Write Forever: We're all a bunch of crumbs on AEW Collision for September 12

Ready to cry for another two hours again?! Tonight is the tribute show to "The Butcher" Andy Williams and I expect to weep no fewer than three times in the span of two hours. Let's see how it goes.

The show was light on announced matches by the time 8pm ET rolled around, but they announced a slew of matches that look like they should be good stuff. And a Butcher Battle Royale! I love a battle royale, and the winner of this one will donate $100,000 to a charity of their choice in Andy's name.

It's nice when a wrestling company feels like it's run by actual human beings, you know? The touch of the charity battle royale is something AEW doesn't have to do but is choosing to do. You get cynical about pro wrestling when the worst people in the world are running the only major company in your country for 20+ years, so being reminded that that there's at least one halfway decent billionaire out there running a wrestling company is refreshing.

I am simply begging Tony Khan to let Mike Bailey win something

Note that I said "halfway decent billionaire" before.

I know Speedball is a former Tag & Trios Champion. But I also know that he is constantly over as a singles wrestler as well despite always being cut just short of accomplishing anything big as a singles wrestler.

I was at Redemption in Montreal. Sure, it was a biased crowd, but the place fucking exploded when Speedball won that god damn ladder match. And instead of parlaying that into a big International Title win against Kyle Fletcher, Bailey ate yet another loss on a big stage after building up some momentum.

I get that you need people at every level on the card in a wrestling company; you need super-over babyfaces who you can put out there to have awesome matches with literally anyone on the roster. But Mike Bailey is above that.

Tonight, the death match of the Continental Title continued as Jon Moxley defeated Bailey in an eliminator match. Obviously, you're not going to have Moxley eat a loss on his way to All Out but it's frustrating that Bailey is the guy who is routinely put in this situation: in a match you know he's not going to win, but one in which you know he's going to look like a million bucks.

It just feels like floundering for a guy who could easily be doing this same thing but winning matches instead with one of AEW's many, many singles titles around his waist.

A show filled with special little guys

Not a ton of consequential matches or story beats on this show, which is to be expected on a tribute show. It's always good to see Adam Priest, and I wish they'd commit to using him as a singles wrestler or as a team with Tommy Billington.

I like the Priest/Billington team a lot, especially in the maroon tights because they look like The British Bulldogs circa 1986. In a tag team division with renewed focus, they'd be an excellent team to work into the mix considering three of the main teams in the division are older/legendary tag teams who have had big runs with the Tag Titles already.

I wrote about Mike Bailey already, but he's also been another special little guy of mine since he started wrestling in AEW. I had a hard time getting into his indie work and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe the constraints of TV time changed his pacing or something, though I do still, at times, have problems with how long he takes posturing before hitting a big move.

Count Queen Aminata in this group as well. She's exceptional in the ring, hits hard as fuck, and she's super over all of the time.

I don't understand why she isn't on my television every single week. I know there was some recent hubbub about her contract, but it seemed like she was just saying that it expires in 2027 and is going to be extended due to injury time? It doesn't seem like she's in the doghouse or anything, so why not consistently feature a cool wrestler who wrestles well and is pretty over with the crowd?

The Rascalz? Griff Garrison? Clark Connors getting a pinfall win?? Was this show made just for me?!

A more cohesive Conglomeration

After a loss on Wednesday leading to Roderick Strong leaving his teammates to convalesce along in the ring, the boys were back in winning form against The Lethal Twist.

I love watching all three of these guys wrestle (and love The Swirl sans Jay Lethal), so this was just a treat from start to finish. Kyle's flurry from getting tagged in through the ankle lock was so smooth and fun to watch. He slinks around, kicks, and strikes differently from anyone else on the roster.

Roddy stands out in a similar way in that nobody wrestles with the same kind of intensity or speed. He moves with such velocity in everything he does and his offense is probably the crispest of anyone in AEW.

And, of course, you can never go wrong with Orange Cassidy. The three of these guys together make such a dynamic team because their styles are so different from one another but gel together to make one incredibly cohesive unit.

I imagine they're building to another match with Swerve & New Level, maybe in Chicago?

Despite winning, Roddy still bailed early while OC & Kyle were busy chatting with Kofi & Austin Creed who were on commentary. I'm still looking forward to where this whole attitude shift with Roddy is going and expect we'll get more from this after they eat another loss to the Trios Champions.

Wrapping Up

We're finally getting the important lore of Nick Wayne's puca shell necklace! This has been one of AEW's more glaring omissions and it's about time it's being rectified.

Beautiful opening to start the show and touching video packages all night long. Not much else to say about it than that. Very nice to see Kip & Penelope who have been off of TV for a while now. PAC wearing sunglasses (and a bucket hat) to hide his crying eyes really hit me.

Equally wonderful closing video package on the heels of Daniel Garcia winning The Butcher Battle Royale. God bless you sweet, sweet Buffalo boys.