4 Ups & 2 Downs For AEW Collision (Jan 27 - Results & Review)
2. Mild Progress For The Women, Excellence From Serena Deeb
"It feels damn good to be BACK" - Serena Deeb.
Watch #AEWCollision LIVE on TNT!@SerenaDeeb pic.twitter.com/OpsBJJcf1k
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 28, 2024
They may have both been relatively short and designed to be dominant wins, but for what is the first time ever, AEW Collision featured two women's matches.
Now, ordinarily that wouldn't be seen as a major deal, yet the utilisation of its female talent is a long-standing problem of AEW programming. By that, the ladies tend to have one match per show, stuck in the same spot on the line-up, and often with a picture-in-picture commercial stuck in the middle of it.
Yes, Mariah May vs. Lady Frost did feature a picture-in-picture ad, but the simple fact of there being two contests for the AEW women should be seen as some sort of mild progress - which may well be a backhanded compliment to AEW booking.
While Frost can be such a fun talent to watch - full of extreme athleticism, snug strikes, and tight suplexes - clearly this bout was about giving a strong win to Mariah May in only her second AEW match. As such, May got a fairly straightforward W after hitting her May Day finish, although Frost did got moments to impress. That said, it didn't help that Tony Schiavone referred to Lady Frost as Lady Storm on several occasions, but that seemed to be restricted to just the picture-in-picture portion of the bout.
As for that second women's match, that was Serena Deeb's first match since October 2022. Deeb is one of the very best in the game, and so it was great to see her back between the ropes and putting away Robyn Renegade in quick fashion, hitting the Deebtox before tapping Renegade out with the Serenity Lock. Robyn could've maybe sold the post-tap impact of that hold rather than immediately exiting the ring, but that's a small gripe - especially as the greater focus was on Deeb cutting an excellent promo to reintroduce herself and put the women's division on notice.
Welcome back, Professor. You've been very much missed.