Sports Time Radio

When Dan the Man and I were doing the Sports Time Radio podcast every now and then it would come up that we used to be professional wrestlers. Since I’m going to discuss the debut episode of AEW’s new Saturday night show Collison I wanted to go into a little more detail about my wrestling career.

I was an independent professional wrestling for just over 25 years. I was lucky enough to wrestle all over the United States and even wrestled a time or two in Canada. I’ve also owned two wrestling companies along the way. One of the companies stayed in business for many years in the Chicagoland area while the other company still runs shows from time to time, but I’m no longer involved with that company and sadly it didn’t do very well when I was one of the owners. I’ve also trained quite a few wrestlers, and some have gone on to work for the wrestling companies that you might know like AEW, WWE and Impact. I was also a matchmaker at quite a few wrestling companies through the years and that gave me a lot of insight into the wrestling business and how wrestlers are as people.

With that out of the way let’s get into the new AEW show Collision. The show was held in Chicago at the United Center, and it featured the return of C.M. Punk.

In case you don’t remember Punk was on hiatus from AEW due to a backstage incident that came about after he made some questionable comments about other wrestlers in the company at a press conference. After his comments there was a locker room fight involving Punk, Ace Steele, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. The Young Bucks and Omega were three of the people Punk singled out in his press conference even though I don’t think he used their names. I believe he just called them EVP’s which stood for Executive Vice President which is title that they hold in AEW.

Anyway, Punk returned to AEW in his hometown and of course he started the show off with an opening promo segment. He didn’t cover any new ground here and he tried to pass himself off as someone who always tells the truth and wouldn’t lie. He did manage to take a shot again as he used the term “counterfeit bucks”.

Punk also brought a red sack to the ring with him and mentioned how this was his and he was going to keep it until someone either beat him or submitted him for it. You’d have to think that Punk was talking about the AEW world title that he was stripped of. Maybe they’ll play Punk off as the uncrowned champion.

Honestly this was one of the more boring show opens that I’ve seen and if it hadn’t of taken place in Chicago, I doubt that the fans would’ve been anywhere near as into it as they were.

The first match in AEW Collison history was for the TNT title as Wardlow defended against Luchasaurus who was accompanied by Christian Cage.

I thought these two big men had a very good match, but the finish was weak. Both men showed really good athleticism and did things that men of their size don’t do very often. Cage also did a good job of being a distraction when need, but that wasn’t a big surprise as Cage is one of the best in the wrestling business. In the end it was Cage who cost Wardlow his title when he hit him twice with a camera allowing Luchasaurus to hit him from behind with a clothesline and get the win.

The post-match angle could be of some interest depending on how they play it out. Cage grabbed the title from the referee and acted like it was his, so will have to see if they follow up on this.

Match #2 had the returning Andrade El Idolo vs. Buddy Matthews from The House of Black.

Andrade was out with a shoulder injury and there were lots of rumors that he wouldn’t return to AEW and would end up back in WWE, but here he is.

Both men focused their attacks on the others old injuries. Matthews went after Andrade’s should while Andrade worked on Matthews knee. I enjoy when wrestlers do this in a match as it helps tell a story and it makes complete sense that you’d try to take advantage of an opponents weakness. Interestingly both men used the move of their significant other in the match. Matthews is dating Rhea Ripley and used the same inverted Texas Cloverleaf submission that she uses. Andrade is married to Charlotte Flair and got the submission victory using the figure-four leglock.

After the match the lights went out and when they came back on Andrade offered Matthews a handshake. Of course, Matthews stablemates from The House of Black were in the ring and Brody King laid out Andrade with a clothesline.

Match #3 had another returning AEW superstar as it featured Miro vs. Tony Nese.

I was afraid that this was going to be a complete squash match, but fortunately Nese did manage to get some offense in, but the winner of this match was never in doubt. Miro looked very good in his return and Nese deserves a lot of credit for that. Mark Sterling found his way up onto the ring apron at some point during the match and Miro landed a punch to take care of him. The match ended as you expected it would Miro got the submission victory with the camel clutch.

Match #4 had 2/3rds of The Outcasts Ruby Soho & Toni Storm vs. Willow Nightengale & Skye Blue.

Blue is from Chicago and her mother was at ringside just like she was on Wednesday night. Storm is the AEW women’s champion while Willow in the New Japan Strong Woman’s champion.

The match started with all four women brawling which makes sense if you followed the storyline from Dynamite on Wednesday night. There are always complaints about how the AEW woman are booked, but this match came off really well and might’ve been the best match on the show.

The biggest question I had coming into this match was if they’d actually put Blue over on two veterans in her hometown and they did. The finish set up very similar to how a lot of The Outcasts finishes set up. Storm was going to spray Blue with paint, but Willow cut her off and Storm actually sprayed Soho allowing Blue to hit her finishing move and get the win for her team.

Main Event time as C.M. Punk & FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) took on Bullet Club Gold (Jay White & Juice Robinson) & Samoa Joe.

There was a lot of build up for Punk’s in-ring return and it didn’t live up to the hype. Punk spent very little time in the ring as FTR carried the majority of the match. When Punk was in the ring, he looked old, slow and out of shape compared to the other wrestler he was in the ring with. The other five wrestlers in this match did a very good job of making Punk look like a star, but he definitely wasn’t one in this match. Of course, it came as no surprise when Punk hit his GTS finisher and got the win for his team.

I’m not sure if it was just ring rust or what, but it should’ve been clear to anyone who saw this that Punk was easily the worst wrestler in that match.

If you watched AEW Collision let me know what you thought of it.

Don’t forget to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.