AEW Collision: Winter Is Coming Review - December 14, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Willow Nightingale def. Jamie Hayter in a Wrestle Dynasty International Women's Cup Qualifier Finals Match

This was just the culmination of AEW's portion of the International Women's Cup heading into Wrestle Dynasty. Athena qualified on behalf of Ring of Honor the other day, and I'm not sure who will be representing New Japan Pro-Wrestling and CMLL. Hayter has been racking up wins since returning (which somehow hasn't translated to a title shot yet), but this may have been her first truly great match in some time. She and Nightingale worked really well together and I was pleasantly surprised Nightingale won clean. Julia Hart finally returned afterward to attack Hayter and officially put their program into motion.

AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada def. The Beast Mortos in a Continental Classic Blue League Match (Non-Title)

It's well documented how talented Mortos is and that's why he's in the Continental Classic, but this was one of those instances where the match didn't need to be long simply for the sake of being long. Okada hasn't felt special since arriving in AEW and giving him competitive matches with guys like Mortos (who has never won an important match on AEW TV to my knowledge) isn't going to help with that. This was a well-wrestled affair with an obvious outcome.

Toni Storm def. Shazza McKenzie

Storm's first bout back since returning to television on Dynamite actually happened on Friday's Rampage. This was essentially the same thing in that it was a total squash for Storm. More interesting than the match itself was Storm's post-match promo where she declared herself "All Elite" before "introducing" herself to Thunder Rosa and Tony Schiavone backstage. Apparently Storm's new shtick is that she has amnesia or something, so color me intrigued.

Action Andretti and Lio Rush def. Top Flight in an AEW World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender's Match

I can't imagine there's too many people who care about the ongoing Top Flight drama, but I liked that their match was made more meaningful by a shot at the tag titles being on the line. This was fun stuff and the heel tendencies from Andretti and Rush were subtle yet noticeable. I don't believe it was confirmed that Andretti and Rush would be challenging Private Party at Worlds End specifically.

Kris Statlander def. Tootie Lynn

This marked Statlander's first appearance since failing to beat Mercedes Mone for the AEW TNT Championship at Full Gear. If she doesn't go back after Mone, I'm not quite sure where she goes from here. Yes, there's always the AEW Women's World Championship, but as seen on Wednesday's Dynamite, Mariah May will be busy with Thunder Rosa and Storm for the next little while. This was a standard showcase to get her back on track.

Orange Cassidy, AEW TNT Champion Daniel Garcia, Komander and The Outrunners def. Premier Athletes (Josh Woods, Tony Nese and Ariya Daivari) and MxM Collection

Did I miss something? Why did this match exist? Cassidy remains in contention for the AEW World Championship, Garcia and Komander are a part of the Continental Classic, and The Outrunners keep doing their thing. There wasn't anything wrong with this match from an in-ring standpoint and the crowd was into the action, but it felt like a house show main event with zero significance. I'm not sure why Cassidy had to be involved in this.

Mark Briscoe def. Kyle Fletcher in a Continental Classic Blue League Match

Okada beating Mortos earlier in the episode may have made this even more shocking because I thought it would be a similar situation where Fletcher would win because it made the most sense coming off his victories over Okada and Will Ospreay. That's in addition to Briscoe beating Garcia last week, which I assumed was done to make Briscoe feel like a bigger threat to Fletcher here. They had a strong main event and the crowd was hot for the shock outcome. Fletcher losing to Briscoe isn't ideal, but Fletcher will be fine and it keeps things unpredictable in the tournament.

Overall Show

Collision has been a much better show in the past few weeks thanks to the Continental Classic, but that wasn't entirely the reason why this was an above-average episode. The main event did indeed stand out, but the rest of the show also felt focused and had a stronger layout than usual. This is the formula Collision needs to follow more often, especially considering Dynamite's quality from week to week isn't consistent as it once was.

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