AEW Collision Match Featured Unique Commentary Twist
A taped match on AEW Collision led to the company trying something different with their commentary team.
The September 28th episode of AEW Collision was the annual “Grand Slam” show taking place at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. The majority of the show was taped immediately after AEW Dynamite Grand Slam took place live also from Arthur Ashe Stadium.
One of the matches that aired on AEW Collision saw Jack Perry of The Elite defend the TNT Title in an open challenge against Minoru Suzuki. Perry won the match by countout after dropkicking Suzuki into the steps. After the match, Perry tried to attack Suzuki some more, but Katsuyori Shibata made the save and Perry ran away.
During a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer & Bryan Alvarez spoke about how announcer Ian Riccaboni was not there while the Perry-Suzuki match was being taped, so AEW tried to explain it.
Alvarez: “We had an amazing television moment. It was Jack Perry and Minoru Suzuki, and this match was taped before Dynamite, but it was taped for Collision. And Ian Riccaboni is an announcer on Collision.
Meltzer: “Well, he’s usually not. He was this week because of no Nigel.”
Alvarez: “But the point is this: Ian was not in the building yet when they had to tape this match, and this match was going to be inserted in the middle of a show that he was expected to do commentary on. So of all of the ideas about how to explain Ian not being at ringside for this particular match.”
Meltzer: “He’s announcing the match. They announced it in studio.”
Alvarez: “No, well, kind of. What happened was…..”
Meltzer: “His voice was there.”
Alvarez: “I know. What happened was they had Tony (Schiavone) and Daddy Magic (Matt Menard) do commentary and pretend that he was there, so they did not do commentary in post. Only Ian did. So they had to, like, leave spaces where he would say things, and then they did the rest by themselves. And so, like, they just pretended he was there. But like, they would do long shots, and you could see there’s only two announcers there. So then they start fighting over by the announce desk, and you know, they’re getting, like, this big close-up of the announce desk, and there’s no Ian Riccibani.”
“So apparently, Tony Schiavone, just on his feet, thought he hid under the desk. And so then Ian Riccibani, when he did the voiceover later, he starts acting like he’s underneath the desk. But anyway, he wasn’t there. They did the entire match, pretending he was there. And they had a cover for when they got a close-up of the announcers, and he wasn’t there. He was an invisible announcer.”
AEW Celebrating Five Years Of Dynamite
It’s another big week of television because the October 2nd edition of Dynamite from Pittsburgh is the fifth-anniversary celebration of Dynamite.
One of the featured matches on the show will see Will Ospreay defend the AEW International Title against Ricochet in what many people feel is one of the most highly anticipated AEW television matches this year.