AEW fans weren’t celebrating Andrade El Idolo retaining the AEW National Championship on Collision. Instead, they were trying to figure out what the referee was doing during the finish.
Late in Andrade’s title defense against Daniel Garcia on the September 19 edition of AEW Collision, Garcia caught the champion in a roll-up and the referee appeared to count all the way to three. The problem was that nobody treated it like the match was over. Instead of calling for the bell, the action continued. Andrade immediately reversed the position into a pin of his own, the referee counted another three, and this time Andrade was declared the winner.
It didn’t take long for clips of the sequence to spread across social media, with plenty of fans criticizing both the referee and the finish. One fan couldn’t understand how the entire sequence came together.
“Wait I have so many questions. Why (I think it’s Garcia) look the ref like an idiot? Why is this s*** look so bad? Like the camera angle, the move, this stupid ref. Like come on try to do this in a better way ffs.”
Another fan went straight after AEW’s officiating, saying, “I do love AEW, but their referee’s suckkkkkkk.” Other fans focused on the count itself and called out the referee again for good measure.
“Look like u got dumbf*** working as refs bc which dumbass counts like this.”
Some viewers were more frustrated with the booking than the referee and made it clear they are absolutely sick of roll up finishers because they all look weak.
“Can we stop with these roll up finishes? S*** is so corny and undermines the winner. TK is so afraid that if he makes someone take a definitive loss they’ll look weak so he spams these roll up finishes every show.”
The timing also made the whole thing stand out even more. Just one night earlier, WWE had its own referee controversy during the SmackDown main event between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. In that match, Owens was supposed to stay down after CM Punk hit him with the Undisputed WWE Championship, but the referee counted three without calling for the bell. According to Fightful Select, Owens wasn’t meant to kick out, forcing everyone in the ring to improvise a second finish.
Now, less than 24 hours later, fans watched another confusing three-count—this time in AEW. Two different companies, two different matches, but both ended with referees becoming the story instead of the wrestlers.
What did you make of the finish to Andrade vs. Daniel Garcia? Let us know in the comments below.
