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The 2023 Continental Classic, colloquially abbreviated as the 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 AEW 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 twenty-minute time limit and strictly prohibit outside interference. Eddie Kingston – who also put his ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line in the tournament – won the tournament by defeating Jon Moxley in the final, and was crowned the first-ever AEW Continental Champion.

History

On November 11, 2023, the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament called the Continental Classic. 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.

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. 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 and the combined championship 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.

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. All twelve participants and their groupings in the inaugural Continental Classic were revealed during the "Selection Special" at 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. During the tournament's final week, it was given the secondary branding of "Tournament For Tots", in conjunction with AEW's and their action figure manufacturer partner Jazwares's donation of $1 million worth of toys for the Toys for Tots charity for underprivileged children.

Overview

The AEW Continental Classic is an annual tournament that starts after the promotion's Full Gear pay-per-view (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 twenty-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.

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 and the three championships collectively 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.

Matches

Leagues

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

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". F4W/WON. 2023-11-22. Retrieved 2024-12-04.

• AEW Continental Classic
• 2023 in professional wrestling