After a disappointing Dynamite, the Hydro remained full for Collision taped right afterwards that aired on Saturday for the final stop before All In in Wmebley. It was the last chance to finalise the card, to convince those in attendance and watching at home to get a ticket, and get their shows on to head down to that there London for the wrestling.
Mercedes Moné defeated Isla Dawn by pinfall.
After making her AEW debut at the venue last year, Isla Dawn returned to Glasgow to a big reaction as she squared up to Mercedes Moné. Mercedes had make an appearance earlier on the Dynamite portion by attacking Willow Nightingale which add some extra jeers to the reaction for the CEO. The opening tie up was at a stalemate with Isla ducking the wild swings from Mercedes to fire back with strikes before Moné dodged a running knee for a backstabber to take charge of the action. Mercedes targeted the left arm of Dawn while peppering in kicks and chokes, dragging Isla Dawn around the ring.
Dawn caught a second went to fight back with firearms and kicks, throwing Mercedes for a back suplex to catch a two count. A quick knee to the face from Mercedes and a sunset bomb into the turnbuckles was followed by a Moné driving her knees into Isla Dawn and putting the finishing touch to the match with a Moné Maker smoothly transitioned into a crossface for the submission.
Willow interrupted the celebrations to run Mercedes into the crowd with Nightingale for a confident statement that she would still be AEW Women’s World Champion after All In.
A solid match that maintained Mercedes as a threat, it gave Isla a little something to not be completely ran over but it was a demolition job in short order, a snappy 8 minutes that was fast flowing. Willow running out after gave some closure on the attack earlier and she got a great reaction in Glasgow. A minor complaint is, that’s two years in a row they’ve used Isla to bait the Glasgow crowd with a local attraction for a hometown pop, just to have her beaten convincingly. Still, it was a better start than Dynamite so have to look at the positives to keep my own sanity in check.
Jon Moxley started a sentence, he laid out the battle lines and summed up the paths to the final of the Continental Cup for himself and Nigel McGuinness with great intensity, it felt natural, an improversation. Marina Shafir was also there and looked well ‘ard.
Chris Jericho, Komander, & Speedball Mike Bailey defeated Nick Wayne, Tommaso Ciampa, & Mark Davis by pinfall.
I was having a good time, then Don Callis slithered onto the screen to accompany Mark Davis to the ring, the only saving grace was that he went onto commentary and I didn’t have to see him with my eyes so the volume could be adjusted accordingly.
Jericho and Ciampa started off but it wasn’t long before it was brawling at ringside as a triple aerial assault, Jericho with a baseball slide to Ciampa, Speedball hitting a moonsault to Davis, and Kommander slickly swantoned out of the ring to land on Nick Wayne for a loud reaction as the match settled down to go to ad break. Jericho was isolated with Mark Davis having his way with Chris Jericho, we returned for Jericho to take down Wayne and tag in Mike Bailey for a rush of offense, landing a running Shooting Star Press onto Nick Wayne for two thanks to the intervention of Davis. The match broke down again with Aubrey Edwards being one of those prop referees. After an attack on the outside by Ciampa, it was Speedball’s turn to be given the triple team treatment, a disagreement between Ciampa and Wayne led to Bailey getting to his corner to tag in Kommander. There was a bit of awkwardness in the set up but eventually he ran across the ropes to ping himself into the ring and arm drag Nick Wayne to send Wayne to the outside.
Kommander went wild, flying all over the ring to take out Davis and Ciampa as Jericho and Speedball joined in that lead to an outstanding tightrope walk moonsault onto Ciampa outside of the ring. The match continued, a fun triple Walls of Jericho had the villains all make it to the ropes. Nick Wayne and Tommasso Ciampa collided, a Judas Effect from Jericho to Ciampa, followed by Kommander taking Davis tumbling to the outside, left it down to Wayne and Bailey. More counters back and forth followed before a Spanish Fly-like fallaway slam from Speedball to Wayne sealed the deal.
It was a party match of loads of cool things happening, especially from Kommander, and a pleasant showcase for competitors that have been announced for the Casino Battle Royal. It was paced so well to peak the crowd at the appropriate moments to react accordingly.
A video package played for The Brawling Birds against Divine Dominion, a quick overview of the backstory before their match at All In which was nice. We returned to The Dogs making their way out to go against the mega-team of Ronan King, Judas Grey, and Landon Riley who were already in the ring.
The Dogs (Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors, & David Finlay) defeated Landon Riley, Judas Grey, & Ronan King by pinfall.
I mean, it was a massacre from the get-go. The Dogs overwhelmed the trio and took the match to the outside. Gabe Kidd smashed Ronan onto the ringside barrier and drove him into the ground with a brainbuster. Grey tried to get the jump on kick but was slapped into the path of a shoulder tackle from Clark Connors as Judas ended his night by being launched into the ring post by David Finlay. A chant for Landon Riley broke out as he showed spirit that was broken by a forearm from Kidd. Riley was fed to a spear from Connors, a piledriver from Kidd, and an elevated knee to the ribs from Finlay to put the match to the end.
Just when we thought it was over, Gabe Kidd grabbed the corpse of Landon Riley at ringside for a piledriver by the entrance ramp.
The Dogs looked like absolute killers, operating like a pack to blitz their opponents from bell to bell. It might have brief but it was great to see Landon Riley, Ronan King, and Judas Grey standing in an AEW ring and they didn’t look out of place. Sure, they were meat for The Dogs to chew on, but they still stood sure footed and, to put it bluntly, didn’t shit the bed, which is good because they might be laying in one for a day or two following that onslaught.
The Bang Bang Gang (Jay White, Colton Gunn & Austin Gunn), Brodido (Brodie King & Bandido), & Hangman Page beat The Lethal Twist (Jay Lethal, Lee Johnson, & Blake Christian) & The Demand (Ricochet, Bishop Kaun, & Toa Liona) by pinfall.
Have you ever, ever felt like this? Have strange things happened? Oh look, it’s Lethal Twist.
A big schmoz started things before it was left to Bandido and Lee Johnson to so some cool strikes and flips. Jay White stole the tag from Hangman Page to have The Bang Bang Gang have their way with Johnson. Jay Lethal drove his knee into the back of Austin Gunn which opened up The Lethal Twist to show some of their own team work. It was a dosey doe of offence with Austin Gunn making it across the ring to get Brody King to smack about Jay Lethal along with Hangman, Bandido, and the Gunns. Jay White protested but succumbed to a macarena sextet only for The Demand and The Lethal Twist jumping everyone. Toa Liona ran through Hangman Page on the outside with King being surrounded and stomped in the centre of the ring.
An extended beat down followed until King was able to tag Hangman who went a’throwing including Lee Johnson having a nasty landing. Blake Christian broke through the combo builder for The Demand and The Lethal Twist to bombard Page, the pin was broken up by everyone. Another flurry saw Brodido take out everyone with stereo dives through the ropes, Page went for the Buckshot Lariat as Jay White snuck a tag in. Lethal avoided the lariat, wriggled out of a Bladerunner but in the process found himself turning around into another Buckshot Lariat from Hangman. White delivered a Bladerunner to get the pin.
White and Page showed some friction as a brawl sparked with The Dogs, Death Riders, and The Conglomeration all rushing out for some punching.
It was another party style “here is everyone, enjoy” kind of match. It felt a bit long but again, the crowd sounded well up for the peaks as Hangman Page is still beloved in AEW regardless of country, state, or region. I really liked The Gunns, they were excellent, there wasn’t too much Jay White but with him sneaking in to take the final moments that made sense. Another that stood out for me was Toa Liona, any time he was involved he was just a pure brute force menace. For what it was, a good match with that little bit of tension between Page and White serving well into the big multi-man scrap seconds later.
Skye Blue defeated Harley Cameron by pinfall.
Skye Blue came with the aggression against Harley Cameron, Harley worked through it to land a cracking knee to the head of Skye to send Blue to the outside. Cameron charged at Skye Blue, who dodged and sent Harley into the ring steps chest first. It was all Skye Blue, rolling Harley back into the ring and took her time to wear down her opponent. Cameron wasn’t giving up easily, taking Blue up to the turnbuckle but her plans were stopped with Skye slipping through and delivered a kick followed by a sit out powerbomb for a near fall.
Harley stopped a running knee to deliver a flurry of forearms, a superkick came by way of return, with Harley sending Skye back with a crucifix bomb. Blue got back onto her feet first for a running knee and crumpled to the ground exhausted. As they got to their feet Julie Hart appeared at ringside to slide one of the Stardom titles into the ring. Cameron wrestled it away from Blue, but while the referee was disposing of the belt, Hart threw in another title for Skye Blue to crack Harley Cameron with for the win.
It wasn’t anything fancy but it had a neat through line and with Harley Cameron having such a likeable quality about her it made the cheating really impactful in the noise made in reaction. I also enjoyed Skye Blue just taking her time, I’ve found in my limited watches of AEW that there’s a lot of rushing to the next thing, to the next big moment, whereas she just took a second to let the audience build sympathy for Harley, which wasn’t difficult, but it made for the higher impact parts of the match mean more.
The human melanoma Don Callis with his gaggle of outcasts arrived to escort Kevin Knight down to the ring. Knight gloated about battering Darby Allin, a heap of exposition followed until a maxed man tried to attack The Jet. It was revealed to be Steven Borden. Callis flirted with Borden, Borden told Knight that Allin would take the TNT title at All In. The Jet drilled him with said title to end the segment.
So no Darby Allin in Glasgow.
As the troupe headed up the ramp it bleed over into Kyle Fletcher coming out for commentary.
Konosuke Takeshita defeated The Beast Mortos by pinfall.
A bit of meat slapping to begin things between Takeshita and Mortos. Takeshita went striking to rattle the beast but Mortos returned with offense of his own including a nice tornado suicide dive. Mortos continued the attack on the outside with the assault continuing back between the ropes. Takeshita evaded a charge from The Beast Mortos to send the monster into the ring post. A stunning monkey flip counter to send Mortos over the top rope onto the floor was followed by a senton dive and a stare down with Kyle Fletcher.
The heavy hits went back and forth, a Blue Thunder Bomb from Takeshita, a spear from Mortos, with The Beast levelled with a knee to the face. Mortos went back to punching, landing a crucifix bomb. A Samoan Drop was countered into crucifix bomb by Takeshita who delivered the Raising Fire to pin The Beast Mortos.
Fletcher jumped Takeshita by cracking the AEW International Championship off the back of his head with the exclamation point being a brainbuster onto the belt to stand tall to end the show.
It was a match that was there, but felt like it’s sole purpose was to get to the post-match beat down and the match itself didn’t really matter. The Beast Mortos got a good chunk of the action with Takeshita battling through to pick up the victory. Outside of the big dives there wasn’t a whole lot of reaction as well with the fans, that could be seen on camera, seated spectators throughout.
Oh and no Okada in Glasgow, outside of a backstage segment.
Dynamite and Collision were the final chances to convince people to buy tickets, or get the pay per view, and it didn’t hit the mark. The matches felt so thrown together and if you went to see some of their big names like Kenny Omega, Darby Allin, and Kazuchika Okada, then sucks to be you. Of the matches, Collision was by far the better quality overall but it still didn’t make it a knock out show with a reservation to conserve energy for All In, when it should be this balls to the wall explosion to give you no other choice but to get your eyes on Wembley.
Production-wise it was noticeable with the spliced video packages throughout on Collision were better placed. It was like the team didn’t have time to sort the order of things on a pre-taped show between recording Dynamite and getting it ready to go out. Collision was tighter with a better running order of segments. Personally I would’ve ended the episode with the big faction brawl with Tony Schiavone hard selling the chaos to come at All In, but there you go.
Positives, it was great to see guys I have watched develop as wrestling in Ronan King, Judas Grey, and Landon Riley get an opportunity to wrestle in the Hydro for All Elite Wrestling. They may have been ran over but they made The Dogs look murderous so mission accomplished.
I have no doubt that being in that venue and under the lights that this was a fun night, but to watch from the other side of a screen it was a swing and a miss for me thinking of dipping my foot back into the AEW pool.