Show Air Date: January 4, 2025
AEW Collision, live on TNT and their first Collision simulcast on MAX, was one more show coming out of Crockett Country, this week it was the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, the former home city of Jim Crockett Promotions in one of the most historic territory venues still standing (Ric Flair beat Vader for the WCW World title in this building in 93 and Harlem Heat won the WCW World tag titles in 96). I actually forgot, or I would have given directions on how to get to the park and beat the line. Sorry.
Tony Schiavone and Nigel McGuinness are on commentary (Tony was back home), with Matt Menard being on a live mic for some reason. We have two commentators but are still stuck with three here. Loved the return of the pre-open promos, even though I FF through whatever Jericho and Rated FTR were talking about.
Daniel Garcia (c) defeats Mark Briscoe
For the AEW TNT Championship
Mark Briscoe challenged Daniel Garcia for the TNT title, a battle of allies. This went a lot longer than I expected (over 17 min), but it was very good, one of the better singles matches for both men in a minute on TV. Menard was so bad on commentary Schiavone even politely called him out as “coaching.” Garcia got a sneaky rollup for the win. Code of Honor adhered to after the match.
Good promo from World Champion Jon Moxley with Marina Shafir (who’s gotten her eyeliner together finally) and Wheeler Yuta of the Death Riders. He’s not feeling “Cope” either.
Jeff Jarrett defeats Aaron Solo
Jeff Jarrett starts his “Last Rodeo”, beating Aaron Solo (welcome back to AEW TV). Got in and got out. Good. Commentary is back to just Tony and Nigel and instantly better.
Private Party (Quen & Zay) (c) defeat Action Andretti & Lio Rush
For the AEW World Tag Team Championship
Having won two matches on TV, Action Andretti and Lio Rush–and those Bastawful King Koopa shell coats–got a World tag title shot at Private Party (Marq Quen and Isaiah Kassidy). At least PP is defending the titles. That’s an improvement, but the booking for the tag division was horrible last year and hasn’t shown signs of improvement yet, but it’s early. Started cold, but they got going well, waking up the Coliseum crowd. Charlotte always appreciates good tag action and these teams started delivering. Top Flight (Darius and Dante Martin, and Leila Grey) showed up in the front row to trash-talk Rush and Andretti. The match lost its rhythm when Rush and Andretti were set for a double-team move off the top and just got down to exchange punches, but it got back in order once they got past that bit of stupidity. The Party retains when Dante keeps Rush from helping Andretti cheat on the ref’s blindside, which must be both sides since he also missed one of Andretti’s shoulder’s being up completely off the mat.
Somethingsomethingsomething with Cope and Jericho. FF.
Toni Storm defeats Deonna Purrazzo (w/Taya Valkyrie)
Time for the Lay Daze as Toni Storm beat “The Virtuosa” Deonna Purrazzo…again. Purrazzo left TNA because she had done everything and had. She’s going to be in AEW forever in that case because she’s never going to do anything there. Even with Taya Valkyrie’s help, she couldn’t beat Storm. The match was okay, but it never got out of second gear for me. Never felt like Deonna was even close to winning.
We got another episode of their newest soap opera: One Hangman To Give, with Christopher Daniels remembering he was a grown man. AEW has a neverending supply of old AN to get beat up by 30-year-olds.
I did like the episode of their other new soap: All My Acclaimed. This was good.
Brian Cage defeats Dante Martin (w/Leila Grey) and Komander (w/Alex Abrahantes) and The Beast Mortos
$100,000 High-Speed Collision Four-Way Match
I would think they would have Top Flight in a tag match where they can beat…anybody to be in contention for the tag titles, but instead, Dante is in a 4 Way High-Speed Collision Match with a 100k purse with Komander, Brian Cage (of the Don Callis Family but without Don Callis) and The Beast Mortos. Rush and Andretti attack Dante early, but it doesn’t play into the finish, so he can’t even claim they cost him the match. Cage pinned Martin to get a very rare TV win.
A lot of stuff, a Rampage (RIP) match on Collision.
Best usage of the Outrunners, where they meet the legendary Rock N Roll Express–Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, the biggest drawing tag team in Charlotte wrestling history (look it up). Outrunners demanded old gas money. They don’t do Johnny Swinger’s gimmick as well but they try. TF you got on Richard?
Main Event: Rated FTR (Cash Wheeler, Cope & Dax Harwood) defeat The Learning Tree (Big Bill, Bryan Keith & Chris Jericho)
Main event time. Yawn. Rated FTR (Cope and FTR–Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) beat Chris Jericho, “Big” Bill, and “The Bad Apple” (that name. smh) Bryan Keith in a six-man match. I’m sure it was fine, but…nope, like Cope. Maybe Rated FTR looks for a Trios title shot from the Death Riders after this if someone remembers the Death Riders are Trios champs. I absolutely respect Jericho taking the pin. Didn’t expect that. Looked like they were going for a clean close (on an unusually clean episode), but then Moxley shows up on the big screen with the Express taped to some equipment as their prisoners. Good grief. They didn’t actually do anything to them, so I guess Rick was right when he told Mox he didn’t have the balls. The Outrunners found a way to get beat up, though. HA! This was unintentionally funny, which is a miss since the keyword is “unintentionally”.
The first half was pretty good, with a middling second half. Not bad enough to kill the whole show but definitely a step down, taking the “pretty” off “pretty good”. The Acclaimed segment being good got them a point and kept them above “average”.
The Real Uncle Dave grade: B (85 out of 100)
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