6 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (Feb 10 - Results & Review)

3. Surprisingly Sluggish And More Questionable Officiating

Mark Briscoe is great. Brody King is great. Despite this, their singles match seemed to struggle to get properly going, with a lukewarm crowd response to most of the action bar the ever-popular chop sequences and the final few minutes.

Both Briscoe and King worked hard, of course, but it just felt there was something missing here to make the bout anything more than just 'okay'. Added to that, referee Rick Knock was infuriatingly bad on this one.

At one point, Brody dumped Briscoe into the guardrail, which led to a sequence where both opponents were outside the ring for just shy of two minutes. Not only did this not result in anything close to a count-out, but Knox didn't even start a one-count until after one minute; a one-count that just, basically, stopped at one.

It may sound picky, but hey, if watching a wrestling match with defined rules in place - as in, a ten-count outside the ring - then it's not asking a lot to just have such simple rules be adhered to. Also, how is Brody King putting Mark Briscoe through a table, as the ref watched on, not a DQ?

Some people may be able to look past such slack officiating, but for your writer, such frequent issues will forever take away from the enjoyment of a match.

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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 and Presenter, 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 day job, his role as 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 and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.