6 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Collision (15 July)

4. The Ideal Replacement

AEW Collision Nigel McGuinness Ian Riccaboni
AEW

For your writer, the duos of Nigel McGuinness and Kevin Kelly, and Caprice Coleman and Ian Riccaboni are the two best announce teams in the game right now. So, with Kelly absent from AEW Collision for the next little while due to his commitments to New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax, it was fantastic to see Riccaboni given the nod as Kevin's temporary replacement.

While it was known ahead of time that Kelly would be missing several Collision shows, many presumed that Excalibur may be brought in to handle lead announce duties alongside McGuinness. Instead, Riccaboni was an extremely smart choice to join Nigel.

So much of the appeal of AEW Collision so far, is that the look, feel, and sound of the broadcast makes it feel vastly different to Dynamite and Rampage. With Excalibur being such a pivotal part of those Wednesday and Friday offerings, having him fill in for Kevin Kelly here would run the risk of taking away some of the burgeoning identity of Collision.

Riccaboni is great. McGuinness is great. Together, they made for a phenomenal duo to oversee what was yet another excellent outing for AEW Collision. And as per Ian's Twitter account, he'll be back at the Collision announce booth for at least next week.

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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.