By Jim Biringer
All Elite Wrestling has a new show on Saturday night called Collision. Ever since the show hit the airways back on June 17th, it has given off a vibe of being the A Show for All Elite Wrestling. Not to mention it is giving fans vibes of what the old AEW was like when Dynamite first launched back in September 2019.
The company has been around longer than that. January 2019 is when All Elite Wrestling was launched. The foundation started at All-In that fall as Cody Rhodes, Matt and Nick Jackson (Young Bucks), Kenny Omega, Hangman Adam Page, and Marty Scurll gave the fans an alternative product to WWE. You can go back even further than that when Omega and Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom earlier that year set the tone for what was to come for AEW.
Now fast forward to now with AEW Collision. Dynamite feels like its own show and Collision feels like its own show even though they are under the same company. This was similar to what WWE was like with the original brand split in 2002 coming off the purchase of WCW. Smackdown had its own roster giving high quality matches. And RAW had its own roster giving fans different matches and more storylines.
Collision and Dynamite has that feel now too. Think about it. Collision has been more wrestling over the past several weeks and less storylines. While Dynamite is giving fans the storylines with a dose of wrestling mixed in. But each show is pushing the other show to be better and we have seen it.
As much as AEW does not mention a roster split, Collision has the wrestlers they feature the most and Dynamite has its roster it features the most. Again that had to happen with the return of CM Punk. And Punk is proud to lead the charge on Saturday calling it his show. We know the history of The Elite and Punk. There is a reason they are not on the same show right now. Maybe one day they will bury the hatchet and do what is best for business and give the fans that feud, but right now it is now happening.
But back to Collision. Saturday Night AEW Collision does not feel as rushed as Dynamite does on Wednesday night. They let things settle a little more than Dynamite does. You could see Dynamite doing that early on, but now they just wanted to cram as much in as possible within the two hour time block. AEW Collision has only a handful of matches each week. But again the company is producing high quality television each Wednesday and Saturday night.
While AEW does not want to admit it, and MJF said it Saturday it is not Collision vs Dynamite, there is a little bit of that competitive drive between the two shows. Over the past several weeks, Collision and Dynamite have each put on great matches, but it has been Collision leading the way with Punk, Ricky Starks, FTR, Jay White, Juice Robinson, Andrade El Idolo, and the House of Black.
Think about the matches FTR has had over the past couple of weeks. Two matches with White and Robinson. One of which went 58 minutes in a best two out of three falls match. Oh yeah the champions defended their tag team titles against the red hot act of MJF and Adam Cole this past Saturday. Another instant classic.
Robinson and White have been excellent as well. CM Punk hand picked these guys to work with before Collision started. These guys wrestle every week. And Bullet Club Gold is gaining momentum.
And of course the rivalry between Punk and Joe culminated on a Saturday night on Collision. Punk and Starks have a nice rivalry going through the Owen Hart Tournament and now beyond. Starks will get a AEW World Title match this Saturday as Punk claimed he is still the real champion, more on that in another story. But giving the show a major belt says something about the quality of the talent before the titles are merged again.
Let’s not forget about Andrade and the rivalry he had with the House of Black over his mask. What a tremendous ladder match. Like the Old AEW, Collision is giving banger matches each week. Now it will be interesting to see if they continue that. At times Dynamite slowed down with that, but recently, Tony Khan has been pulling out all the stops as each show is bringing out the best in the other.
The ratings are getting better each week too. Now let’s see what happens when college football comes around and when there is a WWE PPV. But Tony Khan and Warner Bros Discovery took a chance on another two hour wrestling show and it is paying off.
Collision is giving the fans of what the old AEW was like and showing why it can be considered the A show now.