5 Ups & 2 Downs For AEW Collision (Jan 13 - Results & Review)

Ups...

5. A Nice Opening Showcase

AEW Collision Adam Copeland Lee Moriarty
AEW

Lee Moriarty is such a promising talent whose already so good and has a massive upside. The problem is, the 28-year-old has rarely had a chance on AEW programming to truly show what he can do. For the most part, Moriarty has recently been battling away in Ring of Honor, and 2023 only had him in four televised AEW singles bouts - the most recent of which was a loss to Keith Lee in November.

Opening up AEW Collision by answering Adam Copeland's open challenge, Moriarty certainly made the most of this opportunity, putting on an extremely solid opener against an 11-time World Champion and WWE Hall of Famer. Some might argue that Moriarty maybe took a little too much of this contest, but this could serve as a nice launching pad to feature the Pittsburgh native as a more regular presence on AEW TV. Of course, that's something which we'll have to see how it develops over the coming weeks and months, but for now this match against Copeland presented Moriarty in strong fashion.

As for the result here, it was never particularly in doubt that Copeland would emerge victorious, and that was indeed the case; the Canadian getting the submission win with the Grindhouse. That in itself was followed by some brief post-match words, with Copeland making it clear that he's still got Christian Cage in his crosshairs.

No disrespect to Griff Garrison, but this bout served as a notable upgrade on last week's Copeland vs. Garrison match, and this open challenge schtick could prove to be a highlight of AEW programming should it carry on for a little while and serve as a spotlight for underutilised, promising names such as Lee Moriarty.

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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.