7 Ups & 5 Downs For AEW Collision (26 August)

1. "All-Stars" Deliver A Solid Main Event

As mentioned elsewhere, billing HOOK, Swerve Strickland, Brian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Jay White as All-Stars right now feel a little disingenuous. That's not a shot at the talents themselves, but more just the way that they've been positioned by AEW so far.

If you think All-Stars, you think the biggest AEW names, the talents who have headlined PPVs, the stars who have held World Titles. Still, the match itself delivered for what it was required to do; as in, put on some solid in-ring action to pad out a Collision that was killing time waiting for All In.

CM Punk secured the win for his earn, submitting Brian Cage with the Koquina Clutch after having already nailed the Machine with the GTS. Of course, Punk did all of this while staring directly at Samoa Joe - who's patented submission is the Koquina Clutch and who was on commentary.

On that front, away from the stellar in-ring work, it was great to have Samoa Joe joining the commentary team for this match. The King of Television is forever a welcome presence in such a role, as proved during his stint calling the action for WWE.

Likewise, it continues to be a positive to have Jim Ross join Collision for its main event, even if four voices - Ross, Joe, Kevin Kelly, and Caprice Coleman - could be deemed a little overkill for this eight-man tag.

Post-match, Samoa Joe hit the ring to attack CM Punk, Jack Perry came out to brawl with HOOK, Darby Allin made an immediate beeline for Swerve Strickland, as did Sting, and the scene descended into general chaos as Collision went off the air.

This week's AEW Collision wasn't up the standard of previous episodes, but it still did enough to be a solid outing as All In looms large on the horizon.