Collision - 6/17/2023

[Johnny Sorrow]

This was the best AEW TV show in a long time, if only for Kevin Kelly and Nigel immediately being the best commentary duo in AEW. Kevin knocked Excalibur's dick in the dirt. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Johnny Sorrow

[The Natural]

Just now, Johnny Sorrow said:

This was the best AEW TV show in a long time. I'm f only for Kevin Kelly and Nigel immediately being the best commentary duo in AEW. Kevin knocked Excalibur's dick in the dirt. 

I don't like Exaclibur either.

[Johnny Sorrow]

A two man booth of Kelly and Nigel for most of the show was so refreshing, and even sick, recently injured in a fall JR was eventually ok as Kelly carried him. 

Edited June 18, 2023 by Johnny Sorrow

[Steventon]

Only caught the highlights but this felt like a big ho hum of a debut. Dynamite debut had the big angle with the Inner Circle forming, Rampage debut had Christian beating Omega for the Impact title, this had...... Punk doing a vaguely shooty promo on the Bucks?

 

I am sure Kevin Kelly is a gent and great guy, but the very suggestion of him replacing Excal makes me want to barf through my ears. Excal is such a part of AEW's identity and charm, Kelly would just feel like another step towards corporate WWE-ism.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

The show opener needed to tip it's hat to AWA and the Wrestlerock Rumble by having the Babyface and heel locker rooms song competing versions of Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting. Intersped clips of them in the studio wearing the noise cancelling headphones and fake reading glasses nailing this track down but also being fake-look how much fun we're having like Phil Collins in the Easy Lover video clip.

Easy Lover should have been the theme for this show.

[colonial]

Loved Christian Cage's antics, but I thought Wardlow and Luchasaurus didn't gel well. The ending run seemed flat with part of the camera in the ring (and the ref appearing to trip over it after the match -- made the ref look a bit dumb). Surprised no one in the back called an audible and have the ref quietly ask Luchasaurus to kick the object out of the ring -- or do some shenanigans on one side of the ring while Christian grabbed it from the other side.

Andrade/Buddy was far better than I expected -- surprised there was no mention of Los Ingobernables, though I would like to see Andrade/Dralistico/Preston vs. HOB (even if it ends in Dralistico and Preston turn on Andrade at the end).

Women's match also overdelivered -- Skye needs a title by the end of the year.

Am I crazy, but did Kevin Kelly refer to Action Andretti as "Action Andrade" at least twice? Also referred to Andrade as "Andraid" at least once. (Also it seems every announcer pronounces Okada's first name differently)

 

[Coletti]

How has Toni Storm never killed anybody with the booty attack? Easily the most brutal looking move in the whole company. 

Juice and Switchblade looked damn good in the ME, especially Rock Hard with his utter weirdness. 

Nese being so JACKED and Miro still dwarfing him was great. No stupid roll back on Game Over! Woohoo!

Loved the crowd going nuts for El Idolo's Figure 8. 

Wardlow and Hobbs have the same problem - they rule just by being huge ass kickers and keep getting paired with other folks that just don't really help things. Let the beefy men be beefy men. 

The intro ruuuuuuuuules. 

Still gonna end up watching this and Rampage on Sunday mornings. DVDVR DVR~!!

[Coletti]

Oh yeah and while Kevin Kelly had some major flubs, I think he'll ease into things well. I hadn't heard him in ages until last year's Forbidden Door where he did great so I'm enthusiastic about him being PBP with Nigel. 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

All Boomer Wrestling.

Ah Kevin Kelly, cool that reminds me I think I'll watch the G1 and see where things are AEW-wise afterwards.

Edited June 18, 2023 by SprintingFromAmerica

[The Natural]

Surprised I'm the first to mention CM Punk's Larry shirt homage to the late great Roddy Piper's Panther shirt.

[Fighting a man with a perm]

Different strokes for different folks and all, but for me the commentary was actively detracting from my enjoyment of the show. I dig Excalibur, and love the team of him, Tazz and Tony. Ex expounds on the stories we're watching, Tazz provides the technical insight (and some Jones' and yambags), while Tony provides the enthusiasm - lovely balance. If a different team was required, Riccaboni and Caprice are right there and I think they're an excellent team too.

Really felt the show was missing something, that je ne said quoi. The Buddy Andrade match was dope, but I think the wrong man won. Christian celebrating was great and that camera shot looked vicious but that match was not good and Wardlow has lost his aura rapidly. Nice to see Willow and Skye get s big win. Juice and Switchblade's shit talking was a highlight of the main for me. One of the things I like about MJF is his "oh shit!" when he's sent up for a big move, and Juice had a few of those, as well as a manic "aha!" As he floated into a cover - he's really growing on me.

For those with a better knowledge of wrestling history than I - could anyone shed some light on Punk's elbow pad? It wasn't matching his colour scheme and he seemed to make a deal of showing it early on. 

[Matt D]

Let's go..

• Yeah, that was a strong promo. It went places we weren't expecting it to go with really calling them out and the bag. Wrestling, at it's best, is about making you believe (and I think this is actually part of the ideological divide between the Elite and Punk, as the Elite would potentially say that it's about making you feel included instead) and this promo kind of sort of made me believe that Punk can actually carry this show without a big angle. Mostly, I don't though.
• Wardlow vs Luchasaurus: So I do feel like this show is agented a little bit differently. I suspected it here and really came to believe it during the next match. I had a hard time figuring out when it went to commercial since Kelly's still figuring out his way, which is odd for a guy with so much experience, but once they got there, I thought Wardlow was exposed as not being what he needed to be: basically Hogan. He doesn't have that same sort of engaging physical charisma to keep the fans in it and have them clap up when they need to clap up as well as the timing to give them just a little and snatch it away from them. I don't know how a guy so deep into his career is going to get it but I do think that while this match was technically correct and should have worked, especially since the crowd wanted to be behind him, it didn't, and it failed to protect him in a way most of his other matches have. That said, sink or swim at this stage of the game. I'm trying to think who in the AEW family can get him there. Maybe Jake. Arn just doesn't have the history of being a babyface maybe? But Wardlow needs to watch a ton of 80s Hogan. There's talk around here lately of "If someone's popular, there has to be a reason why!" and that's not a bad thing to wonder, not really. Hogan was hugely popular. So much of that was down to his selling and timing on hope spots and cut offs even if he gets very little credit for that in the grand scheme of things. Wardlow can get there, maybe, but boy does he have to get there quick. I do like him as Jerry Lawler Southern champ who loses and gets the belt back every three months.
• Andrade vs Matthews: Boy is Andrade fun to watch. Again, agented differently maybe? The medical bit to cover some of the commercial break, for instance, and then it going right into a hockey fight. That all felt unique. I loved the selling once it got going. Andrade does have that physical charisma and the fans went up for his hope and comeback and loved the single arm dragon screws. Some of the detail work here was amazing (Hero? But also just these two guys too maybe?). The struggle for the eventual powerbomb out of the corner was so good. I like how they teased a bunch of the finishing moves but didn't actually hit them which is rare for an AEW match and instead ended things on the limbs that had been sold. The fans popped so huge for the Figure 8. It's interesting to see HOB target Andrade since there's no doubt in his heart, only confidence. Visa issues need to be solved. We need RUSH here so bad. Fans would go absolutely nuts for de facto babyface RUSH and Andrade, I think.
• Miro vs Nese: Love the "Group Training" bit for Nese. That's the other problem for Wardlow. You got this guy right here. He'd be a different sort of crossover star, but... anyway, he's so good at milking the moment for all it's worth and this was exactly what it should have been. Love the stomp to get the arms up for the Game Over. I'm not sure about having all the returns be de facto babyfaces but whatever, but there are a bunch of fresh matches. I can't wait to see Miro vs Hobbs, for instance. I kind of thought he was going to Sami Zayn his rotator cuff with all of the arm swinging though.
• Willow/Skye vs Outcasts: Interesting how they got the Mama Blue stuff out of the way before the bell. Not quite what you'd expect. Outcasts without Saraya and now that Toni kind of cracked the code (partially with the help of the House Shows, I think) is a pretty solid act. Way better than things were a few months ago. Ruby's a little over the top as a heel but in a good way. Skye got a huge pop but it was a little two-tiered; the initial for people who knew and the extra for the Chicago mention. It was still the night of her life, basically. Here Excalibur would have helped, not just in calling things like the No Future but by pointing out she tapped to the Cloverleaf on Weds. The fans absolutely got behind her on the crawl to the ropes though. I wish she would have paused and put her arms up Savage style or something before hitting the flying body press. Too much of a rush to get to the next spot there when she could have gotten a ton of anticipation (just for a flying body press too!). It's hard to fault her in the moment but someone should have coached that up. Willow is such a star.
• Some other stuff: I like putting Hobbs and Starks in the Owen. Scorpio is a credible midcarder that can take falls, I guess? I don't like the fact they're calling the Jarrett/Briscoe match a concession brawl. That should happen naturally. Call it a streetfight and end up in the concessions area. I liked them showing footage from ROH with Fox/Andretti/Martin to hype up that match. I had wished they would have done with with Dark/Elevation for a while. While JR isn't the answer, obviously, I was kind of missing a third person in the booth. Acclaimed bit was fun and harmless. Tony really has become David Crockett in his old age.
• And people are FINALLY awake so I'm going to go make pancakes with the 10 year old for Father's Day or something. Will hit that main later. But hey, Sunday Morning Wrestling. Like the world's best All American Wrestling? Just needed more Lord Alfred or Mean Gene.

[StuntmanCrowley]

Everything about this show was awesome(including Lucha/Wardlow just for the Christian celebration) except for “Pizza Cutter” Punks promo.  Pizza cutter you ask?  All edge and no point.  Did nothing but pump up his own ego while selling absolutely nothing about the show.  I really enjoyed the main.

[Gorman]

Very happy to see Luchasaurus win the TNT title. He worked for us in Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling when he was still doing the "Vibora" gimmick from Lucha Underground. He's worked really hard, and now he's the No. 2 male champion in the company!

So AEW hires Jimmy Jacobs and then they bring in Chris Hero? I picked the wrong weekend to lose my phone. 

[Matt D]

Starting to see Punk's post-match speech on trans rights get traction from non-wrestling sources this morning.

[matwarz]

That was a fantastic 2 hours of Mid-Atlantic ; hot crowd, hometown heroes and two tremendous TV matches. No bells and whistles, no bs, all about the bell to bell. I loved this show. 

[The Natural]

17 minutes ago, Matt D said:

Starting to see Punk's post-match speech on trans rights get traction from non-wrestling sources this morning.

Here it is:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cQzVBNyXMoc&pp=ygUHQ20gcHVuaw%3D%3D

[HarryArchieGus]

Fun show! Punk promo was good. Yeah, that Piper tribute shirt was well above their average output. Didn't realize that was supposed to be his dog. Luchasaurus v Wardlow was fine. Hard not to expect this type of match, but they worked hard. It even exceeded said expectations with that wonderful CHRISTIAN performance! MattD completely nails the Wardy conundrum before making his family pancakes (Hogan! Hogan!)...

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

• Wardlow vs Luchasaurus: So I do feel like this show is agented a little bit differently. I suspected it here and really came to believe it during the next match. I had a hard time figuring out when it went to commercial since Kelly's still figuring out his way, which is odd for a guy with so much experience, but once they got there, I thought Wardlow was exposed as not being what he needed to be: basically Hogan. He doesn't have that same sort of engaging physical charisma to keep the fans in it and have them clap up when they need to clap up as well as the timing to give them just a little and snatch it away from them. I don't know how a guy so deep into his career is going to get it but I do think that while this match was technically correct and should have worked, especially since the crowd wanted to be behind him, it didn't, and it failed to protect him in a way most of his other matches have. That said, sink or swim at this stage of the game. I'm trying to think who in the AEW family can get him there. Maybe Jake. Arn just doesn't have the history of being a babyface maybe? But Wardlow needs to watch a ton of 80s Hogan. There's talk around here lately of "If someone's popular, there has to be a reason why!" and that's not a bad thing to wonder, not really. Hogan was hugely popular. So much of that was down to his selling and timing on hope spots and cut offs even if he gets very little credit for that in the grand scheme of things. Wardlow can get there, maybe, but boy does he have to get there quick. I do like him as Jerry Lawler Southern champ who loses and gets the belt back every three months.

Tho, I'm not sure it's too late. I never saw him as a Pittsburgh indy wrestler, but I would have to assume he's come a long way since coming to AEW. Buddy v Andrade was fine pro wrestling. I dig both of these guys, but am I the only one watching this thinking is Andrade going to be an AEW contracted wrestler in 6 months? So too, tho longer I presume, 'Buddy Murphy'! Not to just point out the Dasha flub as she was really good throughout. The PiP messed with the recharge of this bout, but hit after hit, or well placed miss after well placed miss, on the way to the fun finish. And then another Rotten lights out as per usual. Ugh! I think it's about time something was learned from the persistent always shitty timing issue! Made worse here with the bad camerawork that followed. The Brody King clothesline spot felt a bit goofy. Complaints aside, hoping this leads to LFI v HOB. Scorpio Sky Video was good. I like Sky, but will he ever find that missing piece of the puzzle. Who should Scorpio Sky be watcing @MattD? Miro v Nese made for an excellent return. I'm completely with the 'Miro should have been a big surprise' contingency. I'm happy to see Miro back, but again, for how long? Is he worth building for the other team? I hope I'm way off the mark thinking this. Storm/Ruby v Willow/Skye was swell. Toni is such a general. Wow, what a fucking incredible bump Ruby took from Willow into the guardrail! Fucking brutal!!!! I thought Soho was concussed for a few minutes after that. Nice to see the work put in by Skye showing such vast improvements. Willow seems to have that physical charisma that Wardy struggles with. Ricky Starks promo was fine if bland. Jeff Jarrett promo was good. Yeah, not into announcing a 'Concession Stand Brawl', but am into building matches coming up with promos - an obvious but often overlooked element of upcoming AEWTV matches. I really wish the Assclaimed promo was just Max Caster rapping any important details of that segment - to which I'm having a difficult time finding any important details. They're such a good act, but I hate when they're thrown out ther for such meaningless timewasting fair. Give them a goddamn reason. Complaints aside, I got the same kick as everybody seeing Schiavone get in on the scissor. Joe/Jay/Juice v CMFTR was really good. Considering how clumsy Punk can generally be, I didn't find his work here all that rusty. Really great back and forth with Jay in particular. Interesting seeing all the posts concerning Juice stepping it up here. I thought Jay was still the MVP, but yeah nice to see a journeyman like Juice make the best of a situation. Now, can somebody assist him with his ring gear? I was worried about horsy JR in the beginning there, but he was actually pretty good with all his contributions (of all the things to apologize for Jim!?). The Joe-Punk confrontation was thrilling! I loved Punk going to the headlock and then back to it. I'm totally fine with no post match angle and just sinking in the return. That said, I did read about Chris Hero being backstage, and had a hopeful, if unrealistic, thought. I wonder about Hero's ring shape? I'm with the posi vibes for show 1 commentary. Going in I was very unhappy about the announcement of Kevin Kelly being the lead. I routinely watch New Japan with Japanese commentary, and find Kevin's awkward story explanations and aawwwfffullll big move calls very difficult to ignore. Here however I thought he actually did a really solid job, and deserves a wee bit of a break for working out the kinks. He certainly wasn't the only one making errors here - I wonder if this was a new crew? Nigel on the otherhand is clearly fucking awesome. I was kinda hoping they would just move their wonderful ROH team to this broadcast, but in the end I kinda sorta (can't believe it) dug Kelly. I really liked this debut. And am sooo stoked for next weekend live - back to back nights! Am I dreaming!?!

Edited June 18, 2023 by HarryArchieGus

[Matt D]

6 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Who should Scorpio Sky be watcing @MattD? Miro v Nese made for an excellent return.

Tony Nese.

[HarryArchieGus]

1 minute ago, Matt D said:

Tony Nese.

But what if he's a babyface? Er I think I want him to be a babyface. He has a 'Nice' aura about him. 

[Matt D]

Just now, HarryArchieGus said:

But what if he's a babyface? Er I think I want him to be a babyface. He has a 'Nice' aura about him. 

... Alex Reynolds? No that's not fair. I don't know. I don't know what Sky needs to do to succeed. I could get behind a Scorpio Sky/AR Fox team? Or Scorpio Sky/Bandido?

[HarryArchieGus]

1 hour ago, Matt D said:

I liked them showing footage from ROH with Fox/Andretti/Martin to hype up that match. I had wished they would have done with with Dark/Elevation for a while. 

I loved this! Another nice touch to help promote future matches. That said, a bit strange. I get why you'd show footage of their triumph from two weeks ago, but feels a bit odd to show that and pretend they didn't just eat a loss this week from the Embassy. Not a complaint tho, I just thought it was odd/interesting. 

[nate]

12 hours ago, EVA said:

Juice kinda stole the show in the main event, and you could tell he made Punk a fan with that performance.

Well, let's hope for his sake he hangs on every word Punk has to tell him.

[Jrag]

Punk’s promo was actually great because he got his shots in and didn’t ignore the elephant in the room, BUT redirected the energy towards MJF which is probably the smart play for now.  “What’s in the bag, Max?” feels like build to All In.

Love the face in Chicago, but the rest of you are going to hate me vibe. Not so subtle with the Bret tights. Could be an amazing run if he can stay healthy.

[Jenalysis]

1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Fun show! Punk promo was good. Yeah, that Piper tribute shirt was well above their average output. Didn't realize that was supposed to be his dog. Luchasaurus v Wardlow was fine. Hard not to expect this type of match, but they worked hard. It even exceeded said expectations with that wonderful CHRISTIAN performance! MattD completely nails the Wardy conundrum before making his family pancakes (Hogan! Hogan!)...

Tho, I'm not sure it's too late. I never saw him as a Pittsburgh indy wrestler, but I would have to assume he's come a long way since coming to AEW. Buddy v Andrade was fine pro wrestling. I dig both of these guys, but am I the only one watching this thinking is Andrade going to be an AEW contracted wrestler in 6 months? So too, tho longer I presume, 'Buddy Murphy'! Not to just point out the Dasha flub as she was really good throughout. The PiP messed with the recharge of this bout, but hit after hit, or well placed miss after well placed miss, on the way to the fun finish. And then another Rotten lights out as per usual. Ugh! I think it's about time something was learned from the persistent always shitty timing issue! Made worse here with the bad camerawork that followed. The Brody King clothesline spot felt a bit goofy. Complaints aside, hoping this leads to LFI v HOB. Scorpio Sky Video was good. I like Sky, but will he ever find that missing piece of the puzzle. Who should Scorpio Sky be watcing @MattD? Miro v Nese made for an excellent return. I'm completely with the 'Miro should have been a big surprise' contingency. I'm happy to see Miro back, but again, for how long? Is he worth building for the other team? I hope I'm way off the mark thinking this. Storm/Ruby v Willow/Skye was swell. Toni is such a general. Wow, what a fucking incredible bump Ruby took from Willow into the guardrail! Fucking brutal!!!! I thought Soho was concussed for a few minutes after that. Nice to see the work put in by Skye showing such vast improvements. Willow seems to have that physical charisma that Wardy struggles with. Ricky Starks promo was fine if bland. Jeff Jarrett promo was good. Yeah, not into announcing a 'Concession Stand Brawl', but am into building matches coming up with promos - an obvious but often overlooked element of upcoming AEWTV matches. I really wish the Assclaimed promo was just Max Caster rapping any important details of that segment - to which I'm having a difficult time finding any important details. They're such a good act, but I hate when they're thrown out ther for such meaningless timewasting fair. Give them a goddamn reason. Complaints aside, I got the same kick as everybody seeing Schiavone get in on the scissor. Joe/Jay/Juice v CMFTR was really good. Considering how clumsy Punk can generally be, I didn't find his work here all that rusty. Really great back and forth with Jay in particular. Interesting seeing all the posts concerning Juice stepping it up here. I thought Jay was still the MVP, but yeah nice to see a journeyman like Juice make the best of a situation. Now, can somebody assist him with his ring gear? I was worried about horsy JR in the beginning there, but he was actually pretty good with all his contributions (of all the things to apologize for Jim!?). The Joe-Punk confrontation was thrilling! I loved Punk going to the headlock and then back to it. I'm totally fine with no post match angle and just sinking in the return. That said, I did read about Chris Hero being backstage, and had a hopeful, if unrealistic, thought. I wonder about Hero's ring shape? I'm with the posi vibes for show 1 commentary. Going in I was very unhappy about the announcement of Kevin Kelly being the lead. I routinely watch New Japan with Japanese commentary, and find Kevin's awkward story explanations and aawwwfffullll big move calls very difficult to ignore. Here however I thought he actually did a really solid job, and deserves a wee bit of a break for working out the kinks. He certainly wasn't the only one making errors here - I wonder if this was a new crew? Nigel on the otherhand is clearly fucking awesome. I was kinda hoping they would just move their wonderful ROH team to this broadcast, but in the end I kinda sorta (can't believe it) dug Kelly. I really liked this debut. And am sooo stoked for next weekend live - back to back nights! Am I dreaming!?!

 

Juice needs to mix some of his early NJPW stuff into his AEW stuff.  That's what is missing.  Peak Juice was 2018.

I really think Punk-Jay could elevate Jay, esp if Jay takes the sham title from Punk.