AEW BEST OF THE WEEK: The surprise best match of the week, what really works with Swerve Strickland’s return, plus some quick gripes

Best Match

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong – Collision 8/15/26

I’m totally being a jerk when I say this, but whatever: I never thought I’d be putting Roderick Strong under a “Best” banner in a positive way. Alright, I’ll stop being a jerk now.

You knew coming into this match that these two were going to have great chemistry in the ring and that we were most likely going to get a Ring of Honor type match – and boy did we ever. I loved this match. If you aren’t an avid Collision watcher, I suggest you seek this match out and give it the 13 minutes of your time it deserves. I loved the amount of counter-wrestling that was in this match. You would expect that in a matchup like this because of how well these guys know each other. This was easily the best match of Continental Cup so far and really saved another lackluster Collision.

One of my favorite spots in the match was the top rope back breaker Strong hit O’Reilly with and the lariat that O’Reilly hit strong with that absolutely leveled him. After the match, Strong shoved O’Reilly to the ground after O’Reilly went for a handshake and I’m really hoping we aren’t going to do the heel turn crap with Strong again. We have been there and done that. Strong came to his senses and picked up O’Reilly off the mat, but when it happened in real time I was like “Oh God, don’t do this.”

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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Best Promo

Swerve Strickland – Dynamite 8/12/26

I was so happy to see Swerve Strickland on the show this week and I thought he did a fantastic job. I loved how he talked about the history he had with “Hangman” Adam Page, Brody King, and Bandido and how he has beaten all three of them. I loved him telling Brody King that the last time Swerve saw King he had him laying “in a pool of his own blood.” If you wanted to find a way to heat up the Trios Titles heading into All In, then putting a rivalry like Swerve and Hangman at the center of them is a way to get some interest boiling. Am I happy that Hangman and Swerve are at the center of a Trios Title battle? Not particularly, but at this point it’s better than nothing leading into All in.

The reason I wrote about the New Day at the beginning of this article is because my guess is that they are debuting as Swerve’s trios partners at All In. I like this. It will help give the New Day an edge they are missing. I wouldn’t mind a heel faction of Swerve and the New Day together running rough shot over AEW for a bit. I know that AEW fans are going to want to cheer for New Day when they first come into AEW. Putting them against fan favorites like Hangman & Brodido is a smart way to help divert cheers away from the New Day.

Thoughts and Observations

– I think that MJF has way more hits than misses. His mind for wrestling is top notch. He has to stop carrying around the unofficial World Title belt, though. I cringe every time he has it on.

– So Jon Moxley beats the hell out of Jack Perry, brushes off Jack Perry’s counter strikes, and then beats the hell out of him some more. I understand what they are trying to do, but for me it made Jack Perry look like a punk rather than this scrappy underdog who wouldn’t give up.

– I don’t want to watch Chris Jericho anymore. Please, make it stop.

– The promo this week with Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega was the type of promo I feared we would be getting between these two. What the hell was that voice Kenny was doing? I thought it was a big miss.

– Where is Thekla? Are they really not going to have her on this All In card in a big match?

– …. Seriously, where is Thekla?