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

2. More Ridiculous Tony Schiavone Hyperbole

AEW Collision Ethan Page
AEW

Pro wrestling is a business built often built on exaggeration and hyperbole, but Tony Schiavone has a habit of taking this to ridiculous levels.

Last week, Schiavone described Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal as "one of the great tag teams". That'd be the same Daniels and Sydal who have only operated as a tag team on 25 occasions across 17 years, have never won a match on AEW television, and have spent the bulk of 2023 losing in ROH to the likes of the Righteous, the Gunns, and the Gates of Agony. Two extremely talented guys with great careers to their name, but not exactly an all-timer of a tag team.

This week, Tony labelled Ethan Page as one of the greatest Canadian wrestlers of the modern era. Full disclosure, your writer is a huge Ethan Page fan dating back to Page rocking up in IMPACT Wrestling - often paired up with Matt Sydal, as it happens - back in 2018. All Ego is an incredibly talented worker, both in the ring and on the mic, and he has an immense upside of which we've only just scratched the surface.

However, describing Ethan Page as one of Canada's modern-day greats is ludicrous and is the sort of comment that puts a dent in Tony Schiavone's credibility. By throwing such terms around with such loose regard, it makes Schiavone seem either totally clueless or blindly biased - two traits that you don't particularly want associated with your lead announcer.

Describing Kenny Omega as one of Canada's greatest wrestlers of modern times? That's absolutely fair; the same can be said about Chris Jericho, about Adam Copeland, about Christian Cage. Right now, Ethan Page is simply not at that level. Here's hoping the former North man eventually does get to that level, but for now such comments just chip away at what credibility Tony Schiavone still has.

Another mild grumble, too, is that, while Ethan Page was never going to beat Kenny Omega, why book Page in a loss when he's got a big PPV match - an I Quit offering against Tony Nese at ROH Final Battle - coming up on Friday? Was the lure of doing Canadian vs. Canadian in Montreal really worth handing someone a momentum-draining loss ahead of what should be viewed as a major PPV bout?

Advertisement
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.