16/12/23 – Curtis Culwell Center, Garland, Texas
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Kevin Kelly, Nigel McGuiness.
A bunch of short promos with those involved in the Continental classic tournament started the show.
Continental Classic Blue League Match
Claudio Castagnoli vs Andrade EL Idolo
Castagnoli looked like he was out for a bit of revenge for his Blackpool Combat Club faction mate Bryan Danielson after Andrade gave him Bryan a beating last week even going as far gouging the injured eye of Bryan. Claudio wouldn’t take the handshake from Andrade and started aggressively.
Both men like the hard hitting style and that’s what we got with this one. European uppercuts galore from Castagnoli.
Castagnoli wore Andrade down with stretches and ground submissions, Andrade made the comeback but was cutoff with Castagnoli locking in his “Big Swing” into the Sharpshooter to try tap him out. Andrade reversed the sharpshooter into a figure four leg lock with Castagnoli escaping.
Both men traded blows and got up to the top rope, the turnbuckle was exposed with Andrade landing on it, the referee went to put the turnbuckle back on, behind his back Castagnoli kicked Andrade in the balls and hit his neutralizer piledriver to steal the win and pick up 3 points.
Another kick to the balls, this is a regular occurrence on the shows now to the point where I am finding it funny.
Singles Match
Abadon vs Jazmin Allure
Jazmin never received an entrance so we knew the outcome for this one. Jazmin is a pretty girl and has a good look about her.
Abandon wins the match in a squash. After the match the lights go on and off with Julia Heart in the ring again like the last couple weeks.
Heart lays her TBS womens title on the mat almost daring Abandon to attack her, with Abadon doing just that and knocks Heart to the floor laying in punches. Skye Blue comes out face to face with Abadon and both tease like they were on the same page until Sky Blue starts attacking Abadon with Julie Heart joining in.
Thunder Rosa returns and attacks both women to save Abadon and has a handshake with her in th e middle of the ring, something I think Abadons character seems a little out of place doing.
And just like that The Acclaimed are back with Billy “Daddy Ass” Gunn backstage with Renee, where have these guys been? One of the hottest acts on the show and not been on the show for weeks. They are out for revenge on those mystery men who took them out a number of weeks ago.
Top Flight and Action Andretti come in the scene and challenge for the Trios titles next week on Collision which is accepted.
Singles Match
Orange Cassidy vs Bryan Keith
I have never seen Bryan Keith on AEW programming before, from the package it seems he has been on ROH.
Cassidy doesn’t lose often so I was expecting another win against the rather unknown Keith. Bryan Keith kept it competitive but the outcome was obvious with Cassidy winning with a sneaky pin on Keith.
Keith wouldn’t shake Cassidy’s hand after the match but tipped his hat to him.
A package with Miro was next signaling that he was fed up of obeying his wife’s wishes and was going to kill everyone.
Komander was getting interviewed backstage by Lexi and was interrupted by Roderick Strong and The Kingdom. Strong announced that Komander was his next victim.
FTR came out to the ring and called out House of Black to the ring to confront them.
Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black came on the screen and said that no one cared about FTR and no one would help them and offered to join House of Black.
Malakai said it wasn’t personal but if it was he would do this, as he proceeded to burn a picture of Dax Harwood and his family.
FTR started running to the back to find where House of Black was.
A short Keith Lee package played before the next match.
Texas Street Fight
Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander vs Mercedes Martinez and Diamanté
Willow got a bottle smashed over her head early in the match with Statlander having to take control delivering a DDT on the steel bat on Diamanté
Willow and Diamanté were both now busted open from the early shots they took.
Back from the break Statlander took a slam through a table from Mercedes Martinez. Willow began to get double teamed until Statlander came back in with a chair to the back of Martinez.
Diamanté presented shards of glass onto the mat, rubbing Statlander’s face into the glass.
Diamanté and Martinez put Willow through a table on the outside. Diamanté turned around and received a punch with Statlander’s fist wrapped with a chain to the face for Statlander to pick up the win.
Backstage Toni Storm is backstage with Renee, she seems to be using the words “tits” a lot in her promos which is quite funny. Mariah May is by the side of Storm and asks her if she could commentate her first match which she replied that she is “very busy”
Singles Match
Brian Cage vs Karl Wright
A squash match with Brian Cage destroying Wright in quick fashion.
Backstage Lexi is with Brian Cage who is bragging about his win, Keith Lee comes in the scene and tells Cage that his patience is running out, I’m assuming he is talking about Swerve?
Continental Classic Tournement Blue Match
Eddie Kingston vs Daniel Garcia
Matt Menard joins the commentary team to give insight on his friend Garcia.
Garcia who has been on a losing streak as of late was trying to gain his first points in the Tournement or face elimination.
Kingston chopped the crap out of Garcia, but Garcia kept doing his stupid dance signiling he was still in the contest.
Kingston hit his spinning back fist with Garcia somehow kicking out, just like all his last couple of matches, Garcia came so close to winning but he always comes up short and this was the case again with Kingston hitting the spinning back fist again to win and collect another 3 points in the Tournement.
Continental Classic Tournement Blue Match
Brody King vs Bryan Danielson
Danielson took quite a beating in this one with King chopping and beating him all around the ring and the outside.
Danielson made a comeback dropkicking the bigger King in the corner. Danielson’s injured eye was a mess with it bleeding, Danielson tried to tap King out with a single crab but took a few shots the face from Kings boot to break the hold.
Danielson hit his signature double knees but King kicked out at only 1, Danielson began to nail King with big kicks but was cut off with a huge clothesline from King.
Danielson once again came back and hit his flying double knees again this time to the back of Brodie Kings head to pick up the win in a taxing contest. Danielson’s face looked like he was in a war in this match.
Kev’s thoughts – I can’t wait for this tournament to be over, it feels very long and drawn out and having two long matches back to back to close the show was too much for my tastes.
AEW have The Devil mask man storyline, Christian and Edge and Sting’s retirement run as their main story’s right now and this show didn’t cover any of them. MJF vs Samoa Joe is the main event of the PPV in two weeks and I feel like there hasn’t been any progression in weeks.
This Collision was focused mainly on the tournament which I felt hurt the show, it wasn’t engaging or had any anticipation or build up for The Worlds End PPV.
