellar and elevated this episode above C-show quality singlehandedly. In contrast with Mark Briscoe, the post-CC follow up on Danny Garcia has been excellent so far. Keeping Daddy Magic on commentary for his matches is a very welcome move and he got to shine so much here. Ducking the kick and going into the sit down pose got a tremendous reaction, he also had a hot tag towards the end where he was John Wick for a moment, dispatching every motherfucker in his path in a variety of ways. I loved his absolutely terrible top rope splash too trying to fill in for the Powerplex spot. Got over excited and caught up in the moment and it nearly cost him everything, which is perfect for his character. 

FTR were so great in this one too. I bloody love FTR. Cash's gun incident and whatever Dax does that makes everyone think he's a knob aside, I absolutely adore their work and have done since their NXT run. They just get tag team wrestling, and tag team wrestling is bloody brilliant. I think it's also partly because their NXT bangers often came at times when tag team wrestling on the WWE main roster was an afterthought and they demonstrated that a belting tag match can headline a show. Too many wonderful twists and turns and moments in this match to continue listing them, but it was just brilliant and I was captivated and the closing stretch was magical. 

Edited January 16 by JLM