Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: WrestleDream Go-Home Collision

Do not adjust your web browser. I know I said back when Collision debuted that I wouldn’t be reviewing the show on a regular basis, and that’s still true. I don’t want to double my weekly workload, and I do occasionally sitting down to watch wrestling without it feeling like a homework assignment. However, there have been a few weeks lately when, due to circumstances entirely out of my control, I haven’t been able to get a Dynamite review written and published in a timely manner, and when that happens my solution so far has been to just skip a week and try to come back strong for the next one. But since Film Ironic is basically a monkeys-banging-on-typewriters operation and we at least had the foresight to call this recurring feature “Chair Shots with Killem Faulkner” and not “Another Dynamite Review On The Internet That Nobody Reads Or Cares About” (however accurate though admittedly less catchy or unique that would have been) I figured I have the liberty to write about whatever wrestling-related content I feel like. So from now on, I’m planning to mix things up – some weeks I’ll review Dynamite as usual, while others I might decide (or need) to review Collision instead. That said, I am still planning to prioritize Dynamite whenever possible.

With all that preamble out of the way, let’s get down to business and talk about this week’s Collision. Just one day before the company’s next big pay-per-view, WrestleDream, AEW looked to put the final bow on its build to its newest premium show. AEW’s tribute to the late great Antonio Inoki has a fair bit of momentum behind it even if it feels like a one-off mashup of AEW, NJPW, and Ring of Honor rather than an essential AEW show. This week’s Collision featured several of the performers who figure to feature prominently on the pay-per-view and its pre-show, some of whom are rarely seen on regular weekly television so their appearances served as a bit of an introduction (or at least refresher course) to the AEW audience. How successful was this show at building last-minute excitement for WrestleDream? Let’s run down all the best, worst, and everything in between from this week’s Collision.

Best Match of the Night

I’ve mentioned before how tricky booking the go-home show before a pay-per-view must be. I mean, I’ve said that a few times. Maybe every time I’ve reviewed the final show before a pay-per-view. But that’s got to be extra tricky when the show you’re booking is only 24 hours removed from said pay-per-view. Adam Cole just smashed his ankle to smithereens jumping from the entryway to the ringside area (unless it’s all a work in which case that definitely didn’t happen and you’re an idiot for ever believing in it, you filthy mark) so you can easily imagine how much higher the risk for injury must be for the performers who are actually working in a match. On the other hand, however, wrestling can’t be great without some element of risk to the performer, so it kind of comes with the territory even on the most ordinary weekly TV show let alone an important show right before another even more important show. So that’s all to say that I understand AEW’s desire to play it safe to some extent on this show, though I do appreciate those who put a little extra on the line to make the show special.

Probably the safest match of the night (outside of the two squash matches, of course) was Kenny Omega & Chris Jericho vs. The Gates of Agony, but that didn’t stop them from putting on a good show regardless. The live crowd was super hot for Jericho and Omega, probably because they never believed those two men would ever appear on Collision with a certain Chicago Made wrestler ruling over the locker room. With that guy gone, even some of his biggest nemesises (nemeses?) are now free to appear on the Saturday night show, and the crowd made sure to show them some extra love as a result. Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona aren’t regulars in AEW, so nobody should have been surprised to see them lose here, but they put up a good fight and made the babyfaces’ victory feel earned. Jericho and Omega had good enough chemistry as a team that they mostly avoided the inevitable “can they cOeXiSt???” booking that two former adversaries tend to fall into in a match like this. They reaffirmed the fact that they aren’t going to be on each other’s Christmas card list even though their shared disdain for the Don Callis Family has brought them together for a trios match at WrestleDream. I’m fine with that – wrestlers all too often come out of nowhere to announce their long-term best buddy that everybody totally knows they’ve been friends with since they broke into the wrestling business and definitely not just a couple of days ago to justify the storyline. Jericho and Omega were like, “we’re not bros but we’re professional” and worked as a competent team, which is far more reasonable given the circumstances.

Another relatively safe match was the main event 8-man tag featuring FTR, Bryan Danielson, and Wheeler Yuta against Aussie Open, Big Bill, and Ricky Starks. Danielson is wrestling Zack Sabre Jr. at the pay-per-view, so we got the added bonus of having Sabre on commentary. He was great but having a four-man booth with Jim Ross also joining Kevin Kelly and Nigel McGuinness was excessive. As it always is. Seriously, please end the four-man commentary booth forever. Three is even too many most of the time. Anyway, Sabre commented on how protected Danielson was in this match, which kind of felt like saying the quiet part loud, but having FTR wrestle most of the match for their team is basically never going to be a bad decision in my book. Big Bill and Ricky Starks still seem like a completely random pairing, but I suppose it helps keep Starks from getting too many cheers since he’s supposed to be a heel, and he did manage to draw some boos for his underhanded tactics despite his popularity. About the only negative in this match was the finish – I’m sure the internet will speculate endlessly about whether the finish was botched or not, but regardless it felt kind of wonky – either Cash Wheeler forgot the finish or he genuinely thought someone would be there to intercept him before breaking up the pin. He did seem to catch his foot on the ring apron as if he expected someone to grab it to pull him back, but maybe I’m overthinking things. Anyway, the heels won, both teams fought out of the ring, Danielson called out ZSJ, and they got in some brief physicality before the Technical Master bailed to leave the crowd wanting more tomorrow night. Fairly standard post-match stuff for a main event. AEW is famous for booking these multi-person matches well, and this match wasn’t an exception. The ending and the slightly formulaic layout of the match are about the only elements that held this match back from match of the night. Plus another match was really good, go figure.

The opening match of the night ended up being the best thing we saw on the entire show as Andrade El Idolo and Juice Robinson battled for the honor of “Sir Not Appearing at WrestleDream.” Both men have been relatively underappreciated and underutilized (though don’t tell Andrade that, he’s liable to get into another backstage fight to get himself fired so he can go somewhere he feels more valued and appreciated…or at least gets paid better to travel around with his wife) so it was nice to see them showcased here. They got plenty of time to work and put together an energetic, crisply executed match that got the crowd amped up for the rest of the show. Robinson has the best jumping side kick this side of Booker T, and Andrade’s spinning back elbow looked absolutely devastating even though too many people in AEW use spinning back somethings as their finisher or signature move to recommend him using it all the time. Thankfully he broke out the tried and tested hammerlock DDT to finish off his game opponent even if the elbow strike looked like it nearly took Robinson’s head off. Sure, the amount of interference from the Gunns was less than ideal, but that was a relatively minor negative and they did get ejected from ringside early enough that they didn’t play a decisive role in the outcome. There wasn’t anything really on the line and nobody will name it as one of their all-time favorite matches unless this was literally the first wrestling show you’ve ever watched, but it worked for what it was and felt like a satisfying use of their talents in a match where they didn’t have to worry about someone going down to injury ahead of the big show.

Best Moment of the Night

There wasn’t a ton of non-wrestling stuff on the show that we hadn’t seen before or wasn’t pre-taped, but Toni Storm is too good in her new role not to give her a shout-out even though it wasn’t the first of these segments we’ve seen and they recorded it in advance. RJ City is not secretly one of my favorite non-wrestlers in AEW, so having him interview Storm for these vignettes is clearly a good call in my eyes. I’m not sure what the endgame of all these segments will be, but she is clearly being built up as one of the biggest stars of the women’s division in absence of the part-time champ, so there’s probably something in store for her sooner or later. Until then, I’m happy to just sit back and enjoy these “Portrait of a Star” segments.

I haven’t watched a ton of Ring of Honor lately, so I’m not as familiar with The Righteous as I should be, but I’m going to give their post-match promo and beatdown this week’s moment of the night honors. I’m sure a certain segment of the fanbase will say their gimmick is derivative of the Wyatt Family because the internet wrestling community is a cesspool of tribalistic fanboys who are perpetually dissatisfied with everything and can’t just enjoy things and/or simply allow others to enjoy things that they don’t. That’s what sets the IWC from the rest of the internet that is populated by tribalistic fanboys who are…y’know actually that’s pretty much just how it is on the internet in general nowadays. Anyway, Vincent’s mystical hippie cult leader vibes and Dutch as his enforcer just plain work for me. They’re not spooky or supernatural at all, which is totally fine because they have no problem pulling out a hefty chunk of wood and a steel chair and Kathy Batesing a poor sucker (be forewarned before clicking that link if you don’t get the reference, it’s quite gnarly) who just happened to cross their path. Again, maybe they do or at least threaten to do such things all the time on Ring of Honor, but this was the first time I’ve seen it, so it was a really effective moment to drive home the threat they pose to MJF and his already injured partner. They probably won’t win the belts since it would require MJF eating a loss, something he has hardly ever done in his whole AEW career, but this was a good segment for them to really get across to the AEW audience the violence and unsettling vibes that they embody before disappearing back to RoH.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Any show with two squash matches on it isn’t ideal, but otherwise there wasn’t anything too objectionable here in my opinion.

Parting Shots

• Since WrestleDream is a brand new show on the AEW calendar, I figured I would use it as an opportunity to comment on the larger trend of the company expanding its premium event offerings in recent years. If AEW is going to continue adding pay-per-views, I hope the rumors of AEW being added to the Max streaming service are true. It’s simple economics: Even if AEW reverted to the original Revolution, Double or Nothing, All Out, Full Gear schedule (which they won’t do because Forbidden Door is an established thing and we’ve already been promised another All In show at Wembley next year), 4 PPVs per year at 50 bucks a pop is $200. An ad-free Max subscription is $16 per month, which equals out to $192 per year, or you can get an annual subscription for $150. Even if you only use Max to watch AEW shows, you’re already saving money over the conventional pay-per-view model. If AEW is going to add more shows (some rumors say they’ll end up having monthly specials akin to WWE’s “premium live events”) that value only becomes better and better. I’m still not in favor of that plan because I think too many pay-per-views ends up watering down the product and encourages less long-term storytelling, something AEW has unfortunately gotten away from more recently, but at the very least if they’re going to copy WWE’s homework, the least they can do is also copy their more fan-friendly pricing model.
• Also, I’m not going to predict WrestleDream like I often do with pay-per-views because…I’m not going to be watching. Again, I just can’t swing another $50 show this soon after All In (which I did buy) and All Out (which I didn’t buy) but I hope it’s a great show that makes me regret that decision like All Out did. I will also say I would really regret skipping it if Adam Copeland (Edge) showed up. Just saying, Tony Khan.
• “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting” is a great song, but I’m not sure it’s worth licensing for a wrestling show. I get that generic hip-hop/metal isn’t 100% necessary for combat sports, but I can’t imagine it was cheap and it isn’t the most energizing song to kick off a night of violence. I’m sure there are those who will disagree with me on this, but that’s just how I feel.

That’s it for a very special Saturday edition of Chair Shots – I still like Collision even if my guy Punk isn’t around anymore, and this was a pretty good episode overall. Thanks for joining me once again, and I hope to see you back here soon (maybe for Dynamite, maybe for Collision) for more Chair Shots!