9 Ups & 1 Down For AEW Collision (Dec 16 - Results & Review)

8. An Excellent Opener Sees Claudio Get Payback

AEW Collision Andrade El Idolo Claudio Castagnoli
AEW

One of the best parts of last week's AEW Collision was how the ending of the main event - as in, Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade El Idolo - developed several story strands for the ongoing Continental Classic. And boy, did AEW follow-up on those strands exceptionally well this week.

Opening the show, it was Andrade facing Claudio Castagnoli. In and of itself, that combination of talent should always make for something great. But thanks to how brutally El Idolo put down the American Dragon last week, that made this personal for Bryan's fellow Blackpool Combat Club man, Claudio.

For Andrade, he merely did whatever it took to get the win last week, whereas for Castagnoli he took umbrage with the methods El Idolo used in that contest; namely, targeting Danielson's already-injured eye.

So, here you had two of the best, smoothest workers in the world, with a nice grudge element in play, and afforded 16 minutes to tell their story. As for that story, it fleshed itself out by Claudio scoring the win he desperately needed to keep him alive in the tournament and to stop Andrade from his own qualification. Of course, Castagnoli also had his own "do whatever's necessary" moment, hitting a nut shot on his opponent before hitting the Neutralizer for the 1-2-3.

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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.