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

Downs...

5. Six-Man Nonsense

Some may have been impressed by the trios bout pitting Eddie Kingston, Penta El Zero Miedo and Orange Cassidy against Kip Sabian, the Butcher and the Blade, but this bout is on the Downs list for the sheer lack of rules adhered to in this match.

Since its inception, AEW has been a company that's bafflingly loose with its standard match rules, and this was fully on display in the opening match of this Collision.

When the ball rang, it was Penta and Sabian starting the match for their respective teams. Immediately, the four other competitors piled into the ring, before the action then spilled to the outside for nearly two minutes. And when the first pinfall attempt came, it was Cassidy getting a two-count on Sabian... despite not one tag having been made by that point, meaning Penta was the legal man for his team.

Stuff like this forever remains so frustrating and takes away from what was some solid in-ring work. Making it all the worse, poor Bryce Remsburg could be heard at several points shouting "no tag" as he did his best to inform the wrestlers that tags hadn't been made and that the legal men weren't in the ring.

Of course, this will very much come off as "old man shouts at clouds" to some out there, but what's the point in having fundamental wrestling rules in place when they're just so badly, blatantly ignored?