9 Ups & 3 Downs For AEW Collision (22 July)

4. Buddy Matthews Doesn't Play That Sh*t

House of Black retaining the AEW Trios Titles against the Acclaimed and Billy Gunn was a decent enough match, but the absolute highlight of this encounter came prior to the bell ringing.

With Max Caster partaking in his customary rap as he made his way to the ring, Platinum Max's barbs were cut short by the right knee of Buddy Matthews. It was vicious, it was with ill-intentions, and it was absolutely beautiful.

Matthews has been one of the most underrated wrestlers on the planet even dating back to his WWE days, and his intense knee to the face of Caster here was an explosive way to kick this six-man bout off. Following Buddy's lead, Malakai Black immediately put a beating on Anthony Bowens, while Brody King laid in some snug knees to the gut of Daddy Ass.

The match itself was only a brief one, clocking in at around six minutes, but it was fine in giving the House of Black a dominant victory, with Malakai securing the win after clocking Billy Gunn with the Black Mass.

To circle back to Buddy Matthews, it was later announced how the Australian would be facing Andrade El Idolo next week in a ladder match for Andrade's mask. While your writer has spent the past few weeks dumping on the WWE-lite nature of House of Black's spookiness and the daftness around El Idolo's mask, next Saturday's encounter between Buddy and Andrade should absolutely rule.

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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.