Tonight’s (Dec. 23) Holiday Bash episode of AEW Collision featured the final three round-robin matches in the Blue League of the Continental Classic tournament. Would the league actually finish in a wild 5-way tie?
The episode kicked off with Bryan Danielson vs. Claudio Castagnoli in a match that Claudio needed to win. Even though they are allies in the Blackpool Combat Club, Claudio didn’t hesitate to target Bryan’s injured eye once the clock had under 5 minutes remaining for their fight. A neutralizer wasn’t enough to keep Bryan down for the three count. Likewise, Danielson’s Busaiku Knee strike wasn’t enough to beat Castagnoli. Claudio sat down on the Sharpshooter with under one minute to go. Bryan refused to tap out. Claudio tried one last second uppercut for a desperate pin attempt, but the time limit expired, resulting in the first (and only) draw of the tourney.
Each man earned one point due to the draw. Castagnoli finishes the Continental Classic with 7 points and is eliminated, while Danielson advances to the next round with 10 points. They shook hands after the fight.
The 5-way tie scenario was off the board due to that result, but there was still a chance for a 3-way tie in second place. Brody King would need to beat Daniel Garcia to keep that scenario alive. But the winless Garcia came into this match looking to play spoiler, and that’s exactly what he did. He survived big blow and after big blow, and managed to steal the match from Brody with a jackknife pin. That ended King’s tournament stuck at 6 points.
That set the stage for a do-or-die match between Eddie Kingston and Andrade El Idolo in the main event. After going at it for more than 15 minutes, Eddie used multiple spinning backfists and slammed Andrade down to the mat for the pin fall victory. With that win, both men finish the round-robin portion of the Continental Classic with 9 points each. However, Eddie advances over Andrade via tiebreaker due to this head-to-head win. In doing so, Eddie still has a chance to retain his ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, which will both go to the winner of the tournament.
Here are the final standings in the Gold and Blue Leagues of the inaugural Continental Classic:
Gold League
Jon Moxley (4-1-0): 12 points
Swerve Strickland (4-1-0): 12
Jay White (4-1-0): 12
RUSH (2-3-0): 6*
Mark Briscoe (1-4-0): 3*
Jay Lethal (0-5-0): 0*
Blue League
Bryan Danielson (3-1-1): 10 points
Eddie Kingston (3-2-0): 9
Andrade El Idolo (3-2-0): 9*
Claudio Castagnolo (2-2-1): 7*
Brody King (2-3-0): 6*
Daniel Garcia (1-4-0): 3*
* Eliminated, and will not advance past the round robin stage.
Next week’s (Dec. 27) Dynamite will feature both semifinal matches. The Gold League Final is a triple threat match between Moxley, Swerve, and White. The Blue League Final is Danielson vs. Kingston. The winners go on to wrestle for the Triple Crown (NJPW Strong Openweight, Ring of Honor World & new AEW Continental titles) at Worlds End on Dec. 30.
How do you see the rest of the Continental Classic playing out from here, Cagesiders?
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