AEW Collision: November 11, 2023

November 12, 2023 8:30 AM - Season 1, Episode 22

A very fast moving episode of Collision fills in the blank undercard spaces for Full Gear, and also introducing Tony Khan's very own version of a G1-style tournament.

Poster's note: I've gotten in the habit of missing Collision live on Saturdays and instead making these posts after the show (with occasional exceptions), but by contrast I'm usually making the Dynamite FF posts either before or while I'm watching it (with occasional exceptions). The upside of doing it after the show is that I have the option to include excerpts from the web like this post about yesterday's show from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The downside is that we lose the ability to do live comments as the show happens (which FanFare rarely gets). Does anyone else who reads these have any preferences?

Collision results:

Andrade El Idolo (w/ CJ Perry) defeated Daniel Garcia

"A quality opener here on Collision, as the Andrade/Perry pairing equaled success. An Andrade/Miro program has my interest. Meanwhile, Garcia chalked up another hard-fought loss here. I’m hoping he’s due for something substantial soon before the fans lose faith in him."

Nick Wayne (w/ Christian Cage & Luchasaurus) defeated Dalton Castle (w/ The Boys)

"Interesting to see Castle back as a straight babyface after last week's questionable actions against The Acclaimed. AEW usually does a better job of keeping up and explaining things like that."

Nah, sorry WON. This show would have to work much harder to get me to boo Dalton Castle.

Hangman Page announced that his rematch against Swerve Strickland at Full Gear would be a Texas Death Match.

La Faccion Ingobernable (Dralistico & Rush) defeated The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake)

"After the match, House of Black appeared on the screen. They had an issue with LFI, so Black had the idea of taking what LFI wanted so they would have to chase them. On behalf of Black, Brody King challenged Ricky Starks & Big Bill for the AEW World Tag Team Titles at Full Gear. Julia Hart was upset that Willow Nightingale & Skye Blue kept rejecting her “gift”, so Hart made a challenge. If she could beat Nightingale tonight, Kris Statlander would give her a rematch for the TBS Title at Full Gear."

More on the Hart/Nightingale match below, but I think this is the first indication that all of Julia Hart's spooky doings are actually endorsed/supported by the rest of the House. It's always good when the women's division can be shown to co-exist with the rest of the show, instead of its own bubble.

Roderick Strong (w/ The Kingdom) defeated Darius Martin

It would be interesting to compare and contrast what Roderick Strong and The Kingdom are doing as chickenshit deluded heels vs. what Bullet Club Gold is doing. Strong is doing comedic segments while secretly being a very skilled wrestler, whereas right now Jay White is very noticeably a skilled wrestler but is still getting go-away heat with the fans.

"Tony Khan & Bryan Danielson were backstage. He talked about Danielson’s retirement tour before talking about how this year’s All In missed the presence of several of AEW’s top stars due to injury, including Danielson. Khan said that Danielson would be a part of All In 2024 before they plugged the on-sale date and pre-sale signups for Wembley."

"Khan then announced the first-ever Continental Classic, a round-robin tournament featuring 12 of AEW’s top stars wrestling weekly. The tournament starts on November 22nd in Chicago, with the final television matches taking place on December 27th in Orlando, Florida. The tournament finals would take place at the Worlds End PPV on December 30th. Khan announced that, against all odds, Bryan Danielson would be cleared to participate in the Continental Classic. Danielson said that nothing would stop him from being in this tournament and making it the best wrestling tournament ever."

TBS Title Qualifying Match: Julia Hart (w/ Brody King) defeated Willow Nightingale

"Outside of the awkward spot near the end, this was a high-level TV match. Julia Hart has become a real-deal prospect in the women’s division, as her performances in longer matches have been exceptional."

Powerhouse Hobbs (w/ Don Callis) defeated Titus Alexander

...which was all an excuse for Callis to come out after the match to annoy Paul Wight, who had joined the commentary desk filling in for Kevin Kelly. Wight kept his cool for most of the segment, only standing up at the end when Hobbs approached, not seeming afraid at all. It bothers me a little that Hobbs was explicitly doing Mark Henry's "World's Strongest Slam", when heel booking logic says he should be ripping off Wight's moves instead. I was also expecting, since this is Callis' last chance to cut a promo before next week's match, that he would make some joke about how many times Wight has heel-turned on an ally, The fact that he didn't makes me wonder if an actual betrayal is incoming.

Adam Copeland, Darby Allin & Sting defeated Lance Archer & The Righteous (w/Jake Roberts)

"A fun, breezy main event with the good guys standing tall and staring down at their opponents for Full Gear. This episode of Collision was very busy filling out more of the Full Gear undercard, but it was effective in doing so."

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (6 comments total)

Friendly reminder to no one in particular that next week's Collision is being shifted to Friday for sports reasons, effectively making a three hour block with Rampage.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:39 PM on November 12, 2023

Ha ha I’m such a scatterbrain sometimes. It’s not being pushed to Friday because of sports, it’s because FULL GEAR is on Saturday!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:58 AM on November 13, 2023

It’s not being pushed to Friday because of sports, it’s because FULL GEAR is on Saturday!

I will be there! Good luck spotting me, though; as my wife loves pointing out, every guy in the AEW audience looks like me.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:01 PM on November 13, 2023 [1 favorite]

I prefer after so I can get any info you post from around the web. Life has been getting in the way recently so I haven’t been watching it a great deal. I do always read your posts, so thank you!
posted by Ramo at 4:03 AM on November 15, 2023

Good luck spotting me, though; as my wife loves pointing out, every guy in the AEW audience looks like me.

Be sure to bring a sign that says something clever about video games, you will definitely stand out then!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:41 AM on November 15, 2023

Be sure to bring a sign that says something clever about video games, you will definitely stand out then

When I saw the FOUR NAAN?! sign at All In London I gave up on ever coming up with a better sign than that.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:50 PM on November 15, 2023