6 Ups & 3 Downs For AEW Collision (Dec 9 - Results & Review)

by Andrew Pollard

1. Excellent Wrestling, Excellent Larger Story

AEW Collision Bryan Danielson Andrade El Idolo
AEW

Andrade El Idolo is one of the very best wrestlers on the planet, an elite in-ring worker who effortlessly blends Rolls-Royce sheen with brutal crispness. Bryan Danielson is arguably the best wrestler on the planet, a timeless, special talent who's wrapping up another banner year of a truly legendary career.

This week's AEW Collision main event had all the ingredients to be special, and boy, did we get something special.

As one would expect, the in-ring work between Andrade and Danielson - bar one scary Bryan dive - was exceptional, but making all of this even more compelling is the various spinning plates of story development we got during and after this bout.

Of course, one key component to this contest was El Idolo tearing off the eye patch that's protecting the American Dragon's orbital injury and helping with his vision. From there, the former La Sombra upped his viciousness, targeting the bullseye that was Bryan's left eye and unleashing a relentless assault on that area before putting the wounded, weakened Danielson down with the hammerlock DDT. Fantastically adding to the drama and brutality of this situation, you had the commentary team calling for the match to be stepped, with even Nigel McGuinness joining in with those calls.

This match and all that surrounded it achieved so, so much.

- Andrade looks like a killer who'll do anything to win and now looks like a genuine threat to win the entire Continental Classic

- While not ringside, CJ Perry seems to have been a great influence on her new charge

- Bryan Danielson immediately becomes the compromised underdog in his remaining Continental Classic bouts, fighting against the odds to try and be the inaugural winner of this tournament

- How will this broken-down Bryan possibly fare against the monstrous Brody King when they face off in this tourney?

- Will fellow Blackpool Combat Club man Claudio Castagnoli take advantage of this obvious bullseye when he faces off against Danielson?

- And the impending Continental Classic meeting of Andrade and Claudio now has a whole added level of spice and personal issues to it

This was a magnificent main event to close out a Collision episode that was particularly strong when it comes to in-ring action, and Andrade vs. Danielson serves as yet another stellar outing for what is proving to be a very impressive tournament - with so many mouth-watering match-ups still to come for the Continental Classic.

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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.