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

Downs...

3. A Solid Effort Hindered By Familiar Problems

AEW Collision Willow Nightingale Mercedes Martinez
AEW

Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Martinez was such a mixed bag of a match. On the plus side, both women brought some brilliant physicality to the action, told a solid story, and nicely progressed things in the rivalry pitting Willow and Kris Statlander up against Mercedes and Diamante.

However, there were just sadly a few too many issues at play that means this bout lands on the Downs side of this week's Collision review - and, as is often the case with the AEW women's division, those issues were largely out of the hands of any of the talent involved.

In the stale, stagnant formula of AEW Collision and wider AEW programming, this was the sole women's match on the show, went nine minutes, three of which were part of a picture-in-picture commercial. On top of that, as someone watching Collision through FITE, that P-in-P break cut to the standard Collision logo and music halfway through.

Elsewhere, Nightingale and Martinez fought on the outside for nearly two minutes shortly after the bell had sounded, all while referee Mike Posey didn't even bother to start a standard ten-count until Mercedes eventually made her way back in the ring; making the standard countout rule totally redundant.

As alluded to, it wasn't all bad here, as the actual action itself was good, with the heel Martinez brutalising Willow's back and dropping her with a gnarly draping DDT on the outside. That restricted Nightingale in what she could do, selling the back and struggling to lift her opponent.

Still, Willow Nightingale would pick up the win here, managing to surprise Mercedes after being hit with what was essentially an impressive Razor's Edge turned into a Dominator. While Willow scoring the victory made sense for the wider story, it did feel as if maybe she'd been beaten down a little too much to realistically be able to still get the 1-2-3.

Either way, the inevitable plunder war of Willow & Stat vs. Mercedes & Diamante should be fun. Now, let those ladies get 15 or 20 minutes as and when that contest arrives.

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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.