AEW Collision: October 7, 2023

October 8, 2023 1:13 PM - Season 1, Episode 17

Things AEW is not afraid to do repeatedly: (1) Make tag-team wrestling important. (2) Give someone signed away from WWE some good runway time to build to their first official match. (3) Hurt Darby Allin very badly.

Post-show commentary from Wrestling Observer, with a little of me.

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: Big Bill & Ricky Starks defeat FTR (c) to win the titles

"A surprising result, with FTR getting blitzed and beaten decisively. Big Bill and Starks have been a great pairing since coming together, and Starks’ performance this summer was deserving of a high-level spot in AEW."

Me here: The crowd was genuine surprised with this one, especially since we seemed to be heading to a Young Bucks/FTR rematch at Full Gear or earlier. But with Dax having legit broken a rib (apparently at WrestleDream) and the very real possibility that Cash could be restricted from touring because of those gun charges, it would be difficult for them to defend the straps. The good news from this is Starks now has a new fire under him as a champion.

"Tony Schiavone was backstage with new AEW World Tag Team Champions Big Bill & Ricky Starks. Bill said that they beat the so-called best tag team in the world, before noting how nice it was that real stars were tag team champions. Starks denied FTR any kind of rematch, noting that they are the faces of Collision and the new top dogs around AEW."

...It only just occurred to me while typing this out that pairing Big Bill with Starks could be AEW attempting to recreate the functional parts of the Enzo & Big Cass relationship -- large silent type with hyperactive braggadocious little guy. Realest Guys in the Room 2.0?

Bryan Danielson defeated Kyle Fletcher

"Fletcher has been pegged as a future star for a while as part of Aussie Open, but he got a great opportunity to shine here against Danielson. Fletcher looked great here, with Danielson escaping with a win. The post-match angle was a neat touch, with Swerve sending his goons after Danielson to get an advantage ahead of their match on Dynamite."

Bullet Club Gold (Juice Robinson & The Gunns) (w/ Jay White) defeated Metalik, Gravity, & Angelico (w/ Serpentico)

"White came out with the AEW World Heavyweight Title, having stolen it from MJF this past Wednesday on Dynamite... White said that 'champions defend their titles' and thought about defending “his” title against Hangman Page this Tuesday on Dynamite. However, since Hangman had never beaten White, White decided he was only worthy of an eliminator match. White said that MJF should sit back and watch as a real champion takes care of business on Dynamite."

Sad that Hangman is only a prop in the MJF/White story, however I'm curious to see what happens with MJF -- who only recently has begun experimenting with not being a sociopath. Will he feel obligated to show up and "support" Hangman in some capacity? Is he going to try and make Adam Cole jealous with a substitute brochacho?

Nick Wayne speaks

"Wayne said that he had known Darby Allin since he was eight years old, but when Wayne turned eleven, Allin bailed on him. Nick always lived in Darby’s shadow, just like Christian Cage had to live in Adam Copeland’s shadow. Nick said that Christian had become the father figure he always needed, and turned his back to Darby the way Darby turned his back on him."

Frankly I find Nick Wayne's heel turn dumb and kinda obvious from the get-go. I had thought it was averted with AR Fox turning instead, but... Is anyone ever going to investigate what it is about Darby Allin's character that every partner he's ever had, save Sting, has eventually turned on him? Sammy Guevara, AR Fox, and now Wayne? This only ends with Allin betraying Sting eventually, right?

AEW World Trios Championship Match: The Acclaimed (c) (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn) defeated Iron Savages (Boulder, Bronson, & Jacked Jameson) to retain

"The Acclaimed had their big moment at Wembley. It’s time to move on."

DISAGREE, Wrestling Observer. However, I do think that having a trios title in ROH and a separate one in AEW is a bit redundant, with there not being enough trios groups in each promotion. It might be time for AEW's first ever title unification match, by which I mean the AEW straps get unified into the ROH legacy.

Toni Storm defeated Kiera Hogan

"Timeless Toni sure is wacky. Storm handed Hogan a script for the match, which Hogan threw back in her face. Might want to save that for backstage... Storm told us to stay tuned during the commercial, after which we went to a commercial."

If Toni's actress persona goes deeper down the rabbit hole with "the gimmick becomes self-aware" and plays up the knows-shes-a-TV-character angle, that would be some truly weird meta-territory to cover. We've only had teeny bits of that, like when Sammy Guevara would come out with handwritten signs for the picture-in-picture, or Matt Hardy using Instant Transmission.

ROH World CHampionship Match: Eddie Kingston (c) defeated Komander to retain

"This looked like an odd style match-up on paper, but these two worked well together to have a solid title match."

Adam Copeland Speaks

Copeland started by saluting Jim Ross for signing him to his first contract all those years ago... Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne made their way to the ring, but Copeland got the jump on them. Copeland hit the Impaler DDT on Wayne and loaded up for a spear, but Luchasaurus caught him and hit a chokeslam. Luchasaurus hit the rabbit lariat – now called The Extinction – before grabbing a pair of chairs.

Darby Allin’s music hit before Allin took out Luchasaurus with a pair of chairs. Allin hesitated to hit Wayne with the chair, but after clearing out Luchasaurus, Wayne hit a dropkick on Allin. Luchasaurus ripped Allin into the corner, then ripped the brace off of Allin’s arm. Wayne hit a Con-Chair-To to Allin’s arm, and the two stood tall over Copeland and Allin as we faded out."

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (1 comment total)

Also, I have no specific place to put this, but the Young Bucks finally appeared with RJ City on Hey! EW

Ranks #1 in the amount of Sonjay Dutt backstage laughs.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 1:21 PM on October 8, 2023