The 2023 Continental Classic (C2) was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

hosted by the American promotion

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

(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 Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

(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 Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by the ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler. , he is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is out of in-ring action because of a leg injury, but continues to mak ...

—who also defended the

ROH World Championship The ROH World Championship is a professional wrestling Championship (professional wrestling)#World championships, world championship created and promoted by Ring of Honor (ROH). It is considered the most prestigious title in the promotion. The cu ...

and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the tournament—won the tournament by defeating

Jon Moxley Jonathan David Good (born December 7, 1985) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Jon Moxley and is the current AEW World Championship, AEW World Champion in his ...

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

promotion

(AEW) announced a tournament called the Continental Classic (C2). AEW president

Tony Khan Antony Rafiq Khan (born October 10, 1982) is an American businessman, sports executive, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the founder, co-owner, president, CEO, executive producer, and head booker of All Elite Wrestling ...

and AEW wrestler

Bryan Danielson Bryan Lloyd Danielson (born May 22, 1981) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs on a part time basis. He is also known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under t ...

announced that the tournament would begin on the November 22, 2023, episode of ''

Dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

'', lasting six weeks and concluding at the Worlds End

(PPV)

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of eve ...

on December 30. The Continental Classic was announced to be a

consisting of two groups of six wrestlers. The first four confirmed participants were Bryan Danielson,

Andrade El Idolo Manuel Alfonso Andrade Oropeza (born November 3, 1989) is a Mexican professional wrestler. , he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the WWE SmackDown (brand), SmackDown WWE brand extension, brand under the ring name Andrade (formerly Andrad ...

Mark Briscoe Mark Pugh (born January 18, 1985) is an American professional wrestler best known as Mark Briscoe. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), where he made a name teaming with his brother Jay as the Briscoe Brothers. ...

, and

. A week later, AEW unveiled the

AEW Continental Championship The AEW Continental Championship is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Established on November 18, 2023, the title has a special attribute in that it is defended ...

as a prize for the tournament winner, and announced that Kingston would also put his

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. The inaugural tournament's matches were scheduled to be held across episodes of ''Dynamite'', '' Rampage'', and ''

Collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great for ...

'', 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 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''. 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 Jazwares, LLC is an American company headquartered in Plantation, Florida that designs and manufactures toys and other consumer products. As of 2022, the company is owned by investment holding company Berkshire Hathaway. The company is best known ...

's donation of US$1 million worth of toys for the

Toys for Tots Toys for Tots is a program run by the United States Marine Corps Reserve which distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas. It was founded in 1947 by reservist Major Bill Hendricks. The Marine T ...

charity for underprivileged children.

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, ''

'', '' Rampage'', and ''

''. 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 Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

leagues, match winners obtain

three points for a win Three points for a win is a standard used in many sports leagues and group tournaments, especially in association football, in which 3 points are awarded to the team winning a match, with no points awarded to the losing team. If the game is draw ...

, 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, 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 Claudio Castagnoli ( ; born 27 December 1980) is a Swiss professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Death Riders and a former AEW World Trios Championship, AEW World Trios Champion. He also per ...

, Daniel Garcia, and

Brody King Nathan Troy Blauvelt (born March 17, 1987), better known by his ring name Brody King, is an American professional wrestler, singer, and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Hounds of Hell and is a form ...

in the Blue League, and Briscoe,

Jay Lethal Jamar Shipman (born April 29, 1985), better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He is best known for his tenures in Ring of Honor (ROH), Total Nonstop Action Wrest ...

, Rush,

Swerve Strickland Stephon Strickland (born September 30, 1990) is an American professional wrestler and rapper. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Swerve Strickland. He also appears on the independent circuit. Strickl ...

, and

Jay White Jamie White (born 9 October 1992), better known by the ring name Jay White, is a New Zealand professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Bullet Club sub-group Bang Bang Gang. White is a former ...

History

Overview

Matches

Leagues

See also

References