AEW TV 2026 discussion

[SuperBacon]

Watched a Dynamite for maybe the second time ever and fairly enjoyed it, to be honest.

Couple of things though: Schiavones trainers, absolute state of them.

MJF still exactly the same character he's always been, so so boring. He is dreadful.

And is there always 400 title defences on each weekly show? Far too many lads.

[Kamran]

Coming up on Collision tonight:

Edited January 31 by Kamran

[HarmonicGenerator]

Okada being in such a nothing match surely means some progression in the Takeshita angle tonight?

 

[RedTwoster]

That was a fantastic Collision. I’d cancelled my Triller subscription, but this made me cancel my cancellation, can’t be doing without Collision on my Sunday mornings.

Firstly Briscoe/Ciampa was a really fun match, and I’m glad to see Briscoe drop the title. He’s started to grate on me quite a bit. Ciampa should turn heel sooner rather than later, but if he does please stay the fuck away from the Don Callis Family.

Okada/Priest went on far too long, I wish AEW wouldn’t do matches like that, when the outcome is so obvious.

If they haven’t already, AEW needs to sign Gabe Kidd. I know not everyone on here is a fan of his act, but I am and I think he’d bring much more to their roster than a returning Chris Jericho or AJ Styles.

The Rascalz had a good debut, from a wrestling perspective at least it gives the tag division a shot in the arm. The trios division too, I guess - even though I wish that would go away.

The Hair vs Hair match presumably explains why Yuta has been growing his hair out. I can’t imagine him bald at this point, and fair play to (presumably) Shafir for agreeing to do this. Then again, maybe it’s a red herring - you could imagine Stotm having a lot of fun as a character wearing increasingly elaborate wigs as her hair grows back. The Mina factor is the one thing that gives me pause for thought.

I was surprised that the tag title match main evented, but it’s a real vote of confidence in all four women to deliver, which I thought they did. Harley Cameron and Julia Hart have progressed significantly, Willow was already great and while the jury is still out on Skye Blue, she was decent here. I’d say this was a nice counterpoint to a handmaid’s tale-themed women’s royal rumble, but AEW still had to main event a PPV with a women’s match, so I won’t go that far. 2026 should be that year, though. It’s shocking that Toni Storm, one of the top stars in AEW if not THE top star, has never been in that position.

All in all though, this was great fun. I skipped the Rumble last night, but I can’t imagine I’d have felt as energised after watching that show as I did Collision. Thanks for not phoning it in, AEW.

[LaGoosh]

1 minute ago, RedTwoster said:

fair play to (presumably) Shafir for agreeing to do this

I think it's only the person who gets pinned loses their hair rather than the team. Shafir could probably pull off a skinhead though to be fair.

[RedTwoster]

3 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think it's only the person who gets pinned loses their hair rather than the team. Shafir could probably pull off a skinhead though to be fair.

Ahhh right, I missed that. Makes sense, I’d assumed they both would - given the way they present Shafir, a skinhead look would make her look even more intimidating rather than ridiculous- you could see a situation in which she grabs the clippers and shaves her own head looking utterly deranged in the process. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

21 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Okada being in such a nothing match surely means some progression in the Takeshita angle tonight?

 

Never mind, my mistake

[Supremo]

Eddie Kingston hanging out with The Rascalz! Absolutely gutting to see. A real sense of, “can I bring my mate? He’s sound,” and then the mates are these annoying pricks, making shit jokes about smoking weed and endlessly spamming that stupid taunt. I swear even Mercedes Mone would take the piss out of how often they were spamming it. Good wrestlers. Awful characters.

Mad TLC matches aside, that’s the most I’ve enjoyed Tomasso Ciampa in years. Great match with Mark Briscoe. Great moment for him to win the belt in his first match. Instantly excited about him defending against Kyle Fletcher. Good stuff. To go from loser DX cosplayer, stuck in the Smackdown Tag Vortex, to this? Never take for granted how great it is having two mainstream companies. Join us, AJ!

Fully expecting Yuta to get shaved bald but wouldn’t put it past any of them to give it a go. Toni’s so dedicated to the madness, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if she gets a number one all over just to feed more craziness into the character.

An enjoyable Collision. Would Collide again.

Edited February 1 by Supremo

[BomberPat]

Yeah, I think the beauty of that Hair vs. Hair match is that your first instinct is that it will be Yuta, but the more you think about it, the more all of them make sense, and actually Yuta might be the least interesting.

Marina Shafir with a shaved head would look terrifying, and if there's ever going to be either an end or a significant change to the Death Riders, then changing up the look of one of the main players is a good way to get there. Orange Cassidy wouldn't be the most narratively satisfying, but he hasn't seriously changed his look since he started doing this gimmick, and I can just visualise him sitting perfectly still doing his thumbs-up while he gets his head shaved, and then weeks of him badly wearing shit wigs or hats in a half-arsed effort to hide it. Toni Storm, though? Getting her head shaved, in Australia? Selling it as a complete mental breakdown, and then spending the following weeks in increasingly elaborate wigs until she finally tears one off to reveal a shaved head as she calls for a Deathmatch with Marina Shafir to get her revenge? Book it, Tony!

In fact, the ending I'm going to predict now is that Orange Cassidy takes the fall, but Toni barges him out of the way and manically shaves her own head in his place.

[RedTwoster]

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

In fact, the ending I'm going to predict now is that Orange Cassidy takes the fall, but Toni barges him out of the way and manically shaves her own head in his place.

Oh, I love that ending - I actually think it might work even better (or as good, at least) with Marina Shafir taking the hit for Yuta - looking absolutely demented as she does it. Shafir looking like that, seeking revenge on Toni for what effectively was her own choice would be horror-movie levels of scary, you just don’t know what she’s capable of.

Edited February 2 by RedTwoster

[organizedkaos]

Quote

endlessly spamming that stupid taunt

Yes! Watched the Rascals and Ciampa collision matches out of interest to the much talked about new signings and there's something about that taunt that made me hate it/them 😀 They didn't seem bad (although I feel like there's about 10 people who do the same stuff, I miss the days when high flyers had new moves that hadn't been yet done "There's this guy Jason Cross who does a shooting star legdrop" "There's this guy Jerelle Clarke who does a 630 splash"*) however that taunt and the amount of taunt was not OK. I suspect it makes me feel old. I guess make them heels and then we're all good?

* The fact I can still remember these people's names and can't remember the rascals names probably says something. 

[Snitsky's back acne]

1 hour ago, organizedkaos said:

"There's this guy Jason Cross who does a shooting star legdrop" 

I remember hearing about Jason Cross who could do crazy aerial moves.

At the time I had only seen Jason Cross on a video wrestling Stevie Knight and knew he had toured Michinoku Pro Wrestling but never thought of him as much of a flyer so it was very confusing. He did not seem to have the athleticism of your typical high flyer. 

Bare in mind, this was in the infancy of the internet and I was still relying on Powerslam for my wrestling knowledge. 

Upon further investigation I realised it was not the guy I had seen from Wales but some dude from America with the same name. 

Imagine my problems with Matt Striker and Matt Stryker pre-internet. 

[Supremo]

Hangman Adam Page address the photograph with Marty Scurll.

Despite being considered a face of goodwill by many pro wrestling fans, AEW World Trios Champion and former AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page recently encountered some controversy regarding his association with a former member of The Elite.

"The Villain" Marty Scurll was once a close associate with the likes of Page, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, and other members of Bullet Club, all as the group would rise in prominence and eventually join forces to form All Elite Wrestling. He would help lead the creative team in Ring of Honor for a period of time, and it appeared that a jump to AEW was inevitable, but that would not ultimately come to pass.

In 2020, Scurll was accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with a 16-year-old girl in the U.K. at a gathering in 2015. Scurll would claim that both parties were intoxicated, and he believed the encounter was consensual at the time (the age of consent where the alleged incident occurred is 16). Regardless, he was investigated by ROH and eventually released from his deal as head booker. He has largely remained outside of the mainstream pro wrestling scene since.

In January, Scurll posted a picture with Page outside of a Cracker Barrel, prompting a swell of negativity towards Page for remaining associated with an individual accused of sexual misconduct. Speaking exclusively with The Takedown on SI on Sunday about a variety of topics, Page discussed the photo and his friendship with Scurll (the entire clip can be seen in this piece).

Page noted that he spent nearly half a decade traveling the world with Scurll, and the two grew very close. He said that when the allegations against Scurll emerged, he was in disbelief. The alleged timeframe of the encounter, he said, was prior to Page becoming friendly with him.

"I think when that happened, I was obviously surprised. Shocked. It didn't seem like the person that I knew," Page said.

"But I mean, I knew now that it was, and I guess, I was kind of like, faced with a choice, like what to do with that information. And I reached out to him then because he had faced a lot of consequences from the public. He had lost his job from Ring of Honor. He was facing consequences from people online. So, [I] check to see how he's doing, and I remained in touch with him for, you know what, since then, [has] been six years." 

The two-time AEW World Champion noted that, despite the sustained relationship, he believes what Scurll is accused of having engaged in was wrong.

"I guess I kind of will make a couple things clear about it. I completely recognize that what he did, his actions, are abhorrent. Disgraceful. They are. There's no excuse. I completely recognize that," he said. 

"I've always thought that, will always think that about his actions. And I guess as a consequence of his actions, the public has felt strongly about what he did. And for six years, I think because of those reactions, he's been unable to be a part of mainstream professional wrestling because of, you know, what the public perception would be."

Page said he never intended for the photo of the two of them to be posted publicly, and had been wanting to address some of the backlash he received. 

"I don't want that photo to seem like some kind of endorsement, or, I have any interest whatsoever in whitewashing what he did, or any interest or intention of rehabilitating his public image," he said. "None of that is something that I've ever been interested in doing. Not now, not ever." 

"And I think that the consequences of his actions that he's had mostly from the public, aside from, like, harassment, I think they've been warranted. So I kind of want to make that clear."

Fans respond negatively to the photo of "Hangman" and Scurll

Hangman Page and Swerve Strickland inside a steel cage at AEW All Out. | Lee South - All Elite Wrestling

The 34-year-old Page has been recognized by wrestling fans over the years for his willingness to engage in social matters. Even in speaking with The Takedown, he made note of what he believes is an "abhorrent time" in American history, acknowledging that it's hard to go about his daily life as "government forces are kidnapping and murdering people in the street."

Yet the photo with Scurll brought criticism from around social media, and he says fans are entitled to feel however they may about the situation.

"If you hear all that, and you listen to all that, and you feel like maybe you wouldn't have done the same thing had you been in my shoes, or maybe you still feel uncomfortable being a fan of mine, or even if you've lost, like, the smallest amount of respect for me because of any of that, I would just want to say I completely understand that. I can respect it and accept it," he said.

The Takedown on SI asked Page why, despite the graphic nature of the allegations and public response to them, he has decided to sustain a friendship with his former stablemate. He admitted that he has revisited how he feels about continued relationships since the photo emerged.

"I guess who I am is, when people treat me with kindness, I try to return it," he said. "I have never really wanted to get into that. And that's more or less why I have a private relationship with him. Not out of a sense of self-preservation or shame, or something like that. But more or less, I just would never want that to be misconstrued as like an endorsement or an effort to rehabilitate someone's public image, something like that."

"But I guess I've just always thought that he's still a human being, and that relationships are complicated, but they're still relationships, and he's still a human being."

[abucalves]

Huge Hangman fan, but think this is a bit weak to be honest.

Edited February 3 by abucalves

[DavidB6937]

2 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Page said he never intended for the photo of the two of them to be posted publicly, and had been wanting to address some of the backlash he received. 

There's a lot being said there but this is what stood out the most.

It's not that he's sorry. It's that he's sorry he was caught.