6 Ups & 3 Downs For AEW Collision (June 1 - Results & Review)
Downs...
3. You Get A World Title Shot If You Ask
And it wasn't even asked nicely...
Sports-like presentation. Wins and losses matter. Rankings system. These are all things that have been hammered home, at various points and depending on what fits the narrative being told at any one time, throughout AEW's history.
While the baffling amount of tournaments and the problematic title eliminator matches are often lazily resorted to when it comes to someone earning a title shot, they at least give the talent involved the opportunity to do just that: to earn a crack at the gold.
On this week's Collision, Roderick Strong got himself a shot at the AEW World Title Championship simply by asking Tony Khan. And it's not even like Roddy asked nicely; instead, screaming at the AEW President.
Yes, Roddy was fresh off impressively beating Lio Rush in a really fun opener, but is Rush of the stature and status where a win over him means you bypass the line and get an immediate World Title shot the following week? Absolutely not. Plus, Strong's argument that he deserves his opportunity because he wasn't in the Casino Gauntlet that saw Will Ospreay get himself a World Championship shot? That's an extremely weak argument that makes Tony Khan look weak as piss for blindly agreeing with the Undisputed Kingdom man. Satnam Singh got a win on Rampage and also wasn't in the Casino Gauntlet, so does he get an automatic World Title shot if he asks?
This is barely above the 'Wrestler A gets a title eliminator match just... because' schtick, but even then, at least those eliminators are done with the idea that the random wrestler thrown in has to earn themselves a title shot.
As a heel, of course Roddy Strong is going to push for a title shot. As a fighting babyface World Champion, you could use that logic to have Swerve Strickland accept such a challenge merely to shut Strong up. Here though, the main takeaway was that Tony Khan is easy to manipulate and will say yes to whatever is asked of him, giving a heel the ultimate reward (a shot at the biggest prize in the company) just because they screamed about it.