10 Ups & 4 Downs From AEW Collision (June 24)

Downs...

4. A Slightly Laboured Opening Segment

AEW Collision Chris Jericho Minoru Suzuki
AEW

The second episode of AEW Collision kicked off with Fozzy's Judas blaring out across the Scotiabank Arena, with Chris Jericho and Minoru Suzuki making their way out to the ring. For these Suzuki Gods, they demanded an answer as to who Sting and Darby Allin's mystery partner would be for Forbidden Door.

Tetsuya Naito is the person who'll be going up against Jericho, Suzuki and Sammy Guevara at tonight's PPV, and that's a great, logical choice. Unfortunately, this segment felt a little muddled and overstayed its welcome somewhat.

Jericho as the whining, entitled heel was expected, but the Ocho's diatribe bordered on repetitive before Sting and Darby cut him off. For Suzuki, he looked like he didn't particularly know why he was there, bar to do a fun handshake spot with his tag partner.

Another issue with this segment, is that Tony Schiavone showed barely any fear whatsoever when Chris Jericho placed Floyd - his baseball bat - at Schiavone's throat and threated to rough him up. This is a Chis Jericho who is an eight-time World Champion, with a 33-year in-ring career, and who is positioned as a sinister villain capable of carrying out despicable acts.

In short, Schiavone should've been bricking himself. Instead, he acted unbothered and still managed to belt out a "It's Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" once the Icon's music hit.

One particular positive of this segment, mind, was Darby Allin once again demonstrating an ever-improving game on the microphone. That's not to say Allin is MJF or anything, but he really starts to feel like he's finding his voice these days - which he again did here.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.