8 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (May 18 - Results & Review)

by Andrew Pollard

1. The Elite Continue To Put Hits Out

AEW Collision Cash Wheeler Lance Archer
AEW

Much like we've seen Christian Cage in cahoots with the Elite as he gets set to take on Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship, it was nice to see that sort of villainous working relationship continue with this week's Collision.

This time, it was alluded that the Elite had paid off Lance Archer and the Righteous to destroy Bryan Danielson and FTR. And even if those three heels did end up on the losing side of the Collision main event, the bigger story was them getting to do damage to Bryan, Dax, and Cash both during and after this match.

As for the match, it was a nice way to close out Collision, with the babyfaces picking up the win after nailing the Shatter Machine on Vincent. This was 12 minutes or so of good in-ring work, as to be expected by those involved, particularly when you've got a trio that consists of the American Dragon and FTR. Much like on Wednesday in his match against Kazuchika Okada, there was again some fantastic selling here from Dax Harwood when it called for the heels to get their heat on him.

Granted, Archer and the Righteous have been positioned as perennial losers on AEW for the most part in recent months, but that was kind of their job here. They were never intended to win, they were never expected to win, but their role here was to put as much of a beating on Danielson and FTR as they could - with that post-match beatdown eventually stopped by a chair-wielding Daniel Garcia.

By closing out Collision in this way, it also positioned Garcia as someone who could fill in for Darby Allin in Double or Nothing's Anarchy in the Arena match if, for any reason, Darby is unable to be cleared for that bout. After all, while Allin is someone who'll put his body through ridiculous extremes, this is a man who's coming back way earlier than expected from a broken foot and being hit by a f**king bus!

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Senior Writer
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 dayjob, 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.