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

8. An Excellent Opener Sees Claudio Get Payback

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.