Continental Classic (2023)

AEW Continental Classic

Tournament information
Sport	Professional wrestling
Location	United States Canada
Dates	November 22, 2023–December 30, 2023
Tournament format(s)	Two-block round-robin tournament
Host(s)	All Elite Wrestling
Venue(s)	Various arenas (see matches)
Participants	12
Final positions
Champion	Eddie Kingston
Runner-up	Jon Moxley

The 2023 Continental Classic (C2) was a professional wrestling round-robin tournament hosted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The inaugural edition of the AEW Continental Classic began on the November 22, 2023, episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite and culminated at the Worlds End pay-per-view (PPV) on December 30, 2023. Tournament matches were held under "Continental Rules", which feature a 20-minute time limit, no one is allowed at ringside, and strictly prohibit outside interference. Eddie Kingston—who also defended the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the tournament—won the tournament by defeating Jon Moxley in the final, and was crowned the first-ever AEW Continental Champion, as well as the first-ever AEW American Triple Crown Champion for holding all three titles, also referred to as the Continental Crown Champion.

History

On November 11, 2023, the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament called the Continental Classic (C2). AEW president Tony Khan and AEW wrestler Bryan Danielson announced that the tournament would begin on the November 22, 2023, episode of Dynamite, lasting six weeks and concluding at the Worlds End pay-per-view (PPV) event on December 30.^[1]

The Continental Classic was announced to be a round-robin tournament consisting of two groups of six wrestlers. The first four confirmed participants were Bryan Danielson, Andrade El Idolo, Mark Briscoe, and Eddie Kingston.^[2] A week later, AEW unveiled the AEW Continental Championship as a prize for the tournament winner, and announced that Kingston would also put his ROH World Championship and his NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line; the winner of the tournament would hence be declared the first American Triple Crown Champion, also referred to as the Continental Crown. Khan also announced that the incumbent Continental Champion at the time of future editions of the tournament would be given automatic entry to defend their title.^[3][4]

The inaugural tournament's matches were scheduled to be held across episodes of Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision, with the semi-finals (promoted as the "League Finals") held on December 27 at Dynamite: New Year's Smash and the tournament final (promoted as the "Championship Final") held at the Worlds End PPV.^[5] All 12 participants and their groupings in the inaugural Continental Classic were revealed during the "Selection Special" midday on November 22 across AEW's social media. The two blocks were named the Gold and Blue Leagues, with the Gold League matches beginning that night on Dynamite.^[6] During the tournament's final week, it was given the secondary branding of "Tournament For Tots", in conjunction with AEW and their action figure manufacturer partner Jazwares's donation of US$1 million worth of toys for the Toys for Tots charity for underprivileged children.^[7][8]

Overview

The Continental Classic is an annual tournament that starts after the promotion's Full Gear PPV event in mid-November and ends at the Worlds End PPV at the end of December. The tournament takes place in a round-robin format, with two blocks of six wrestlers – titled the Blue and Gold Leagues – wrestling each other across AEW's television shows, Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision. Matches are held under "Continental Rules": each match has 20-minute time limit, no other wrestlers are allowed at ringside, and outside interference is strictly prohibited under threat of penalty.

Similar to most soccer leagues, match winners obtain three points for a win, and drawn matches give one point to each participant. After the round-robin phase, the top two wrestlers in each league qualify for a league final match, with ties for position broken based on head-to-head record. The winner of each league final match then face each other for the AEW Continental Championship at Worlds End.^[9]

Eddie Kingston was the incumbent ROH World Champion and NJPW Strong Openweight Champion heading in to the tournament; he put these championships on the line as a tournament prize, with the winner to be recognised as the American Triple Crown Champion, also referred to as the Continental Crown. When the tournament was announced, Andrade El Idolo, Mark Briscoe, and Bryan Danielson were also announced as participants. The other eight participants and the league draw were announced in a "Selection Special" presentation in the afternoon preceding the first matches: Andrade, Danielson, Kingston, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, and Brody King in the Blue League, and Briscoe, Jay Lethal, Jon Moxley, Rush, Swerve Strickland, and Jay White in the Gold League.^[10]

Matches

Legend

	Gold League match
	Blue League match
	Tournament final match

Tournament matches

Dates	Show	Venue	Matches		Time
November 22	Dynamite	Wintrust Arena Chicago, Illinois	G	Swerve Strickland defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall	13:51
			G	Jay White defeated Rush by pinfall	13:53
			G	Jon Moxley defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall	11:29
November 25	Collision	Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	B	Claudio Castagnoli defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall	10:27
			B	Brody King defeated Eddie Kingston by pinfall	16:41
November 29	Dynamite	Target Center Minneapolis, Minnesota	G	Jon Moxley defeated Jay Lethal by submission	11:19
			G	Rush defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall	11:25
			G	Swerve Strickland defeated Jay White by pinfall	15:27
December 2	Collision	Erie Insurance Arena Erie, Pennsylvania	B	Brody King defeated Claudio Castagnoli by pinfall	12:35
			B	Andrade El Idolo defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall	11:01
			B	Bryan Danielson defeated Eddie Kingston by pinfall	16:50
December 5	Collision (aired December 9)	Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada	B	Eddie Kingston defeated Claudio Castagnoli by pinfall	18:04
			B	Andrade El Idolo defeated Bryan Danielson by pinfall	18:33
December 6	Dynamite		G	Jon Moxley defeated Rush by technical submission	14:32
			G	Swerve Strickland defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall	15:44
			G	Jay White defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall	11:24
	Rampage (aired December 8)		B	Bryan Danielson defeated Daniel Garcia by technical submission	15:35
December 13	Dynamite: Winter Is Coming	College Park Center Arlington, Texas	B	Andrade El Idolo defeated Brody King by pinfall	14:45
			G	Rush defeated Jay Lethal by submission	4:30
			G	Jay White defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall	11:19
			G	Jon Moxley defeated Swerve Strickland by pinfall	16:23
December 16	Collision: Winter Is Coming	Curtis Culwell Center Garland, Texas	B	Claudio Castagnoli defeated Andrade El Idolo by pinfall	15:33
			B	Eddie Kingston defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall	12:12
			B	Bryan Danielson defeated Brody King by pinfall	15:11
December 20	Dynamite: Holiday Bash	Paycom Center Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	G	Swerve Strickland defeated Rush by pinfall	14:53
			G	Mark Briscoe defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall	13:53
			G	Jay White defeated Jon Moxley by pinfall	15:09
December 23	Collision: Holiday Bash	Frost Bank Center San Antonio, Texas	B	Claudio Castagnoli vs. Bryan Danielson ended in a time-limit draw	20:00
			B	Daniel Garcia defeated Brody King by pinfall	10:21
			B	Eddie Kingston defeated Andrade El Idolo by pinfall	15:39
December 27	Dynamite: New Year's Smash	Addition Financial Arena Orlando, Florida	G	Jon Moxley defeated Swerve Strickland and Jay White by pinfall	23:14
			B	Eddie Kingston defeated Bryan Danielson by pinfall	22:37
December 30	Worlds End	Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Uniondale, New York	F	Eddie Kingston defeated Jon Moxley by pinfall	17:16

Leagues

Legend

Qualified to league final

Participants

Blue League		Gold League
Bryan Danielson	10	Jon Moxley	12
Eddie Kingston[a]	9	Swerve Strickland	12
Andrade El Idolo	9	Jay White	12
Claudio Castagnoli	7	Rush	6
Brody King	6	Mark Briscoe	3
Daniel Garcia	3	Jay Lethal	0

1. Kingston advanced to the Blue League final due to his head-to-head victory over Andrade.

Tournament overview

Blue League	Andrade	Castagnoli	Danielson	Garcia	King	Kingston
Andrade	—	Castagnoli (15:33)	Andrade (18:33)	Andrade (11:02)	Andrade (14:45)	Kingston (15:39)
Castagnoli	Castagnoli (15:33)	—	Draw (20:00)	Castagnoli (10:27)	King (12:34)	Kingston (18:04)
Danielson	Andrade (18:33)	Draw (20:00)	—	Danielson (15:35)	Danielson (15:11)	Danielson (16:50)
Garcia	Andrade (11:02)	Castagnoli (10:27)	Danielson (15:35)	—	Garcia (10:21)	Kingston (12:12)
King	Andrade (14:45)	King (12:34)	Danielson (15:11)	Garcia (10:21)	—	King (16:41)
Kingston	Kingston (15:39)	Kingston (18:04)	Danielson (16:50)	Kingston (12:12)	King (16:41)	—
Gold League	Briscoe	Lethal	Moxley	Rush	Strickland	White
Briscoe	—	Briscoe (13:53)	Moxley (11:29)	Rush (11:25)	Strickland (15:44)	White (11:19)
Lethal	Briscoe (13:53)	—	Moxley (11:19)	Rush (4:30)	Strickland (13:51)	White (11:24)
Moxley	Moxley (11:29)	Moxley (11:19)	—	Moxley (14:32)	Moxley (16:23)	White (15:09)
Rush	Rush (11:25)	Rush (4:30)	Moxley (14:32)	—	Strickland (14:53)	White (13:53)
Strickland	Strickland (15:44)	Strickland (13:51)	Moxley (16:23)	Strickland (14:53)	—	Strickland (15:27)
White	White (11:19)	White (11:24)	White (15:09)	White (13:53)	Strickland (15:27)	—

	League Finals Dynamite: New Year's Smash (December 27)					Championship Final Worlds End (December 30)
	Bryan Danielson		22:37
	Eddie Kingston		Pin
						Blue	Eddie Kingston	Pin
						Gold	Jon Moxley	17:16
	Jon Moxley		Pin
	Swerve Strickland Jay White		— 23:14

See also

• List of All Elite Wrestling tournaments

References

1. Defelice, Robert (November 11, 2023). "Tony Khan Announces AEW Continental Classic Tournament Starts On 11/22, Concludes At AEW Worlds End". Fightful. Archived from the original on November 12, 2023. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
2. Rose, Bryan (November 11, 2023). "AEW announces Continental Classic tournament, Bryan Danielson first entrant". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
3. Renner, Ethan (November 18, 2023). "AEW announces new title & Continental Classic competitors". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved November 18, 2023.
4. Thomas, Jeremy (November 19, 2023). "Tony Khan Gives More Details on AEW Continental Classic, Will Conclude At Worlds End". 411Mania. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
5. Murphy, Don (November 11, 2023). "AEW Collision results (11/11): Murphy's review of Sting, Darby Allin, and Adam Copeland vs. Lance Archer, Vincent, and Dutch, Willow Nightingale vs. Julia Hart, Daniel Garcia vs. Andrade El Idolo". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on November 13, 2023. Retrieved November 13, 2023.
6. Carey, Ian (November 22, 2023). "AEW reveals full list of entrants for Continental Classic tournament". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
7. Tessier, Colin. "AEW Partnering With Toys For Tots, Raising Over $1 Million Worth Of Toys". Yahoo!. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
8. Lambert, Jeremy (December 13, 2023). "AEW Partnering With Toys For Tots, Raising Over $1 Million Worth Of Toys For Kids". Fightful. Retrieved December 20, 2023.
9. Thomas, Jeremy (November 19, 2023). "Tony Khan Gives More Details on AEW Continental Classic, Will Conclude At Worlds End". 411Mania. Retrieved November 19, 2023.
10. "AEW reveals full list of entrants for Continental Classic tournament". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. November 22, 2023. Retrieved December 4, 2024.