A top AEW star has spoken honestly about the Continental Classic Tournament as it approaches it’s conclusion at the Worlds End pay-per-view on December 30.
With the final for the tournament to be determined on this week’s AEW Dynamite (December 27), one of the stars who is set to be in contention to reach the last stage recently discussed the success of the inaugural tournament.
Speaking in an interview with Jimmy Varsallone of the Miami Herald, Swerve Strickland shared his thoughts on the Continental Classic, and what has set it apart from other tournaments for both fans and talent alike:
“The Classic has been a shot in the arm of what the pro wrestling industry needed. Introducing a new style of tournament bracketing with the classic round-robin style of blocks and scoring points.
“The usual tournament, you see (the seeding) and sometimes those guys don’t cross paths and they don’t face each other. In round robin, everyone has to face everyone, and that’s what made it so special.
“Everyone in the block was like, ‘I get to see these matchups. That’s going to be cool. I don’t know who is going to win here, this could be a draw.’
“A lot of fans had a lot of fun with the scoring. Whoever is truly a wrestling connoisseur can have a lot of fun with those things. Me being part of the first one, we had to set the tone for the first-ever Continental Classic.
“Me being a finalist and going against Jay White and Jon Moxley, who is going to go down as a Hall of Famer and all-time great, being able to not face him once, but face him twice, means a lot. I get redemption for myself.
“Jay White, one of the pioneers of New Japan for the last three or four years, coming over here, he is new and being integrated to the national audience on-screen.
“I have a victory over him, and that means something, and it means something to him. He wants his redemption on me. Everyone is after something and we want to take it out on each other.”
Strickland is set to face-off with Jon Moxley and ‘Switchblade’ Jay White in the finals of the Gold League, while the final of the blue league will be determined between Bryan Danielson and reigning ROH World Champion Eddie Kingston.
This will then lead to a match between the winners at AEW Worlds End to determine the first-ever AEW Continental Champion and in-turn the new Triple Crown Champion unifying both the ROH World Title and NJPW STRONG Openweight Titles.
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