8 Ups & 4 Downs For AEW Collision (May 18 - Results & Review)
Downs...
4. Too Short To Justify Title Stakes
Your writer has been clamouring for Bryan Keith to start picking up wins, with the Bounty Hunter lowkey one of AEW's smartest signings of the year. Likewise, I'm a huge fan of the Iron Savages and will forever push to see more of them on TV.
That said, Bryan Keith vs. Beefcake Boulder fell flat for several reasons.
Yes, Keith got the win, and yes, the Iron Savages got some TV time, but this was way too short at barely 90 seconds. Considering the stakes attached to this match - the winner going on to a #1 contender triple-threat for a shot at the FTW Title - going less than two minutes here just undermined those supposed stakes and made this feel like your run-of-the-mill squash match, rather than a bout with potential championship implications.
Sure, the FTW Title isn't the most prestigious of belts, but it's still presented as a notable championship that's currently held by the company's inaugural World Champion; an inaugural World Champion who takes up plentiful TV time and who is forever spotlighted.
This isn't to say that Keith vs. Boulder should've been given 15 minutes, but it could've easily gone five or six minutes - time which would've made no difference if it were cut from the 12-minute Orange Cassidy vs. Isiah Kassidy match later in the show, or even by dropping the Nick Wayne vs. Jack Carthweel contest entirely.