Another week, another AEW Collision in the books. And to peel the curtain back a smidge, this might be the last Collision Ups & Downs article you'll see for a little while.
This week's Collision was very, well, Collision-y. There were some good wrestlers wrestling some good matches, there were minimal if any real stakes on the line, and the show featured a slew of predictable winners and losers. Still, as is also always the case with Collision, that doesn't mean the episode was particularly bad - as reflected by the Ups & Downs count!
From Council Bluffs, Iowa's Mid-American Center, Collision opened hot with FTR vs. Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta, and it closed hot with Orange Cassidy vs. Kyle O'Reilly. In between, there were fairly straightforward wins for Kris Statlander, Dustin Rhodes, The Premier Athletes, Toni Storm, and Daniel Garcia in their respective outings, and Stat, Willow Nightingale, and Mariah May all joined this year's Owen Hart Cup. Other than that, there was a splash of Samoa Joe and Hook, and we also got the return of Scorpio Sky after eight months on the sidelines. So, let's get to it.
As Elton John has long told us, Saturday night's alright for fighting...
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 day job, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.
