By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW announced the following entrants and blocks for the Continental Classic tournament.
Gold League
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada
Darby Allin
Pac
Kevin Knight
Mike Bailey
Kyle Fletcher
Blue League
Konosuke Takeshita
Jon Moxley
Claudio Castagnoli
Orange Cassidy
Roderick Strong
Mascara Dorada
Powell’s POV: The Continental Classic selection special streamed on Monday night and can be viewed below or via the AEW YouTube page.
These are two good blocks with several strong league matchups to look forward to. Okada vs. Fletcher in a battle of Callis Family members looks great on paper. Moxley vs. Castagnoli jumps out due to being a match between two Death Riders. The battle between JetSpeed partners Knight and Bailey looks fun. Is it as simple as Okada and Takeshita meeting in the finals at AEW Worlds End on December 27?
The tournament starts on Wednesday’s Dynamite. The matches will have 20-minute time limits, and no one is allowed at ringside. Pinfalls and submissions are worth three points in the standings, while one point is awarded to each wrestler in the event of a draw. Schiavone stated that anyone who breaks the rule by showing up at ringside will be banned from AEW.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
I’m not sure why, but I thought that Kyle O’Reilly would be an entrant instead of Roderick.Obviously, this is setting up for Kazuchika v. Konosuke though.
I believe Tony Khan explained during the media scrum on Saturday that O’Reilly was too hurt to be in the tournament. I used the words “I believe” because there’s a 10 percent chance I dreamt that because I watched the scrum in the middle of the night after our audio review. Either way, I think it’s a good move to keep him out of the tournament if he’s not going to win it.