The Collision chaos is getting hard to ignore

Look, I love wrestling. I watch everything from the high-octane Japanese circuits to the smallest indie shows in New England. But watching the state of AEW Collision right now feels like watching a guy try to steer a burning car into a lake. We are exactly three days out from Double or Nothing, and the main event scene is serving us comfort food when we need a five-course meal.

We saw FTR beat The Conglomeration this past Wednesday on Collision, which is fine if it were 2022. But in 2026? It feels like we are stuck in a loop. Meanwhile, ratings for the Portland broadcast showed a minor uptick, but don't let the corporate spin fool you. A marginal gain against stiff competition doesn't make up for the lack of actual narrative fire.

Will Ospreay isn't a silver bullet

Here is the truth: Will Ospreay going over Katsuyori Shibata with a Hidden Blade at the 10:48 mark is exactly the kind of match you expect from these two. It’s a technical showcase, sure. But we have seen Ospreay-Shibata style matches a thousand times. It’s empty calories. You have one of the most gifted athletes on the planet just running through spots instead of building a reason for me to actually care about the outcome.

The booking feels lazy. You give us great workers in the ring, but you forget that the 1,257 fans in Tokyo for the Super Juniors night are actually invested because of a tournament structure that matters. NJPW knows how to build stakes. AEW just knows how to book high-end matches in a vacuum.

The NXT problem is becoming a crisis

While Tony Khan is busy playing with his action figures on TNT, the folks over at NXT are actually developing something resembling a coherent product. Catching the results from the May 19th episode, and you see Kam Hendrix and Mason Rook taking down a champ like Tony D’Angelo. It is risky booking that generates real intrigue. It forces you to watch next week just to see if the title is actually changing hands.

AEW doesn't take those risks. They rely on established names to carry the brand, and it is showing. When you look at the audience trends, you realize that people aren't tuning out because the wrestling is bad. They are tuning out because they have seen the same movie a dozen times before. The predictability is the killer.

Stop the madness before Sunday

Double or Nothing is looming. If the card isn't packed with genuine, earned animosity instead of just “dream match” exhibitionism, the company is going to pay for it. You can't sustain a weekly show on good matches alone. You need a villain, a hero, and a reason for the chair-throwing crowd to lose their minds.

Right now, I see a company resting on its laurels. Between the constant, repetitive tag matches and the lack of urgency in the storytelling, the product is becoming a caricature of itself. They have the time, the budget, and the roster to blow the doors off the industry. Instead, they are giving us a 3-star performance in a 5-star world. Fix the booking, or Sunday is going to be a very long night in the arena.