AEW Collision Review - September 16, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Ricky Starks and Big Bill def. Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson and ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli)

​It's a strange dynamic within Blackpool Combat Club right now as Danielson is back in babyface mode and Castagnoli was a babyface in this match simply by association, yet we're supposed to see Castagnoli as the heel heading into his ROH World Championship defense against Eddie Kingston at Grand Slam. The important thing is that this was a very enjoyable opener with plenty of time and the correct outcome with Starks pinning Danielson. Starks and Danielson will have a Texas Death match on next week's Collision to settle their score.

AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR def. Iron Savages (Bronson and Boulder)

I've always been impressed by Iron Savages, but the AEW audience has never been given a reason to care about them. They consistently lose on the main shows and come off as stepping stones. That's why I wasn't bummed this was only a few minutes. I'm all for seeing FTR compete regularly and defend their titles, but Iron Savages and now The Workhorsemen? They're quality teams, but those matches belong on ROH TV, not on Collision coming off some of the bangers FTR have had in recent months.

John Silver def. AEW World Trios Champion Anthony Bowens

Bowens vs. Evil Uno was the announced match on Rampage, but Silver was Uno's last-minute replacement, possibly due to injury. I'd rather watch Silver in the ring over Uno, so that was an improvement. Either way, I still don't care about Dark Order or the idea of them challenging for the AEW World Trios Championship, but that's where we're headed. This match was decent, but I can't say it did much for me, personally.

Aussie Open def. Pretty Boy Smooth and Wes Barkley

This was similar to the squash Aussie Open had on Friday's Rampage as they also won here in under a minute. There was no reason for it to go any longer than that. They got on the mic afterward and challenged FTR to an AEW World Tag Team Championship match at WrestleDream on October 1st, which just so happens to be the one-year anniversary of when FTR beat Aussie Open in their first-ever encounter in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. That should be great.

Andrade El Idolo def. Scorpio Sky

It looked like Sky was going to be a focal point on Collision when he initially came back a few months ago, but then he got injured again and CM Punk's departure resulted in the soft roster split being done away with. On the bright side, he and Andrade had a competitive contest here, so it wasn't as if he was straight-up squashed. Post-match, Jay White challenged Andrade to a match next week and that should be awesome. I guess we're never getting Andrade vs. Malakai Black despite Andrade feuding with House of Black for the first six weeks of Collision.

The Righteous def. The Hardys

Is it much of a coincidence that The Hardys are only now making their Collision debut after Punk is gone? They've lost so much since Jeff's return that beating them means very little these days, so I don't know how much this does to actually benefit The Righteous. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of The Righteous and am glad they're getting television time, but my bigger takeaway from this was that The Hardys need to be protected a bit more. The match was solid, but the commercial break took up most of it.

AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander def. Britt Baker

Statlander was the heel here with this show emanating from Baker's alma mater. I didn't like how this came together on such short notice because it's probably one of the biggest women's matches AEW can do at this point, but they definitely delivered a strong main event, though I wasn't a fan of Statlander kicking out of three consecutive finishers from Baker down the stretch. The crowd bought into the possibility of Baker winning, but Statlander retained as she should have. Beating Jade Cargill followed by Baker within 24 hours is exactly what she needed as champion.

Overall Show

On a random side note, I'd be down for Bobby Cruise becoming Collision's permanent ring announcer. He's so much better than Dasha. At any rate, this was the third Punk-less Collision, and I can safely say that the show is quickly started to feel like a mix between Dynamite and Rampage as opposed to feeling like an alternative to those two shows. This is why I was in favor of the soft roster split, because now very little feels exclusive to Collision aside from the stuff with Starks and Danielson. This was a middle-of-the-road episode on the whole. The opener and the main event were the best parts. If this is the new norm for Collision (and time will tell), then that's disappointing.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews