Booking Changes To AEW Continental Classic Revealed
Tony Khan changed some plans for the AEW Continental Classic
AEW hosted the first ever Continental Classic at the back end of 2023, which was a round robin tournament with the winner walking out as the Continental Champion, NJPW Strong Champion, and ROH World Champion. It proved to be a success, with several huge names battling it out each week for a month or so. In the end, Eddie Kingston won the tournament, defeating Jon Moxley in the final at Worlds End 2023.
The Continental Classic needed to be well planned out from the start given that each wrestler scored points on wins and draws, though plans did change when it came to booking the tournament, per Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
It was noted that there was more than one incarnation of the Continental Classic, and that in early drafts there were set to be more time limit draws, with each match in the group stage having a 20 minute time limit. However, Meltzer is reporting that Tony Khan responded to some feedback and decided to only have one time limit draw in the whole tournament, which came on the December 23 edition of AEW Collision between Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli. It is also said that the plan was always for Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley in the final though, no matter how AEW got there.
