7 Ups & 3 Downs For AEW Collision (Oct 21 - Results & Review)

2. Back-To-Back Squash Matches

AEW Collision Gunns
AEW

There's nothing wrong with a squash match, with Skye Blue's short win over HollyHood Hallie being a nice way to showcase Skye's more focussed, edgier persona by giving her a dominant, short win. But did Collision really need to follow that up by delivering another such match.

In addition to Blue's victory, the Gunns scored a two-minute win over the Outrunners. While it feels a little slack to have two squashes on one episode, it feels plain stupid to have these matches take place back-to-back, with that quick tag match taking place after Skye Blue and HollyHood Hallie had wrapped up. If you're going to do any two matches that are somewhat similar, logic would say to at least spread them out over a card or episode.

On top of that, FTR vs Bad Thad Brown & Darian Bengston ended up not exactly being a match, with that contest immediately interrupted by the House of Black.

Another mild quibble in terms of repetitiveness, it also felt like this particular episode of AEW Collision was a little trigger happy with its blackouts. Yes, that is House of Black's gimmick, but we had a blackout after Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade El Idolo, which itself was followed by a blackout as Bullet Club Gold were later in the ring, which then was followed by a blackout as Malakai made his presence known in that FTR 'match', which was then followed by another blackout to usher in the arrival of Brody King and Buddy Matthews.

You can just about get away with this as House of Black make their new targets known, but did we really need to cut the arena lights as part of Bullet Club Gold getting freaked out by the mysterious devil? Especially on a show that was already going to feature numerous HOB-infused blackouts.

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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 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.