5 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (May 25 - Results & Review)

1. Four Minutes Of In-Ring For The Women

AEW Collision Leyla Hirsch Mariah May
AEW

Mariah May is one of the most talented women on the AEW roster, and 'Legit' Leyla Hirsch is always a favourite of your writer for her fearless, no-nonsense persona and array of suplexes, strikes, and submissions. However, May vs. Hirsch has to unfortunately fall on the Downs side of this article.

Sure, we had a fantastic in-ring promo from Willow Nightingale and solid promos from Toni Storm and Serena Deeb, but this was yet another AEW episode that gave short in-ring shrift to its ladies. Across this two-hour Collision, we had one seven-minute women's match which spent three of those minutes in a picture-in-picture break.

Four minutes of properly televised ladies wrestling on a two-hour broadcast is absolutely ridiculous here in 2024, especially when considering just how stacked the AEW women's roster is. And yes, it's painful to write about this nearly every single Collision, but it's something that has to be called out each and every time.

Mariah May and Leyla Hirsch did fine - May getting the win with her running knee - but what sort of impression can you really expect these two to make with just four minutes on the standard TV broadcast?

I'd say "Do better, Tony", but it's clear such sentiments are wasted on someone who seems to have such contempt for letting his hugely talented female roster wrestle on TV.

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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.