Welcome! Today we're finally covering the final stretch of AEW TV content before the Forbidden Door show. Yes, for the newcomers, I do tend to be behind on stuff. Hopefully my new BOUT BLITZ show will help with that. I'll be using two/three episodes of AEW Spark, the playlist show, for this one. It'll make sense in a bit.
MJF was saved by the bell in his singles match with Adam Cole, then refused to allow for more time. A sweet match with a logical finish given the situation. More than suitable TV content and worth a watch. I'm admittedly big on AEW running time-limit draw bombs on TV from time to time and am always happy when I see the latest example pop up.
Not enough of the six-man between CHAOS' Rocky, Chucky, and Trent(y) versus Ospreay and the Aussies was shown to rate, so I went and watched it solo. It looked like it was worth the time. It was. True chaotic entertainment, making for a very fun watch; this worked well as a building block to The Door show and is an easy recommendation for sure.
Blue, rising star of the division with some nice buzz, got her shot at the division top strap next. Sadly, it was below expectations. They gave Skye a visual victory, then ran the distraction finish for a cheap W. I really want to get behind this nW♀ group. I really do. I've been able to vibe with them at times, even. The issue is the effort level behind the story is...weak. I get that TK books women's main events and stuff and has ran gimmick matches with the division that you don't see in WWE. That doesn't mean he's doing good with the entire division, though. Folks can have differing opinions, of course, but I feel the same way people bow to Biden simply for not being Trump happens with AEW. That same mental leap results in fans praising AEW and makes them ignore the faults. Diehard WWE fans constantly trolling helps force fans into their tribal mentality further.
The roster has the talent to be excellent. The effort is the issue. One match a night is the norm. It's usually in the "bathroom break" section. What we get tends to be low on time with minimal advancement blocks. This unit at this point has been 2D and the division itself typically is paper thin, in general. I want it to be better because the fans and wrestlers deserve better. Oh well.
I'll move on.
Running Bandido versus Takeshita as a main event is a fun choice, but it'd have been nice if it had been built a bit. Rampage is home of low-effort booking, though. I placed it here, in the middle, because that felt right. What was shown was pretty fun stuff, as expected considering the talent. Soup as a heel is just fun and I am big on that, at least. Super Dragon should book a rematch. Randomly thrown together stuff on PWG shows is more acceptable and it might be a MOTYC in that setting, to be honest.
Big men hit each other. Wardlow retained the TNT strap. Hager lost. It was fine, I guess, but did little for either nor the belt. This division has been so sloppy for way too long.
BCC and The Elite main evented, keeping their program rolling because it's just too good to end it too early. The Elite even got a bounce back victory after they tried their best to kill Yuta. The dude looked like he thought he was back in CHIKARA by the end. I actually went and watched the full thing for this one Like the United Empire match, I also went and watched this one in full and thought it was just another awesome chapter in this ongoing.
After, we had car crash TV that really should've been ran the following week.
Oh well.
The Club attacked in post, broken up by Eddie Kingston coming out to target Claudio. He'd backhand some fuckers then share a moment with Mox that allowed Matt Jackson a chance to even up. Soup was out next, quickly left alone in the ring. Who came out next? Omega for a fire moment. The Elite helped, then dove to the outside, leaving Kenny alone. Omega would V-Trigger his rival from DDT before Ospreay made an appearance to fuck shit up. Danielson would clap from the stage.
Very Long-era SD kind of stuff to close the show. In a good way.
Yeah, that really should've been on the go-home Dynamite the following week.
My review of the debut episode of Collision can be found HERE. I also released a Spark playlist featuring the content HERE.
AEW Spark: Last Stop Super Stuffed
The concession stand brawl kicks us off. Overbooked and over the top, but entertaining in the same way that a brain-off, popcorn film can be okay from time to time. Very sports entertainment, Double-J era TNA stuff, though. CD, the Best Friends, and the Lucha Bros helped fight off Jeff's unit and a flash pin gave Briscoe the win.
Jeff and Matt faced the Gunn kids in the two-spot. Remember when HBK would sell like a loon? We even got a cheap finish. Meh. After, Bullet Club Gold attacked. FTR tried for the save and failed. Punk eventually joined, allowing for the faces to stand alone. That was a fun moment, at least.
Punk, mic in hand, set up a match at Collision. Fans wanted something for them, but the Chicago douche reminded people he's not even supposed to be there and prefers his work to be done on Saturdays.
Story Time with Adam Cole? Why not!? MJF joined, of course. The segment was a bit rough around the edges, to be honest, but worked well enough. Decent talking TV. They'll be partners, which I know ends up being pretty popular, and Cole got MJF to accept the match with Tanahashi. That's the summary for people that don't wanna watch 8-minutes of chat.
What a weird matchup, in a good way, we have next! Red Death and the Tech Wizard faced The Wrestler and Fire Ant in tag team action. Good stuff and certainly my favorite thing from that Dynamite episode for sure. Remember when Daniel was getting over and instead of leaning into it, they kept him heel and have nerfed a lot of his momentum? He feels like a random face that just has good matches from time to time now. I'm sure that choice was made because they had something big planned with the JAS. Right? Oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. At least he got a fun W moment to close this one.
Kingston had a mic. Talked shit about people like he does. Mox came out. E.K. loves J.M. and the fans love E.K. Ishii was announced as teaming with Eddie and The Elite's Page and the Bucks. BCC attacked. Okada came out to save the Stone Pitbull from Danielson to have an epic stare down. Poor Yuta.
I think I've been behind Eddie for so long because the dude resonates a lot with me. I really wish Quack hadn't turned out to be such a piece of crap so I'd feel better about promoting CHIKARA stuff here. Fuck you, Quack.
United Empire's Cobb, Fletcher, and Ospreay teamed with Swerve to face CHAOS's YOH, Rocky, Trent, and Taylor in an atomico to open the go-home Rampage. Nonstop, balls to the wall action. I'll never complain about Jeff Cobb being on television, to be fair. Will get the win.
MJF thanked Cole for talking him into his match with Tanahashi. He told him he got him a match with Lawlor. Adam was attacked from behind while the champ took his time coming to the rescue. Cheap but fun. Sadly the payoff didn't occur. I actually really like Lawlor as a worker.
Next, Perry and DOUKI of all fucking people worked a singles match. This was a Rampage main event, once again proving a point I keep making about how lazy this show is booked. With some effort before, this would actually be fine in this spot. Instead, it was a contest that was fun in a vacuum but a reminder in reality. Outside of being a legit good contest, I also did appreciate DOUKI getting over. I like that talents get over quick simply by working hard with AEW crowds.
We move to Collision #2 to close things.
Andrade and Brody King, a week after the former beat Buddy, faced off. Hart tried to get involved in a distraction finish. Andrade wanted to remind people of his Flair connections. Buddy ran in to cause a DQ. The heels stood tall. Fine for a building block.
Christian Cage, with Luchasaurus, wore the TNT Championship and got a hometown welcome, joining Tony to cut a promo. He dogged on his city and mocked Toronto teams to perfection as a response. Cheap, fun television. He even mocked Cody and made it clear that he...they would be the face of TNT forever!
Atomico time to close the set, with the main event of Collision. Bullet Club Gold would take it here from FTR, Lil' Rocky, and CM C*nt. Did you know that some of the drama with the latter was shoot and some wasn't? Anyway, Juice landed a left on Starks and a Blade Runner followed to give White the 1, 2, 3 and an important victory for the growing side.
I dig the vibe of Collision. It has a nice attitude and atmosphere that I vibe with. Oh, and effort seems to exist.
A mixed-bag Spark playlist but tons of good stuff was mixed in.
The go-home Dynamite felt far more WWE TV leaning in style and quality than I cared for at times. They've set a high bar for themselves. I expect more. The tag match with Orange and the segment with Danielson, Eddie, Okada, etc. was good TV, at the very least.
AEW Spark: The First Collision
AEW Spark: Last Stop Super Stuffed
Ratings
- Adam Cole vs MJF ***3/4
- United Empire vs CHAOS ***3/4
- AEW Women's Title: Storm(c) vs Blue NR
- Takeshita vs Bandido NR
- TNT Title: Wardlow(c) vs Hager **
- The Elite vs BCC ****1/4
- CHECK OUT MY REVIEW OF COLLISION #1 HERE
- Concession Stand Brawl NR
- Hardys vs Gunn Club *1/2
- Orange, Shibata vs Sabre Jr, Gacia ***1/4
- United Empire, Swerve vs CHAOS ***
- Perry vs DOUKI ***1/4
- King vs Andrade NR
- Punk, Starks, FTR vs Bullet Club Gold ***1/4
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