Opinions

AEW Collision review for January 11th 2025: Chris Jericho is showing his age

Psykohurricane

The fun of having a new cable channel is that they always give you a free preview for a month or two to try and get you to subscribe. Since I live in Canada, I’m getting the newly created Canadian version of the USA Network for free until February. They decided to put Collision on their schedule, at least for the first two weeks. However, I didn’t see it on the schedule for next week. I decided to give it a try and record Collision to see if anything has changed since the last time I watched the show, which was in December 2023.

I actually wanted to do this last week, but it didn’t record, so I only saw half the show. Before I review this week’s Collision, I want to share my thoughts on what I saw last week.

I thought the opening match between Daniel Garcia and Mark Briscoe was a really good opener, but I don’t understand why Garcia is being pushed so hard. I find him really boring compared to Briscoe, who should be pushed to the moon right now but instead feels like a placeholder.

Jeff Jarrett’s promo was great and showed a lot of emotion, and he had a solid squash match against Solo. However, my question is: why are we focusing so much time on Jarrett? He should be used in a backstage capacity, not as an active wrestler.

Then I saw they were going to do a tag match with Lio Rush, Action Andretti, and Private Party. That’s when I switched the channel to watch Women of Wrestling.

First, I just want to point out that, at least on an aesthetic level, doing shows in smaller venues helps them a lot. Too bad the crowd still didn’t seem to get into much of what was going on, as I could hear a lot of crowd sweetening during the show.

The first match was Copeland (seriously, what a dumb name) vs. Big Bill. Nothing against either guy, as they worked a really good match, but it felt like I had gone back in time and was watching WWE. They wrestled in a very WWE style, and it didn’t help that Jericho was on commentary for that match. The post-match attack also felt very WWE. Still, they did the best they could, and it was a good opener that some fans seemed to enjoy.

Adam Page cut a backstage promo after that, and I just want to say: I really hate these types of promos. WCW used to do them during the later years of the promotion, and I found them ridiculous. It didn’t get any better here. Adam Page isn’t a great promo, and it was clear he was just reading a script without believing a word of what he was saying. The same goes for Hobbs and Daniels, who did similar promos later on.

The next match was PAC vs. Kommander. It was a good match overall, but the fans didn’t seem to care much, and honestly, neither did I. PAC won, which led to a post-match attack and set up the next match: The Outrunners vs. Claudio and Yuta.

The tag match was good and seemed to wake up some of the crowd, but the result was predictable.

Next, there was a women’s match between Mariah May and Harley Cameron. This was another good match that showcased how talented Mariah is. Harley has potential, but she needs more training to reach the next level. Right now, I feel like she’s only over because of her looks, as her in-ring skills aren’t as polished as others in the division. Still, this was my favorite match of the show because Mariah demonstrated why she deserves to be a top star, and Harley showed promise for the division’s future.

Then, there was a Brody King squash match, and I loved every minute of it. It brought me back to my childhood when wrestling was all about squash matches. This match made Brody look like a monster, and I hope they continue to push him this way. Having Copeland give him the rub backstage might help him in the long run.

The next match was Shibata vs. Garcia. While this was technically a strong wrestling match, I never really got into it and found it boring. If I had been watching live, this probably would’ve been where I changed the channel. The crowd didn’t seem to get into it until the ending either.

The main event was Jericho vs. Dax, and if the opening match made me think of WWE in 2018, this one reminded me of WWE in 2015-2016. Every bad trope Vince McMahon used in his booking was present in this match. Jericho is also showing his age—he’s much slower and sloppier than he was in his prime. The ending felt very old-school WWE, with Jericho hitting Dax with the belt while the referee was distracted. By the way, that was one of the worst referee bumps ever—Jericho never even touched him, but the ref sold it like he lost an eye. Jericho won the match.

In the end, the show was a mixed bag for me. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t make me want to keep watching either. If the show continues airing on USA Network during the trial period, I might keep recording it. That said, it was still better than what I saw in 2023 when I watched the show live in Montreal.