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

Ups...

1. The Pre-Titles Promos

AEW Collision Ricky Starks FTR CM Punk
AEW

Such a simple but effective thing, having AEW Collision serve up a couple of promos before the show's titles had even rolled, was fantastic.

Ahead of their main event match-up, CM Punk, Ricky Starks and FTR spent 25 seconds firing shots at their opponents. For their part, Jay White, Juice Robinson and the Gunns then spent 30 seconds lambasting the babyfaces who they'd be facing later in the night.

This was great, this felt fresh, and it caught your attention right from the get-go. All eight men were energetic and spouted lines that felt entirely natural for their characters, complete with a nice smidge of classic pro wrestling cheese in terms of getting their own catchphrases in.

Concise and, most importantly, entertaining, this segment took less than one full minute to immediately get the Collision audience hyped for what lay ahead.

A fresh spin on the cliched screaming multi-man promo format of yesteryear, this was pitch perfect. More of this, please.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.