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

2. So, Why Rankings?

Orange Cassidy vs. Tomohiro Ishii was an extremely solid match - more on that later - but how and why was this AEW International Title match even taking place?

AEW has recently brought back the rankings system as a way to make wins and losses matter, and for suitable championship challengers to be established based on their placement in these rankings.

Earlier in the show, we'd heard Adam Copeland outright state that his ranking position means he's earned a shot at either the TNT Title or the International Title due to having won four singles matches on the bounce. So, Copeland has grinded his way to a place where he's entitled to a crack at some championship gold? Fair enough.

With Tomohiro Ishii, he's not competed for AEW since June and his never won a singles match in his AEW appearances. By that logic, what has the obviously-brilliant Stone Pitbull done to warrant getting a shot at AEW gold?

Cassidy giving Ishii a title shot purely because they're CHAOS buddies is just absolutely nonsensical, for that negates the point of rankings entirely. Added to that, that AEW is still doing Proving Ground contests and Eliminator offerings... and the return of the rankings is currently feeling a little redundant in some cases. That's without even addressing the rankings listings themselves right now.

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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.