By Will Pruett, ProWrestling.net Co-Senior Staffer (@itswilltime)
We had a bonus hour of programming last night, but I don’t have bonus thoughts to offer, so you get 10!
– AEW’s tribute to Ted Turner was really well done with Tony Shiavone and Sting opening the show and praising their former WCW boss. In so many ways AEW is a spiritual successor to WCW and this felt as close to a WCW tribute to Turner as we could get. Turner’s impact on wrestling, sports, and the world in general showed the (mostly) good a billionaire could do with their money, while still being obscenely rich. Turner is a fascinating character in American life. I was a little bit surprised to see Sting, in this segment, draw a straight line from Ted Turner to Tony Khan as keepers of professional wrestling.
– Darby Allin’s weekly Men’s World Championship defenses continued on this show with a very convincing and exciting match against Kevin Knight. Knight did not feel like a potential winner going into this show, but in the match itself, he had some really convincing moments that made me jump out of my seat. Allin has now given three men one of the best matches of their AEW careers in three different weeks while also cementing himself as a fully unique World Champion.
– Commentary continues to emphasize that no one has done with Darby Allin has and he continues to line up challengers. He left this show with three different World Championship matches in his future – Pac on Saturday, Kazuchika Okada next Wednesday, and a hair vs. championship match against MJF at Double or Nothing. Darby might end up with more title defenses than some AEW World Champions in one of the title’s shortest reigns.
– I am surprised that Okada’s first attempt to be AEW World Champion (aside from his match against Bryan Danielson on a the fifth anniversary of Dynamite) will come in a match with a forgone conclusion against Darby Allin. Now more than two years into Okada’s full time AEW run, he has been an upper-mid-card attraction and not a main event star. As he challenges for that title again, I have to wonder if Okada ever holds the AEW Men’s World Championship or if he will always be a step below it. It’s not a bad role for Okada, but I did expect him to have a significant run with the title when he signed in 2024. Now in 2026, I don’t know if he even reaches that level.
– Swerve Strickland is in a very odd place in AEW right now. He is not in the World Championship picture, despite weekly challenges for that title. He is in weird videos discussing “power” and how to get it. I believe anytime a wrestling show becomes about people making decisions and not about a world title, it’s a bad move. This has been true in AEW particularly – when the show has been about EVPs and Tony Khan, it suffers. Strickland is calling back to those eras of AEW programming in a depressing way. Hopefully he is able to find more to sink his teeth into – a match with Bandido is a good start.
– The overall build for Double or Nothing is a bit off for me. Perhaps it is the weekly World Championship matches keeping us from having a firmly announced title match for that show or it could be the lack of a lot of announced matches at this point, just about two weeks out. AEW TV has been operating at a high level for the last month, but I don’t sense that we are just a couple weeks out from a major crescendo at Double or Nothing – add to this the delay (hopefully just a delay) of the Owen Hart Tournament that usually concludes at Double or Nothing – and you have a show in a couple weeks without a lot of its identity.
– Speaking of the identity of Double or Nothing, we did learn about the return of Stadium Stampede on this show. Ricochet and The Demand (along with two others) will take on Chris Jericho and a merry band or four pals we have yet to learn about (although The Hurt Syndicate could be assumed to be part of it). This is much colder than the Anarchy in the Arena matches have been in prior years. I did not expect AEW to give us something as red hot as last year’s Anarchy in the Arena match (Let the bodies hit the floor…) on short notice, but Jericho putting together a team feels like the weakest possible choice. A little over a month ago, I expected a Death Riders and Don Callis Family match.
– So much of the AEW Women’s division seems to be in a holding pattern right now. On Collision we saw Jamie Hayter continue her feud with the Triangle of Madness, perhaps leading to a rematch with Thekla. Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander are continuing their tag team and eventual feud – running it longer than it needs to before the break up. Willow Nightingale is comeback killing and doing a great job, but the whole division feels stuck. No one is moving forward or backward. We are just hanging out. Toni Storm’s absence is not an excuse anymore. It has been almost two months. Where is the movement and progress?
– Dax Harwood vs. Orange Cassidy was a legitimate surprise to me, with Cassidy winning. I expected to see Tomasso Ciampa and FTR challenging for, and potentially winning, the AEW Trios Championships and instead we set up a Tag Team Championship match with FTR against some combination of Cassidy, Strong, and O’Reilly. That one feels odd because of the long term focus on Adam Copeland and Christian Cage going after FTR’s tag titles. The match was good and Stokely looked great in Orange Cassidy cosplay.
– Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson was a delightful little match to watch. The followup of Moxley and his Death Riding crew training Ospreay (one much learn to bottom before they can top?) and Ospreay gaining strength in his neck was alright. I question the call to do these training vignettes as long skits and not video packages, but I don’t dislike the overall storytelling here. Ospreay getting stronger, not joining the Death Riders, and preparing for the challenge of his life is an interesting story. Will Samoa Joe have much to do with it? Are we setting up a gauntlet of training before Ospreay finally has to face a final boss of some sort at All In?
Ten Thoughts! That’s all you get! I’ll talk about this hour of Collision for Dot Net Members in podcast form (as I do every week) after the Fairway To Hell show on Saturday.
Will Pruett writes about wrestling and popular culture at prowrestling.net. To see his video content subscribe to his YouTube channel. To contact, check him out on Bluesky @itswilltime, leave a comment, or email him at itswilltime@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment