AEW Collision Review - September 21, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

ROH World Tag Team Champions Sammy Guevara and ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion Dustin Rhodes def. The Undisputed Kingdom (Mike Bennett and Matt Taven) in a Bunkhouse Brawl

I left The Big E (the festival, not the wrestler) across town to attempt to make it to the building in time, but traffic caused me to get to my seat just as this match was ending, so I had to go back it watch it later on. Unsurprisingly, I missed the best part of the entire show. It was as fun as you'd expect with all four guys making the most of the stipulation and having a hell of a brawl. For as little as I care about Guevara at this point, he and Rhodes work really well as partners.

The Conglomeration (ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe and Kyle O'Reilly) and Hologram def. Premier Athletes (Josh Woods, Ariya Daivari and Tony Nese)

You can throw this in the category of Conglomeration matches that do not mater. To their credit, the heels got good heat from the crowd, so there was nothing technically wrong with the match, but being there live, I can tell you that it felt like a house show match. That would be passable if the rest of Collision didn't feel equally inconsequential. At least The Learning Tree crew didn't come out afterward.

AEW Women's World Champion Mariah May def. Lady Frost in an AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Match

It's been announced that May will defend the AEW Women's World Championship on Wednesday's Grand Slam edition of Dynamite, so I don't think there was much mystery surrounding the outcome of this contest. Then again, I don't think there would have been much mystery, regardless. Nothing against Frost, but she hasn't been established as a player whatsoever on AEW TV, and that's why this was so short and in favor of May.

Darby Allin def. Evil Uno

Allin attempting to fire up Uno earlier on backstage was a nice change of pace, even though there was zero chance of Uno winning. Nonetheless, they had a perfectly fine match in the time they were allotted. Additionally, I appreciated that it didn't last longer than it needed to considering Allin will be fighting Jon Moxley at Grand Slam this Wednesday with his AEW World Championship shot on the line.

Serena Deeb def. Queen Aminata

These two have been going back and forth in promos for the last few weeks. I'm glad we got their match, but I wish it had been announced at least a few days in advance. This was the second best match on the show next to the opener. They were given an ample amount of time and the crowd got into the action as the match progressed. Aminata loses nothing in defeat here, and now Deeb sets her sights on Britt Baker heading into Dynamite's five-year anniversary episode in Baker's hometown of Pittsburgh.

Rush, The Beast Mortos, Roderick Strong and Grizzled Young Veterans def. FTR, The Outrunners and FTW Champion Hook

AEW billed this as one of their "all star" multi-man tag team matches, except it lacked a lot more star power than some of the other ones we've seen on Collision over the last year. I like when AEW gives the Collision main events some time, but this really didn't need to last as long as it did. Rush pinning Dax Harwood was weird considering they aren't feuding at the moment, but the heels winning was the right call.

Nigel McGuinness Addressed AEW World Champion Bryan Danielson

There were still several minutes left in the show after the main event ended, so I figured we would get a last-minute promo from McGuinness ahead of Grand Slam and I was happy to have been right. It was well delivered, but the crowd was largely quiet and it dragged. Even his interaction with Tony Schiavone didn't seem to serve a purpose. Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to Danielson vs. McGuinness, but the build has been rushed and lazy.

Overall Show

Although the arena was maybe two-thirds full (and it's a small arena to begin with), I was pleasantly surprised that AEW managed to bring in as many people as they did considering the aforementioned Big E festival is going on and Saturday specifically was the highest-attended day of the month so far (ever, actually). The crowd's energy waned as the night went on and it was a subpar episode on the whole, but the Bunkhouse Brawl was an enjoyable time.

SEE MORE: Collision Reviews