9 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Collision (July 8)
8. A Solid Opener
Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Ricky Starks was a solid, if not spectacular opening match on this latest episode of AEW Collision.
Clearly, these two former partners have great chemistry together, and this bout did what it needed to do in terms of advancing Starks to the final of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament. A tornado DDT from Ricky may have gone array, but the match quickly recovered from that, largely due to the babyface fire shown from Absolute.
As expected, the story of this match was the stronger, bigger Hobbs using his size to dominate his opponent, whereas Starks was the scrappy hero fighting from underneath. Likewise, the commentary team of Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness did a nice job of putting over the damage done to the Stroke Daddy's left knee in last week's Owen bout against Juice Robinson.
The finishing sequence of Hobbs vs. Starks did seem to go on a smidge too long - QT Marshall distracting referee Aubrey Edwards - but the main thing here was that Ricky got the W, and that Powerhouse Hobbs seems to thankfully be discontinuing his relationship with QT and his QTV faction.
Also, the Owen Hart-inspired attire for Hobbs was a fantastic touch.