AEW Collision Review - October 14, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Adam Copeland, Bryan Danielson and FTR Exchanged Words with AEW TNT Champion Christian Cage and AEW World Tag Team Champion Ricky Starks

This segment felt like it was ripped straight from WWE TV, and that's not a compliment. It wasn't a bad segment per se, but there was a whole lot of talking to hype a main event that was already scheduled for the night. I'm curious what the plan is for Copeland and Christian. If they're going to have a match at Full Gear, then it makes sense to have them interact a ton ahead of the event. If AEW is holding off on that for another time, then it's silly to overexpose them being in the ring together so much this early in the program.

ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe def. Willie Mack

The commentators mentioned Joe is 20 days away from breaking Jay Lethal's record as the longest-reigning ROH World Television Champion of all-time. I assume that's why he's been champ for as long as he has because he outgrew that title a while ago and definitely doesn't need it at this point. At any rate, this was fun stuff from him and Mack. I don't believe Mack is signed because he was wrestling for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship just recently, but he's a nice get for AEW whenever he can appear.

Juice Robinson def. Christopher Daniels

Even at this stage of his career, Daniels can still very much go in the ring and I'm glad to see him in action regardless of the show. This was designed to give Robinson a win ahead of the Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale and I thought they had a quality contest. Jay White got another chance to address MJF afterward and it's great he's getting as much mic time as he is ahead of that championship clash of Full Gear. White already feels like one of AEW's top guys.

Kyle Fletcher def. Boulder

Boulder is the bigger dude from Iron Savages, for those unfamiliar. It didn't take long for Boulder to put him away and it shouldn't lasted any longer than it did, anyway. Later on in a backstage, Fletcher challenged Kenny Omega to a one-on-one match on next week's Dynamite. That should be a killer match, and as I've said before, I'm all for Fletcher getting a singles push while his tag partner Mark Davis is out injured.

AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander def. Skye Blue

I guess Blue's victory over Emi Sakura on Friday's Rampage was enough to earn her this opportunity, even though that was the first televised singles win she's picked up in a while (at least to my memory). I don't know that they needed to rush into this, but it was a very well-worked match and one of Blue's best in my opinion. She's still sporting the darker makeup after being "misted" by Julia Hart, so we'll see where that goes. Willow Nightingale might be next in line for an opportunity based on her post-match interaction with Statlander.

Keith Lee def. Turbo Floyd

Floyd is one-half of The Outrunners. Lee made quick work of him as he should have, and that was it. We didn't hear from Lee at all on this show, but we've heard him cut promos about Shane Taylor and vice versa. I'm looking forward to their eventual encounter (they had awesome chemistry as partners back in the day), but I wish Taylor had more matches on AEW TV to feel like an actual threat before then.

AEW TNT Champion Christian Cage def. Bryan Danielson

This was a match straight out of WWE SmackDown 2011 and I absolutely loved it. Christian has done the character work exceptionally well this year, but this served as another reminder of how he can bring it in the ring as well. Danielson is on a level of his own as well, so this was the outstanding main event you'd expect from them. I didn't mind Starks and Bill interfering to aid Christian to victory, but I could have done without the post-match brawl like what we got on Dynamite.

Overall Show

This edition of Collision had enough "good" to make it worthwhile if you tuned in live, but not enough meat in the middle to check it out if you didn't. The main event was excellent and the TBS title match exceeded my expectations, but the rest of the show felt like it was filled with squashes and setup for stuff to come. It certainly wasn't the most exciting episode on the whole, though I appreciate they're keeping certain stars and storylines exclusive to the program (which didn't appear to be the case a few weeks ago).

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews