Considering many of the extenuating circumstances surrounding this weeks Collision, I felt like AEW put on a fun night of action. The matches across the board were all entertaining, with a main event match of great technical skill, even if the crowd struggled to reach the same level of the competitors in the ring. Unfortunately no match reached the 4.25 star threshold needed to push the overall match rating up higher, though Harwood vs White came extremely close, so despite the match quality being consistently good, I was unable to rate it higher overall because of that factor. I’ll admit I suspected a hijacking from the Chicago crowd, but that was averted, instead leading to a subdued but not universally uninterested crowd, coming alive at certain moments and mostly remaining well behaved, at least until the arrival of The Young Bucks to close the show. Storylines were nicely maintained throughout the night with several match announcements, a brilliant opening segment and some really excellent promo work across the show, with special mentions going to Moxley, Cassidy, Starks, Joe and Cage. Not everything landed and some builds were a little lacklustre (the ROH tag needed more and Dennis Rodman’s segment was quite clunky), but in my judgement it increased my interest in tommorow's All Out show just enough to narrowly earn the 0.75 rating. The show structure could’ve been slightly improved, with a lot of tag wrestling for much of the show and a women's tag that deserved a better placement than it was given considering the calibre of talent involved, but the matches still all were good so it didn’t hurt the show that much and it did still feel like a very easy show to watch, so ultimately it is a minor complaint. Overall the show opened and closed brilliantly, I enjoyed every match and it did make me more interested in a number of matches on tomorrow's card, so a job well done from AEW tonight.
Tonight, AEW Collision emanates from Chicago as we race towards All Out. The former JAS try and take the newly won trios titles from The Acclaimed, Ricky Starks calls out Ricky Steamboat for All Out… oh, and Dennis Rodman’s on the show. And that’s even before the backstage drama begins, it should be a fun show, let’s get at it!
Tony Khan opens the show to announce the firing of CM Punk. Smart choice to open the show with this, and the decision was clearly explained. Get the elephant out of the room at the start of the show so that we can try and move on and stop the Chicago crowd hijacking it. Won’t give my opinions on a backstage incident that I have little to no knowledge of.
We then get a huge video package recapping All In and All Out.
AMAZING Ricky Starks Makes The Challenge- Watch Segment Here
Well this feels like a bit of a shoot. Lot’s of references to being dragged back down, which both I feel can be seen as kayfabe shots at his suspension and also at how his feud with Punk had to end. He then comes right back into character in a fun way to call out Steamboat. Fantastic promo from Starks. Steamboat comes out, and I immediately got where it was going from Steamboat’s wording, but it was a super fun bait and switch to reveal a different dragon, The American Dragon, Brian Danielson. That was great fun and a fantastic promo to sell you on a match. Danielson coming to avenge one of his mentors is a really good backup story, and while I’m almost certain this wasn’t the plan, it is clever booking and a fantastic segment.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4.25 Stars
Moxley cuts an astonishingly good backstage promo putting over Cassidy possibly better than anybody else in AEW ever has. This has been built better than anything else on this card. The feud never misses. I wish this had been in front of a crowd because it would have been at least a must watch promo.
GOOD The Acclaimed vs Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard and Angelo Parker- AEW Trios Championships
A very entertaining opening match. Basic face vs heel wrestling but it did put a big smile on my face. Being an obnoxious wrestling critic though, technically Gunn pinned the wrong man, as Menard wasn’t legal, which even Nigel McGuiness pointed out. I don’t really care though as I think The Acclaimed are great entertainment wrestlers and the dynamic of both teams was super fun. They just could’ve done a bit more with it to push it up to a higher rating, as it was very much just standard formula done well.
Result: Max Caster by Pinfall via Elbow Drop
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.25 Stars
Dark Order cut a backstage promo hyping up their tag match with MJF and Adam Cole at All Out. I didn’t know a lot of the history between these guys which was nice to know, I just wish it had been built up a bit more than one backstage promo the day before the show, because it doesn’t feel like any of those dynamics they brought up in the promo have been given the time to embed into a storyline. Still happy we have it in the water though as it still a factor to consider.
Ricky Starks is interviewed about the Danielson match backstage, another reliably good promo from Starks.
GREAT Aussie Open vs Kommander and Nick Wayne
Why are all the luchadores adopting Nick Wayne? Slightly confusing, as of course is why this match is happening on a go home show, but I digress. This was a sprint of a match, but I thought it was technically really strong. These guys are all fantastic wrestlers and this match served all its purposes nicely. Got Aussie Open over strong and the faces got some super fun hope spots in there. Loads and loads of fun.
Result: Aussie Open by Pinfall via Coriolis
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
GREAT Darby Allin/Nick Wayne/Christian Cage Promo
Awkward segway into a Nick Wayne/Darby Allin face off. Darby’s reasoning was good and did make sense but it does also make them both look a bit like wimps. Christian Cage comes out to give about 5 killer lines to make Darby and Nick look like plebs. Christian Cage is just that good a promo. Darby and Nick were good, but Christian Cage was better. I am more excited for this match as a result of the promo, so it was a job well done.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
Duelling promos from Claudio and Kingston backstage. I cannot believe I’m going to say this, but Claudio’s was better than Kingston’s, even if Kingston’s was still fun. Good build for All Out
Saraya and Soho say a lot of nothing backstage, but they say a lot of well delivered nothing so I’ll give them that. They’re both good promos but this did not improve my excitement for the 6 woman tag later.
AVERAGE Dennis Rodman Speaks
Well who had this on their 2023 bingo card. He doesn’t say a lot really, as this is actually a way to set up The Acclaimed vs Team Jarrett for All Out, with Rodman in The Acclaimed’s corner. This segment was a bit of a mess, but Jarrett was fun and Rodman was entertaining in how little he seemed to know what was going on, but loving it regardless and getting the crowd behind him. I couldn’t care less about the 6 man tag though considering we saw this feud as a tag feud last year, so I feel like we’ve mined the enjoyment from it then.
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 2.75 Stars
Great promo from Samoa Joe on Shane Taylor. We expect nothing less from him
GREAT The Outcasts vs Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker and Kris Statlander
How is a match with the 6 biggest active women in the company at the top of the second hour. It must be written into the script every week as ‘the women’s section’ because this is bizarre. I thought this was a really good match packed with story and good spots, all the women looked good and the running theme of Outcast dissension was played very nicely. I just wish this had the main event slot, even if the choice they did make for the main is understandable.
Result: Ruby Soho by Pinfall via Soho Kick
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 3.5 Stars
Adam Cole reads some MJF Text messages insulting Dark Order. I need more than that to sell the match fellas.
Kris Statlander and Soho get into a shouting battle. Not much more to say really.
SQUASH Powerhouse Hobbs vs GPA
Two moves and you’re done. The post match is a fun brawl though which was entertaining
Result: Powerhouse Hobbs by Pinfall via Spinebuster
Another great promo from Cassidy, and to be honest I think it’s better than his in ring promo from Dynamite.
AMAZING Dax Harwood vs Jay White
It is of course unsurprising that two talents with the calibre of Jay White and Dax Harwood put on a terrific in ring wrestling match. They worked so well together and I thoroughly enjoyed the way the match was put together and structured, weaving so nicely from sequence to sequence, with a brilliant finish. Unfortunately it took a long while for the crowd to share my enthusiasm, feeling quite dead for much of it, but eventually getting into the match by its end. I thought this was brilliantly crafted however, and giving Jay White the win here is a great little tease of heel victory before the PPV. Not the type of main event that will blow your socks off, but a really really excellently worked close to the show
Result: Jay White by Pinfall via Blade Runner
David Sheldon WR Star Rating- 4 Stars
Overall…
Considering many of the extenuating circumstances surrounding this weeks Collision, I felt like AEW put on a fun night of action. The matches across the board were all entertaining, with a main event match of great technical skill, even if the crowd struggled to reach the same level of the competitors in the ring. Unfortunately no match reached the 4.25 star threshold needed to push the overall match rating up higher, though Harwood vs White came extremely close, so despite the match quality being consistently good, I was unable to rate it higher overall because of that factor. I’ll admit I suspected a hijacking from the Chicago crowd, but that was averted, instead leading to a subdued but not universally uninterested crowd, coming alive at certain moments and mostly remaining well behaved, at least until the arrival of The Young Bucks to close the show. Storylines were nicely maintained throughout the night with several match announcements, a brilliant opening segment and some really excellent promo work across the show, with special mentions going to Moxley, Cassidy, Starks, Joe and Cage. Not everything landed and some builds were a little lacklustre (the ROH tag needed more and Dennis Rodman’s segment was quite clunky), but in my judgement it increased my interest in tommorow’s All Out show just enough to narrowly earn the 0.75 rating. The show structure could’ve been slightly improved, with a lot of tag wrestling for much of the show and a women’s tag that deserved a better placement than it was given considering the calibre of talent involved, but the matches still all were good so it didn’t hurt the show that much and it did still feel like a very easy show to watch, so ultimately it is a minor complaint. Overall the show opened and closed brilliantly, I enjoyed every match and it did make me more interested in a number of matches on tomorrow’s card, so a job well done from AEW tonight.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere: 0.5/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling- September 2nd 2023
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
