7 Ups & 1 Down For AEW Collision (Jan 20 - Results & Review)

6. Another Fun Cope Open

In the third Cope Open Challenge, it was Top Flight's Dante Martin stepping up to test his mettle against Adam Copeland. And man, was it a really fun bout that was put together extremely smartly.

For Copeland, he's clearly no stranger to tangling with a high-flying opponent, and he was such a solid base here for Dante to work around. In a very real sense, whenever Martin attempted one of his numerous high-risk feats of ridiculous athleticism, the 11-time World Champion was always in the right place at the right time to take care of Dante.

As for a kayfabe sense, this was all about the grizzled Copeland doing all he could to ground Dante Martin, with Martin having his equilibrium messed with, in turn posing questions about how effectively he could hit his daredevil offense.

Of course, the Rated-R Superstar eventually picked up the win, tapping out Dante with the Grind House following a beautiful spear as Martin looked to come off the top. Post-match, the former Edge firstly put over Dante Martin, before then reiterating how he still has Christian Cage and the TNT Title in his sights.

Interestingly, Copeland dropped in a line about no veterans wanting to take on the Cope Open so far, which may mean more seasoned, higher-up-the-food-chain talents might go one-on-one with the Canadian in the coming weeks.

As an added note, Nigel McGuinness' constant fawning over Christian Cage was brilliant, and it was a nice wrinkle for Kevin Kelly to drop in how Copeland first competed in St. Louis, Missouri back in February 1999, where he picked up a win over the Blue Meanie.

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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.