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

Downs...

5. Six-Man Nonsense

AEW Collision Orange Cassidy Penta El Zero Miedo Eddie Kingston
AEW

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?

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Senior Writer

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.