SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
AEW Collision aired for the first time from Arlington, Tex. at ESports Stadium, the beginning of its summer “residency” at that facility, which is an opportunity for Tony Khan to rethink Collision’s place in AEW’s TV portfolio.
I would be remiss if I didn’t start this by mentioning that Collision no longer opens with the dulcet tones of Sir Elton John telling us that “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.” I’m sure licensing that song was not an inexpensive endeavor so I understand the business reasons for having an in-house song open the show. That said, even Mikey Rukus himself knew that his new song couldn’t compare to the work of a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
After that opening, we got our first glimpse of the Esports Stadium, the home of Collision for the next month. It’s an unimpressive venue, if I’m being honest. One of the first things that became apparent was that the acoustics of the building were not great. Fightful reported that AEW hopes to have those issues cleaned up by next week, but it didn’t sound to my ear like the normal audio issues AEW’s dealt with so we’ll see.
To me, though, this residency in Arlington is represents a golden opportunity to redefine Collision. I believe Tony Khan envisioned Collision as a sort of Smackdown in its original form, but ever since C.M. Punk was fired nearly a year ago, Collision has become a show without a clear vision. Because it is a touring show like Dynamite, its attendance issues have become a huge talking point as well.
With this residency and not having to worry about selling tickets to a new audience every week, Tony needs to take this opportunity to tinker with the format of the show. It’s time to stop treating it like Smackdown and treat it more like WCW Saturday Night or WWF Superstars. Find a home base that’s closer to Disney MGM Studios than Esports Stadium, but where the audience members are wrestling fans not just tourists coming inside out of the heat. Restructure the show so that only three matches go over 10 minutes. The other squash matches should be pure squashes meaning they don’t last more than 5 minutes.
That means people like Tony Nese must be treated like straight up enhancement talent. He’s not going to be any more than he already is. Giving him ten minutes with Rey Fenix does nothing for either man and leaves audience disinterested. Let him be a modern-day Rip Rogers. Run Renee Paquette’s “Close Up” YouTube show across two segments and fill the rest of the show out with vignettes and interviews. Doing this would trim a lot of the fat of the show, make the longer competitive matches mean more, and quell the complaints about predictable matches going too long.
AEW is riding a high coming into this week after MJF and Will Ospreay put on the best TV match of the year and helped draw Dynamite’s highest rating in months. This week it’s Blood & Guts. As a WCW fan, I’ve always loved WarGames matches. I prefer AEW’s Blood & Guts interpretation to WWE ‘s version because I think it’s more faithful to the spirit of WarGames. That said this year’s Blood & Guts is not eliciting a ton of excitement. More specifics momentarily, but the biggest problem with this year’s match is that it doesn’t feel like anything is going to change regardless of the outcome.
The most interesting aspect of the match are the mini-feuds within it. I fully expect these guys to give their all, but it just feels less than. Unlike previous cards for the Blood & Guts show, it feels like there’s a lot more than just the bloody double cage match, which is good. There’s two big women’s segments and Minoru Suzuki has an opportunity to do the world a huge favor. I’m looking forward to the show even if the actual Blood & Guts match is missing something.
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