Serving as the backdrop to the second episode of AEW Collision, the Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto played host to a fun calm before the storm if you will… of course, I’m talking about the Forbidden Door PPV on Sunday night. Thankfully, our fine folks over at SLAM! Wrestling (dot net) gave me the opportunity to attend AEW Collision 2: Electric Boogaloo and take in Saturday night’s newest wrestling program to the fullest.
Before we even got to the matches, Toronto was graced with a meet-and-greet session featuring some of NJPW’s finest. Going live on AEW’s live shop earlier in the morning, at an entry cost of $50 per person you could meet any or all of these four fine NJPW talents: the “Stone Pitbull” Tomohiro Ishii, current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Sanada, the legendary Minoru Suzuki, and Mr. Tranquilo himself, Tetsuya Naito… at least we thought he was going to be there.
AEW promotes its Forbidden Door Meet & Greet prior to AEW Collision, featuring Ishii, Sanada, Suzuki, and Tanahashi. Photo courtesy AEW.
So here’s the scoop, a few days ago (Tuesday, to be exact) on ShopAEW.com’s socials, there was a graphic promoting this meet and greet opportunity that featured Ishii, Suzuki, Sanada, and not Naito… but Hiroshi Tanahashi! And then when the tickets went live earlier Saturday morning, a Tanahashi option was nowhere to be found and he was seemingly replaced by Naito? The meet and greet took place and who do I end up seeing signing 8x10s and taking photos… well Hiroshi Tanahashi of course. I was certainly confused and so was a bit of the AEW Toronto universe (that’s what I’ve settled on calling them).
Fans congregated around the Scotiabank Arena’s Premium Lounge where AEW hosted its Forbidden Door Meet and Greet on June 24.
One of these fans in attendance at the meet and greet was Jessica! Jessica is a Tanahashi die-hard fan through and through, I noticed her immediately when I spotted her rocking a pretty kick-ass custom Ace face mask. Speaking with her, she mentioned this was her third time meeting Tanahashi and she had a matching dress to go with the face mask, but after being led astray by the confusing lineup… she wasn’t able to bring the dress with her to the show, but that didn’t take away from another grand ol’ time.
Big-time Hiroshi Tanahashi fan, Jessica, poses with her signed 8×10 and dawning an awesome homemade “Ace” mask.
Christine is another member of the Eh? E-W universe (boom, way better than what I called it before) in attendance to meet the “Ace of the Universe” Hiroshi Tanahashi. Christine mentioned she wasn’t really into pro wrestling, but that her partner got her hooked… growing to love Hiroshi Tanahashi and his “awesome” hair.
Another Hiroshi Tanahashi lover, Christine, showing off her signature Tanahashi pose and actual Tanahashi signature.
Finally, I talked to Glendyne who met Tomohiro Ishii. She mentioned him being very “nice, calm, and chill” with a “gentle handshake”… a complete 180 from his wrestling persona “Stone Pitbull”.
Fan of the “Stone Pitbull”, Glendyne smiles posed with her signed Tomohiro Ishii 8×10.
After the meet and greet was over, fans just had to wait for a mere hour-and-a-half before we were served our first course of wrestling. Ring of Honor took centre stage to kick off the night, as we saw familiar faces in action including Big Bill and Lee Moriarty, Canada’s own Tarik, The Dark Order, Willie Mack, and to the surprise of many… El Desperado. Match of the night from this set of tapings has to go to Mack-Desperado, riveting action from bell-to-bell, great selling of the leg by Willie Mack, and just overall good chemistry between one of NJPW’s brightest junior talents and ROH’s resident big man.
ROH takes the spotlight prior to AEW Collision going live in Toronto.
At 8, we were led to a TV countdown by Dasha Gonzalez as AEW Collision’s second episode emanating from Scotiabank Arena went live on air. Kicking off the show was the JAS-Sting/Darby segment, which was a decent choice to open as it got the fans pumped to see Naito, Suzuki, Sting, and singing along to Judas as usual. The Tanahashi-Swerve match wasn’t anything too special, and I think the fans popped off the most when MJF’s music hit; he wasn’t actually there though as you probably saw. I’d have to give Collision match of the night to Brody King versus Andrade El Idolo, they got a lot of stuff in during the match including a wicked moonsault to the outside and some wild turnbuckle spots courtesy of big bad Brody King. The interference ending via Buddy Matthews was probably the smart move to send the match off, I don’t think either guy deserved to lose clean on this night… hats off to both men there.
Also, huge props to Toronto’s very own (or I guess Kitchener’s? We probably don’t claim him anymore after he roasted us), the always dastardly yet stylish dad-looking Christian Cage on his cheap heat segment bashing Toronto and its famed sports teams. Can’t lie, always have a spot in my wrestling fan heart for Christian Cage and I bet a bunch of the fans last night did too, but kudos to Cage for knowing how to get the fans immediately back on track to hating him.
Christian Cage poses with his head held high, thrust upon the shoulders of one Luchasaurus, holding the TNT Championship to what he called the championship less Toronto skies.
And then it was time for the MAIN EVENT! Another multi-man tag featuring Bullet Club Gold or the Bang Bang Gang as they’re unofficially referred to and The Gunns versus FTR, “Absolute” Ricky Starks and I guess one of the most liked, yet hated men in Toronto… CM Punk. I will say it now, I absolutely despise CM Punk and I think he isn’t quite as hype as he thinks/says he is, so to see other fans in my city share the same sentiment brought a bright smile to my face. I might not like the guy but good on Punk for knowing what to do with such a divided crowd, he played the usual teeter-totter heel/face mannerisms quite well. It definitely showed Punk that we’re not in Chicago anymore and he was in bizarro land that is Toronto, Canada. Surprisingly, the assumed star of AEW Collision found himself on the losing end in the main event as Bullet Club Gold + The Gunns get the huge win over CMFTRicky.
CM Punk plays to the Toronto crowd just before he hits the ring alongside FTR and Ricky Starks in the AEW Collision Toronto main event.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable night of action and entertainment at the Scotiabank Arena for AEW Collision. From the appetizer that was ROH action, the fun meet and greet session that took place earlier in the afternoon, to the actual marquee live Collision episode, Toronto sure played a worthy host to the first of many AEW events to take place across a Canadian summer tour. When I went to AEW Dynamite and Rampage back in the fall over at Coca-Cola Coliseum, those shows had me itching to be a part of a live AEW show once again in Toronto; this experience at Collision certainly lived up to the expectation once again! If the Collision crowd showed anything about our fans, I imagine them to absolutely blow the roof off the house for the Forbidden Door PPV later tonight.
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