The Continental Classic - A thread for pontificating, fantasy booking and ruling the motherfucking world.

[Cobra Commander]

Swerve’s in the tournament to make the “put the World Title on Swerve” people nervous

edit-

the leagues are…

Gold: Moxley, Swerve, Rush, Mark Briscoe, Jay Lethal, Jay White

Blue: Danielson, Andrade, Brody King, Claudio, Daniel Garcia, and Eddie Kingston

Edited November 22, 2023 by Cobra Commander

[Raziel]

Clarified (I guess, that was really roundabout) that Eddie basically relinquished the RoH and NJPW Strong belts to the overall winner.  And it seems that the Continental Belt is similar to all the other AEW belts, shape wise.

[Matt D]

Far better than I was hoping for to be honest. Of the ten guys I don't like in AEW, only one made the cut and it's the one that in a lot of ways I mind the least. I'm not a fan of Swerve overall but I woudln't mind seeing him wrestle anyone in his group. I could have lived with Lethal being switched out for Yuta or even Jarrett if we're talking guys from his group since we're not even going to have the benefit of Jarrett, but he's fine. Perfectly fine. I'm sad we won't see Andrade vs RUSH.

That said, all of this sounds great. Love it. RUSH vs everyone should be amazing. Danielson vs everyone should be great. We're getting Claudio vs Kingston again. We're getting Danielson vs Kingston again. We're getting Garcia vs Danielson again. We're getting BCC Claudo vs Danielson and Brody vs Danielson. And Andrade vs Danielson 2 knowing that Danielson got hurt last time (even though not kayfabe). Imagine Garcia vs Brody or vs Andrade. Or Briscoe vs Mox. All of this is great.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Matt D

[Fighting a man with a perm]

Looking at the lineup, Lethal really sticks out to me especiallu as they've said that everyone banned from ringside - lethal without Jarret and crew bringing the nonsense just does not excite.

Interesting that we have 3 from BCC and zero from the Elite.

Would love to see Garcia get some big wins here, likewise Big Bad Brody KingSize!

[Cobra Commander]

guessing that the sequence of records will be something like 4-1/4-1/3-2/2-3/1-4/1-4 for at least one group to not job someone 5 times

something like the final match between two 3-1s where one of the 3-1s has a win over the 4-1 and the other doesn't so the result determines who wins

now, I could see Lethal going 0-5 on the other side to have a group of like 4-1/4-1/4-1/2-3/1-4/0-5 tale of two cities group

Also, yeah, draws are possible but... I mean. Let's not make this any more complicated than it is just working off the top of our heads.

[S.K.o.S.]

There's really nothing at all to complain about with that lineup. Like, on paper, there are no bad matchups. All we need is a couple of tournament-long narratives and a willingness to throw in a few upsets, and this will be an all-timer.

[southofheavy]

GODDAMN, that lineup. TK ain't playin'. 

This is gonna be GREAT. I am especially stoked for Brody/Garcia and Mox/Mark. Those are two matches I hadn't even considered. Eddie/Brody is going to rule ass. 

[S.K.o.S.]

Also want to say that a round robin tournament like this is pretty much the only way we would ever get Jay White vs. Swerve in their current personas. A heel vs. heel match is rare, a matchup of arguably the two top heels in the company is extremely rare.

[Log]

Drooling for Brody vs anyone in his block.

[southofheavy]

6 minutes ago, Log said:

Drooling for Brody vs anyone in his block.

Five bucks says Danielson wanted to be in the same block as Brody, utter masochist that he is. 

 

13 minutes ago, S.K.o.S. said:

Also want to say that a round robin tournament like this is pretty much the only way we would ever get Jay White vs. Swerve in their current personas. A heel vs. heel match is rare, a matchup of arguably the two top heels in the company is extremely rare.

Didn't even think of that, either. Thank you, sir. 

[HumanChessgame]

I'd much rather see Buddy Matthews and Lee Moriarty in there than Moxley and Lethal, but it's a solid field overall. They're making yet another belt for this? I was under the impression it was just going to be a trophy or something like the Owen Hart cup.

[Craig H]

That gold league is pure fucking violence. Holy shit. Someone gonna die.

Mox vs Rush? Mox, it’s time to stop laying your shit in so soft.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Craig H

[Go2Sleep]

Gold group is fucking sick. Even though Lethal is a step below the other guys, he should be fighting for his life against all of them, so the dynamic is interesting.

Blue group is fine, but it feels like we've seen most of those match-ups in the past year or so. Brody is the only fresh match for most of them (not that it isn't a great match) and Danielson/Eddie will be interesting.

[Niners Fan in CT]

3 hours ago, S.K.o.S. said:

There's really nothing at all to complain about with that lineup. Like, on paper, there are no bad matchups. All we need is a couple of tournament-long narratives and a willingness to throw in a few upsets, and this will be an all-timer.

Yeah that is a stacked lineup.  I would have liked to see Omega obviously (and I don't like the team with Jericho) but I guess that was unlikely to happen.  Other names that could have been considered include Hobbs or Starks or Hangman but the field is strong, lots of potential great matches there. 

[Shartnado]

2 hours ago, Craig H said:

That gold league is pure fucking violence. Holy shit. Someone gonna die.

Mox vs Rush? Mox, it’s time to stop laying your shit in so soft.

Not only is someone going to die, they will get hit so hard they will die and be brought back to life at the same time due to the force of the impact!

[JLowe]

4 hours ago, Log said:

Drooling for Brody vs anyone in his block.

I’m stoked to have him wrestling some singles matches in general, and super incredibly stoked for his block matchups.

[zendragon]

[Cobra Commander]

4 hours ago, Cobra Commander said:

to have a group of like 4-1/4-1/4-1/2-3/1-4/0-5 tale of two cities group

although I could see there being some sort of confusion over a 3 way tie at the top of a group (this has probably happened a few times in other wrestling round robins and can be easily resolved)

so I guess that group should be 4-1/4-1 then 3-2/2-3/2-3, and then 0-5

I'm gonna pretend that WCW's Battlebowl machine, which was also used to make matches on Worldwide in 1997, is being used here

Edited November 22, 2023 by Cobra Commander

[southofheavy]

13 minutes ago, zendragon said:

CAN I GET A WOAH, BUNDY?

[southofheavy]

Where the beer gives you gas and Eddie Kingston kicks ass, AT THE NUDIE BARRRRRRR

[hobo joe]

AEW doesn't need more titles, but at least we're consolidating 3 into 1. This going to be banger after banger. 

Swerve over Danielson in the finals, PLEASE.

 

[The Natural]

The G1 is one of the best things in wrestling. I welcome the C2.

[The Natural]

Blue League:
Bryan Danielson.
Andrade El Idolo.
Brody King.
Claudio Castagnoli.
Daniel Garcia.
Eddie Kingston.

Gold League:
Jon Moxley.
Swerve Strickland.
Rush.
Mark Briscoe.
Jay Lethal.

20 minute time limit. No interference.

All about the Blue League for me. Looking forward to all of Bryan Danielson's matches but especially vs. Claudio Castagnoli which I've wanted to see since both signed with AEW and Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston 2. Danielson works great with bigger men and we'll get that with Danielson vs. Brody King. If I'm AEW and NJPW, I'd be bricking it with the major injuries Bryan Danielson has had this year and he's having his first NJPW match in 20 years at Wrestle Kingdom 18.

[Cobra Commander]

Wonder if the first draw will have to be big or ordinary if this tournament will have any draws in it.

Now having the threat of a draw in Danielson/Claudio that would advance one of them instead of advancing a non-BCC member would be one way to tease a draw where the drama isn’t about cheering against a draw because draws in American wrestling have been built to be letdowns.

I don’t know if there’s a way to make the math work where a specific Bryan/Claudio result would end up boning Kingston as a result. Sort of a “will these two do a Disgrace of Gijon” that ends up with them just fighting it out.

Guess there’s no Callis family members in the tournament due to not wanting 5 matches of Don Callis sitting in on commentary.

It would be an appropriately quirky rule if the C2 could have guest commentators on Dynamite but not on Collision since Dynamite’s commentary table isn’t at ringside but Collision’s is.

[Shartnado]

Like I said in the weekly thread,  the top 3 guys of block Gold were established in this first round. By the looks of it, RUSH would be the number 4 guy, and we'll see how the chips fall for Lethal and Briscoe? I'm thinking that anyone can make it to the block finals with one draw, because otherwise it would basically be a single elimination tournament, but is it possible to get there with one loss? It should be possible, but not if say Jay White just waltzes through beating everyone until losing the actual championship finals. I would prefer this to be as close as possible and with some upsets as well. As I said, I don't see Mox in the championship finals, but definitely in the block finals against either White or Swerve. Having White vs Swerve as the block finals would be interesting, but probably not the way to go. Block Gold is rather heel heavy, with only Briscoe as a  true face. RUSH and Mox may be cheered, but that doesn't mean that they are real faces.

Blue Block is also just tweeners on top of tweeners with only Eddie as a true face and even he is a F'n asshole 90% of the time. Bryan is closer to being a face these days, but he still hangs around with a bunch of tweeners who were heels just a while ago! Well, guess those matches are easier to book, as anyone can face anyone and not worry about the crowd reaction. This block is a bit harder to predict, but it would definitely suck if Eddie put his belts on the line and would end up nowhere near the block finals.

I don't know if this field is as good as it could have been, but I'm sure that there is a reason why these people were chosen and others weren't. I'm sure we are in for a bunch of really good matches. I have to say that the 20-minute time limit is good, as it raises the possibility of two top guys going to a draw and giving the number 4 guy a long shot chance, because he was able to beat #5 and #6 guys etc. If the time limit was 30 minutes, we would probably be looking at 1 max, if that. With 20 minutes, I can see a few matches going that long.