# Continental Classic (2023)

The 2023 Continental Classic (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 Wednesday Night 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 20-minute time limit, no one is allowed at ringside, and strictly prohibit outside interference. Eddie Kingston—who also defended the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the tournament—won the tournament by defeating Jon Moxley 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 professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced a tournament called the Continental Classic (C2). 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, 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, 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's donation of US$1 million worth of toys for the Toys for Tots 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, Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision. 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 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, 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, 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

Legend :
* Gold League match
* Blue League match
* Tournament final match
Tournament matches :
| Dates | Show | Venue | Matches | Matches | Time |
| November 22 | Dynamite | Wintrust Arena Chicago, Illinois | G | Swerve Strickland defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall | 13:51 |
| November 22 | Dynamite | Wintrust Arena Chicago, Illinois | G | Jay White defeated Rush by pinfall | 13:53 |
| November 22 | Dynamite | Wintrust Arena Chicago, Illinois | G | Jon Moxley defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall | 11:29 |
| November 25 | Collision | Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | B | Claudio Castagnoli defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall | 10:27 |
| November 25 | Collision | Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | B | Brody King defeated Eddie Kingston by pinfall | 16:41 |
| November 29 | Dynamite | Target Center Minneapolis, Minnesota | G | Jon Moxley defeated Jay Lethal by submission | 11:19 |
| November 29 | Dynamite | Target Center Minneapolis, Minnesota | G | Rush defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall | 11:25 |
| November 29 | Dynamite | Target Center Minneapolis, Minnesota | G | Swerve Strickland defeated Jay White by pinfall | 15:27 |
| December 2 | Collision | Erie Insurance Arena Erie, Pennsylvania | B | Brody King defeated Claudio Castagnoli by pinfall | 12:35 |
| December 2 | Collision | Erie Insurance Arena Erie, Pennsylvania | B | Andrade El Idolo defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall | 11:01 |
| December 2 | Collision | Erie Insurance Arena Erie, Pennsylvania | B | Bryan Danielson defeated Eddie Kingston by pinfall | 16:50 |
| December 5 | Collision (aired December 9) | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | B | Eddie Kingston defeated Claudio Castagnoli by pinfall | 18:04 |
| December 5 | Collision (aired December 9) | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | B | Andrade El Idolo defeated Bryan Danielson by pinfall | 18:33 |
| December 6 | Dynamite | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | G | Jon Moxley defeated Rush by technical submission | 14:32 |
| December 6 | Dynamite | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | G | Swerve Strickland defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall | 15:44 |
| December 6 | Dynamite | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | G | Jay White defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall | 11:24 |
| December 6 | Rampage (aired December 8) | Bell Centre Montreal, Quebec, Canada | B | Bryan Danielson defeated Daniel Garcia by technical submission | 15:35 |
| December 13 | Dynamite: Winter Is Coming | College Park Center Arlington, Texas | B | Andrade El Idolo defeated Brody King by pinfall | 14:45 |
| December 13 | Dynamite: Winter Is Coming | College Park Center Arlington, Texas | G | Rush defeated Jay Lethal by submission | 4:30 |
| December 13 | Dynamite: Winter Is Coming | College Park Center Arlington, Texas | G | Jay White defeated Mark Briscoe by pinfall | 11:19 |
| December 13 | Dynamite: Winter Is Coming | College Park Center Arlington, Texas | G | Jon Moxley defeated Swerve Strickland by pinfall | 16:23 |
| December 16 | Collision: Winter Is Coming | Curtis Culwell Center Garland, Texas | B | Claudio Castagnoli defeated Andrade El Idolo by pinfall | 15:33 |
| December 16 | Collision: Winter Is Coming | Curtis Culwell Center Garland, Texas | B | Eddie Kingston defeated Daniel Garcia by pinfall | 12:12 |
| December 16 | Collision: Winter Is Coming | Curtis Culwell Center Garland, Texas | B | Bryan Danielson defeated Brody King by pinfall | 15:11 |
| December 20 | Dynamite: Holiday Bash | Paycom Center Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | G | Swerve Strickland defeated Rush by pinfall | 14:53 |
| December 20 | Dynamite: Holiday Bash | Paycom Center Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | G | Mark Briscoe defeated Jay Lethal by pinfall | 13:53 |
| December 20 | Dynamite: Holiday Bash | Paycom Center Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | G | Jay White defeated Jon Moxley by pinfall | 15:09 |
| December 23 | Collision: Holiday Bash | Frost Bank Center San Antonio, Texas | B | Claudio Castagnoli vs. Bryan Danielson ended in a time-limit draw | 20:00 |
| December 23 | Collision: Holiday Bash | Frost Bank Center San Antonio, Texas | B | Daniel Garcia defeated Brody King by pinfall | 10:21 |
| December 23 | Collision: Holiday Bash | Frost Bank Center San Antonio, Texas | B | Eddie Kingston defeated Andrade El Idolo by pinfall | 15:39 |
| December 27 | Dynamite: New Year's Smash | Addition Financial Arena Orlando, Florida | G | Jon Moxley defeated Swerve Strickland and Jay White by pinfall | 23:14 |
| December 27 | Dynamite: New Year's Smash | Addition Financial Arena Orlando, Florida | B | Eddie Kingston defeated Bryan Danielson by pinfall | 22:37 |
| December 30 | Worlds End | Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum Uniondale, New York | F | Eddie Kingston defeated Jon Moxley by pinfall | 17:16 |

## Leagues

Legend :
* Qualified to league final
Participants :
| Blue League | Blue League | Gold League | Gold League |
| Bryan Danielson | 10 | Jon Moxley | 12 |
| Eddie Kingston | 9 | Swerve Strickland | 12 |
| Andrade El Idolo | 9 | Jay White | 12 |
| Claudio Castagnoli | 7 | Rush | 6 |
| Brody King | 6 | Mark Briscoe | 3 |
| Daniel Garcia | 3 | Jay Lethal | 0 |
* ↑ Kingston advanced to the Blue League final due to his head-to-head victory over Andrade.
Tournament overview :
| Blue League | Andrade | Castagnoli | Danielson | Garcia | King | Kingston |
| Andrade | — | Castagnoli (15:33) | Andrade (18:33) | Andrade (11:02) | Andrade (14:45) | Kingston (15:39) |
| Castagnoli | Castagnoli (15:33) | — | Draw (20:00) | Castagnoli (10:27) | King (12:34) | Kingston (18:04) |
| Danielson | Andrade (18:33) | Draw (20:00) | — | Danielson (15:35) | Danielson (15:11) | Danielson (16:50) |
| Garcia | Andrade (11:02) | Castagnoli (10:27) | Danielson (15:35) | — | Garcia (10:21) | Kingston (12:12) |
| King | Andrade (14:45) | King (12:34) | Danielson (15:11) | Garcia (10:21) | — | King (16:41) |
| Kingston | Kingston (15:39) | Kingston (18:04) | Danielson (16:50) | Kingston (12:12) | King (16:41) | — |
| Gold League | Briscoe | Lethal | Moxley | Rush | Strickland | White |
| Briscoe | — | Briscoe (13:53) | Moxley (11:29) | Rush (11:25) | Strickland (15:44) | White (11:19) |
| Lethal | Briscoe (13:53) | — | Moxley (11:19) | Rush (4:30) | Strickland (13:51) | White (11:24) |
| Moxley | Moxley (11:29) | Moxley (11:19) | — | Moxley (14:32) | Moxley (16:23) | White (15:09) |
| Rush | Rush (11:25) | Rush (4:30) | Moxley (14:32) | — | Strickland (14:53) | White (13:53) |
| Strickland | Strickland (15:44) | Strickland (13:51) | Moxley (16:23) | Strickland (14:53) | — | Strickland (15:27) |
| White | White (11:19) | White (11:24) | White (15:09) | White (13:53) | Strickland (15:27) | — |
| League Finals Dynamite: New Year's Smash (December 27) | League Finals Dynamite: New Year's Smash (December 27) | League Finals Dynamite: New Year's Smash (December 27) | Championship Final Worlds End (December 30) | Championship Final Worlds End (December 30) | Championship Final Worlds End (December 30) |
| Bryan Danielson | Bryan Danielson | 22:37 | | | |
| Eddie Kingston | Eddie Kingston | Pin | | | |
| Eddie Kingston | Eddie Kingston | Pin | Blue | Eddie Kingston | Pin |
| | | | Gold | Jon Moxley | 17:16 |
| Jon Moxley | Jon Moxley | Pin | Gold | Jon Moxley | 17:16 |
| Swerve StricklandJay White | Swerve StricklandJay White | —23:14 | | | |