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The latest episode of AEW Collision took place in Seattle, Washington ahead of WrestleDream on Sunday night. The overall action in this episode was once again solid, with all of the TV content centred around finalising previews for WrestleDream.
A 1 to 10 point scale will be used each week to score wrestlers who appear in matches on AEW Collision, and occasionally in notable segments. Wrestlers will be scored as follows:
Note: Not all personalities who appear will be scored i.e. wrestlers in backstage promos or interviews, jobbers. Wrestlers who feature in matches but are not part of AEW’s roster will be scored but will not feature in the Form Table.
Let’s take a look at this week’s ratings:
Juice Robinson (7) vs Andrade ‘El Idolo’ (7):
The opening match of the night just so happened to be the best match on the episode. Albeit, it didn’t quite hit the heights of Andrade’s hot streak of singles matches on Collision - could this possibly have been to do with its place on the card? It started off at a lower intensity, but picked up drastically in the final third. Despite saying that, it was still a fantastic TV match. Juice did well to bring the crowd down by mocking the Lucha Libre culture, allowing the crowd to invest their energy into Andrade as a crowd favourite.
The few key highlights in the match were mainly offense. Andrade hit a smooth big toss into the turnbuckle and his elbow strike was so cleanly hit. It is primarily used as a transitional move, however it can very well be a signature finisher.
Best Friends (6) vs The Kingdom (6):
Matt Taven often substitutes his lack of technical wrestling with a good level of ring psychology and ability to sell. As a duo, this compliments The Kingdom very well alongside Mike Bennett’s wrestling ability. The post-match promo was really well done, and this duo are capitalising on getting due exposure as a companion piece of the hottest storyline in AEW over the summer.
Trent Beretta is underrated. He demonstrated in this match how much of a good worker he is, and commands a crowd quite well as part of Best Friends. The Death Valley Driver onto the steel steps by Beretta on Bennett looked brutal yet safe, gathering the biggest pop of the match. Chuck Taylor did seem to mistime the break up of a pin - but nowhere near as consequential as the miscue later on in the night.
Julia Hart (6) vs Vertvixen (5):
Julia Hart’s intensity in the ring matches differently to the intensity out of the ring, but it meshes well together. The more she wrestles, the better she gets. It was a fairly quick match but advances the feud between her and Statlander.
Hart’s moonsault was highly impressively, visually and also because there was barely any wiggle room to get it wrong given how close Vertvixen was positioned to the ropes.
Gates of Agony (7) vs Kenny Omega (7) & Chris Jericho (7):
The way Jericho got the crowd hyped here was an indictment of how excellent he is at commanding the crowd to feel what he wants them to feel - the sign of an absolute great. Gates of Agony looked dominant for long stretches of the match. Toa Liona in particular looks the real deal, using a real variety in his moveset when staying on top of his opponent.
Omega rolling away from his opponent and having a clear route to the hot tag, yet deciding to use one more move was an off-putting element of the momentum builder. Post-match, it was rare mic time for Omega who bossed it to build up the WrestleDream match.
The Righteous (6) vs Judas Icarus and Travis Williams (5):
Rounding off the night for Ring of Honor talent, this team are a great teller of the pay-off that Collision has had in return for showcasing ROH wrestlers - people care about them. The commentary team have been doing a great job recently putting The Righteous over, and this match was a mean way of showcasing what they are about. Dutch looked like a formidable mammoth in front of his opponents. Bringing out the wooden block to chop the foot off was unique and could carry a wow moment going forward. The wrestling may not be a stand-out feature, but the presentation is carrying The Righteous over into some serious relevance.
Ricky Starks & Big Bill (6) & Aussie Open (7) vs FTR (6), Wheeler Yuta (7) & Bryan Danielson (7):
It was great craic to see Starks genuinely pretending to be in receipt of the ovation that hometown boy Danielson got at the start of the match. Seeing Fletcher and Yuta go hard was a notable feature in this match, with some wrestling getting a chance to shine more than others - a la Fletcher, Yuta and Davis. The visual of seeing all four babyfaces simultaneously hit the Yes kick was a cool sight in front of a Seattle crowd.
The finish was notably awkward. It seemed like either Wheeler was mispositioned to break the pin or Big Bill was not convincing enough at the visual of stopping Wheeler. Either way, referee Aubrey Edwards followed through on counting to three to not force a similar mishap to Rick Knox the other week.
Form Table
Click the below images to see this week's updated form tables:
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