AEW Collision: November 25, 2023 (& Rampage)

November 25, 2023 3:52 PM - Season 1, Episode 24

Tony Khan has taken the ballsy move of keeping Collision on Saturday night and also moving Rampage back a day, creating a three-hour block to counter-program against WWE's Survivor Series. Tonight, the Continental Classic prelims continue, House of Black vs. luchadors, and Keith Lee vs. Lee Moriarty #LeeFight

The announced cards for tonight:

AEW Rampage --

Ring Of Honor Pure Championship Match: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. against Wheeler Yuta

Yuta, a former Pure Champion himself, earned this match after scoring a Pure win on Thursday. Currently no one in the Blackpool Combat Club holds a title and you know that rankles them.

Kris Statlander vs. Diamante -- first time ever 1-on-1

Rocky Romero issues on Open Challenge

He's now styling himself as the "International Gatekeeper of Professional Wrestling".

AEW Collision --

Continental Classic Tournament Match: Eddie Kingston vs. Brody King

The problem with this week's announcement -- that Eddie's ROH World Championship and his NJPW Strong Openweight Championship will be part of the "Triple Crown" prize for the tournament winner -- is that I know to a 99% certainty that Eddie's making it to the final match. (Hey, prove me wrong TK, and I'll admit to being worked). Still the tournament point structure means that Eddie can still take a loss to a monster-man like Brody King and still barely make it out of the Blue block.

Continental Classic Tournament Match: Daniel Garcia vs. Claudio Castagnoli

On the other hand, this match had better leave Garcia as a thinly-smeared paste on the floor, or something is deeply wrong.

Keith Lee vs. Lee Moriarty

Real damn shame Keith Lee can't shine in this tournament, but on consideration he still has unfinished business with Lee Moriarty and his current ally Shane Taylor, who was Keith's tag partner back in the day.

FTR vs. The Righteous

House of Black vs. Komander & Gravity

HoB had some of their best matches against the Lucha Bros., then Malakai Black picked a fight with Andrade, stealing his mask for a while, and now they have a match against this luchador team as well? Does HoB just hate luchadors? Is this the subtext I should be reading?

TBS Championship Match: Julia Hart (c) vs. Lady Frost

Frost is recently cleared to compete again after an injury in early October at an ROH taping. The House Rules stipulation returns under Julia Hart, which is great, who knows how this defense will go. She's an up-and-coming talent and the idea of a weird witch who's still a fighting champion can go in several intriguing directions.

We'll hear from Adam Copeland

If a crying Shayna Wayne hits him with a chair, welp, he deserves it.

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (7 comments total)

Looks like Rocky's starting the show, and his opponent is Hook. Commentary reminds us that besides Hook being the reigning FTW Champion, Rocky is CMLL's World Historic Welterweight Championship.

The great thing about Hook's suplexes is that they're slow. There's always this instant where he seems to pause mid-lift, and I'm like "Uh oh, maybe he can't actually get this person through the top of the arc?" and then NOPE here comes the slam. He gets the win, and isn't it time to start thinking about the next defense of the FTW belt?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:16 PM on November 25, 2023

Statlander manages a win over Diamánte, but it came close there, close enough that I thought the storyline would be that "Statlander has the yips after losing her title". Mercedes Martinez shows up for some post-match castigo, and Willow Nightingale makes the save... have I not seen this exact finish before? Recently?

Also, The Kingdom is here! They have some fun time aggravating the crowd while some jobbers wait in the ring, declare their intention to claim the ROH World Tag titles from Adam Cole and MJF. But I'm engaged by their slogan changing from "No Neck November" to "Neck The Halls". If they're not careful, this gimmick could turn them face.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 4:50 PM on November 25, 2023

Yuta, who self-identified as a prick and an asshole, gets a cheap heel win over Shibata with a dick-punch during a ref bump, to become a 3-time Pure Champion. Hook comes out to scare him away, and damned if the little goblin doesn't try to get handshakes from Christopher Daniels and Jimmy Jacobs on his way out.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:06 PM on November 25, 2023

One of the most consistent character notes of commentator Nigel McGuinness is his unrelenting hatred of Bryan Danielson, with roots in their history back in Ring Of Honor. Tonight Nigel is saying that "the clamdigger" isn't here to have his match vs. Andrade, and needs to get "sponsored by bubble wrap" (which is a great idea, actually).

Luchasaurus/Killswitch shows up to win an easy 2-on-1 handicap match vs. The Boys, and Adam Copeland shows up to deliver some chair-shot vengeance rather than deliver a promo.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 5:25 PM on November 25, 2023

Komander getting in his usual amazing rope walk, but Gravity seemed to be the weak link on the team, (maybe?) messing up a grappling spot with Malakai and slowing down the action in the middle of the match. Eventually HoB gets the victory after a dramatic spot where the luchador was crawling towards Malakai sitting cross-legged in the ring, only for Buddy Matthews to come in and stomp him.

Julia Hart walks out for her match with even more drip than when she won the title. Frost puts up a brief fight with an outcome never really in doubt.

Oh, and now that Dante Martin is medically cleared, it looks like he and his brother and Action Andretti are making Top Flight a trio now? Or at least that's the impression that I got from the promo that was twice interrupted by commercials. Get your shit together, production truck monkeys!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:08 PM on November 25, 2023

Ricky Starks and Big Bill come out for an excellent promo where Bill name-dropped a lot of basketball legends Stark didn't know, and then turned serious about his alcoholism after being laid off from WWE. They apparently have respect for Kenny Omega but none for Jericho.

Keith Lee continues to be awesome, doing fricking bicep curls with Lee Moriarty trying to wrench his arm and eventually winning with a massive bodyslam.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:46 PM on November 25, 2023

Eddie puts up his best King's Road style fight against the larger man, scoring near falls with his backhand and an impressive ability to get him over for suplexes, but in the end Brody's is too much of a savage.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:34 PM on November 25, 2023