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

[Zakk_Sabbath]

It should've just been blue for Dynamite and red for Collision, just like the TBS and TNT titles should be exclusive to each network. Every title defense is a kick in the minor-OCD

[Technico Support]

On 11/22/2023 at 12:18 PM, Matt D said:

“These performers will be given an unprecedented opportunity to showcase their elite athleticism and unbridled passion across WWE's global platforms.”

I threw up a little bit reading that

[Matt D]

My attempt to put words to Kingston vs Danielson. 
 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-1127-123.html?m=1

[NikoBaltimore]

That write-up was beautiful and has me wanting to watch it again ASAP.

The Continental Classic has been so fun to watch it has me getting back into Fire Pro to simulate this a few times.  With it being obvious Danielson would rule and expected to have Mox/Swerve kicking ass on their end the standout aside from them is definitely Brody.  The guy is straight violence and if there's a just AEW they'll have him going for a singles title after the CC ends.

EDIT:  Well, first go-round it had Mark Briscoe and Andrade in the finals with Mark winning the whole thing.  I try to get edits from those who know what they're doing with match logic and stats but depending on the maker results may vary.  It would have been nice to see that actually happen as the matches on average had high rankings and they've been at least really fucking great IRL.  I'll likely do this a couple more times but it was interesting to see how what I had in Fire Pro played out.

Edited December 7, 2023 by NikoBaltimore

[Log]

Don’t know why this just occurred to me, but we’ll be getting Brody vs Danielson soon. Shit. That’s gonna rule. 

[StuntmanCrowley]

I feel some sort of way about both Lethal and Briscoe, two people that are somewhat synonymous with ROH, both being mathematically eliminated already.  That's more of a minimal quibble as opposed to something that is taking away from my enjoyment of this as a whole because the match quality has been outstanding and like Log said above....we're getting Brody King v Danielson soon.

I'm not sure if im in the minority here, but i would not be opposed to King winning out and winning it all undefeated.

[Curt McGirt]

True Grit is on right now. 

Spoiler

Rooster Danielson

or

Dragon Cogburn

?

 

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, NikoBaltimore said:

[Brody King] is straight violence and if there's a just AEW they'll have him going for a singles title after the CC ends.

Unless he wins, of course. If he already has three singles titles going for a fourth might be overkill.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

2 hours ago, StuntmanCrowley said:

I feel some sort of way about both Lethal and Briscoe, two people that are somewhat synonymous with ROH, both being mathematically eliminated already.  That's more of a minimal quibble as opposed to something that is taking away from my enjoyment of this as a whole because the match quality has been outstanding and like Log said above....we're getting Brody King v Danielson soon.

I'm not sure if im in the minority here, but i would not be opposed to King winning out and winning it all undefeated.

I felt watching Dynamite last night that the two ROH legends, Jay and Mark, will be 0-4 and facing each other in their last match to make that one more meaningful.  Mark faced Lethal in his first AEW match as well.  Poetic Tony Khan booking. 

I was never a huge ROH fan and I'm not a fan of how Tony has interwoven it with AEW.  I feel like there's some symbolism in the old ROH guys being outclassed by the better, faster, younger talent in this tournament.  Hopefully ROH is dead and buried by this time next year

[S.K.o.S.]

So looking at the last 2 matches for everyone in the Gold block, I'm pretty sure they'll be having Swerve beat Mox. Whoever wins that match (Swerve imo) is guaranteed to advance. Then the week after that, you would have Mox vs. Jay White, presumably with both of them coming in at 3-1, and the winner of that match would be the second place finisher in the block.

I can't even tell what they're doing with the scheduling in the Blue block. Danielson missed the first week and is doing 2 matches this week, and Brody apparently isn't wrestling this week. That one's going to be a bit tougher to figure out.

[southofheavy]

I'm caught up through Mox vs Rush. Solid match, but I'm gonna lay out a complaint here: I'm tired of strike and chop battles and there's been a ton of them in this tournament so far. Besides that, I dug the finish of this match a lot and I love how Rush seemed to be even cockier than usual. 

Looking forward to Mox vs Swerve/White. Mox is the measuring stick in AEW, so it's going to be interesting to see how those matches play out. 

 

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

I can't even tell what they're doing with the scheduling in the Blue block. Danielson missed the first week and is doing 2 matches this week, and Brody apparently isn't wrestling this week. That one's going to be a bit tougher to figure out.

Yeah, Blue block is a total tossup. I'm really looking forward to Brody vs Danielson, and I have a feeling that Andrade vs Eddie is gonna be a banger. 

[S.K.o.S.]

I would like the Blue block to end up with Bryan vs. Claudio in a "must win to advance" situation, with Claudio iffy on whether to take advantage of his stablemate Bryan's vulnerable eye.

I would also like to see Brody King squash the fuck out of Daniel Garcia. Like I know the tournament has been all about having long matches that try to get as many stars as possible, and I like Garcia as much as anyone, but just go a different direction with this one and further establish Brody as the man to beat in this block.

[tbarrie]

The problem I see with that is if Bryan and Claudio finish with a match where the winner advances, and Brody King wins another match, then there's no way for Eddie Kingston to get out of the Blue League. And I still think there's a good chance Eddie's winning this thing - like I said before, wrestling bookers love dramatic come-from-behind wins.

Of course, it occurs to me you might have meant Bryan vs Claudio in a match where Bryan has to win to advance, but Claudio has already been mathematically eliminated. Which could be more interesting. Would Bryan expect his stablemate to lay down for him? On the one hand, that's very much not in keeping with the Blackpool Combat Club's stated ethos. On the other hand, Bryan has totally been in dickhead mode all tournament.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

I wonder if a Danielson match ending up on C-show Rampage and the Blue League having a match on Dynamite tonight was part of the original plan or what.  Doesn't feel that way but they knew how many shows/matches they had to get done so who knows

I'm starting to fall behind on the tournament, haven't had time for Dynamite/Collision from this past weekend yet.  Watching 5 hours of AEW a week is a big fucking ask at this point.  I'd like to sit down and spend a couple hours re-watching all the tourny matches so far to get a better feel for any little story things guys are doing in the matches and do a loose ranking but I don't see it happening until the tourny is over.  I've liked all the matches so far but they all kind of blend together in my head as, "solid-very good, not super memorable" other than Eddie-Danielson, but again I'm behind on Danielson.  Not so great crowds on some of the shows hurts my enjoyment as well

I'm curious what the "casual AEW fan" thinks of the tournament so far, can definitely see it being hard for people to follow.  In the future I'd suggest perhaps a different time of year

[Log]

Yeah, it seems like it'd be pretty simple to do three gold matches on Dynamite each week, and then three blue on Collision. Do that for five weeks and that's it. I'm thinking there must have been some scheduling or injury thing that threw the blue league off.

Edited December 14, 2023 by Log

[Zimbra]

I would guess that Danielson wasn't cleared to go that first week when they only had 2 tourney matches on Collision.

[S.K.o.S.]

Assuming there are no draws, I think there are only 4 possibilities for the 2 wrestlers who advance from the Blue block:

Bryan & Andrade

Brody & Andrade

Claudio & Andrade

Bryan & Kingston

Keep an eye on that Bryan vs. Brody match though. If that one ends in a draw, it opens up a lot of other possibilities.

[tbarrie]

How about this scenario:

Danielson beats Brody and loses to Claudio
Brody loses to Danielson and Garcia
Andrade loses to Kingston and Claudio
Claudio beats Danielson and Andrade
Garcia beats Brody and loses to Kingston
Kingston beats Garcia and Andrade

That puts Danielson, Andrade, Claudio, and Kingston all at 9 points. God knows how the tiebreakers will work then. But Claudio and Kingston will each have beaten two of the guys they're tied with while Danielson and Andrade will only have beaten one each, so I think maybe Claudio and Kingston advance?

[S.K.o.S.]

I think Brody and Kingston can actually get through too, if Brody ends up 4-1 and then Kingston, Claudio, and Andrade are all at 3-2 with Kingston having wins over those other two.

Maybe I'll just stick to crosswords.

[southofheavy]

Finally watched Danielson vs Garcia.

Fucking BRILLIANT match. 

[tbarrie]

So thinking about how the last week of matches is likely to go, I came up with what I think is the most absurd idea for Collision: Claudio beats Danielson, Kingston beats Andrade, and Brody beats Garcia.

That would put Garcia at 0 points and everybody else tied at 9. Making the whole Blue League essentially just an elaborate way to make Daniel Garcia look bad.

[Shartnado]

On 12/17/2023 at 5:12 AM, tbarrie said:

So thinking about how the last week of matches is likely to go, I came up with what I think is the most absurd idea for Collision: Claudio beats Danielson, Kingston beats Andrade, and Brody beats Garcia.

That would put Garcia at 0 points and everybody else tied at 9. Making the whole Blue League essentially just an elaborate way to make Daniel Garcia look bad.

They force you to do the stupid dance. The stupid dance gets very over. They job you out for doing the stupid dance! I like it! Which company was I watching, again?

[Matt D]

I spent some time babbling about Garcia here: 

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-124-1210-part.html?m=1

and here:

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2023/12/aew-five-fingers-of-death-1211-1217.html?m=1

[NikoBaltimore]

13 hours ago, Shartnado said:

They force you to do the stupid dance. The stupid dance gets very over. They job you out for doing the stupid dance! I like it! Which company was I watching, again?

What stuck out to me in his match against Eddie was in the corner he knew Eddie would nuke him but he kept dancing in a show of defiance.  He's done that before (against Shibata jumps out) and it always struck me as a really neat character trait where he will live and die on the dancing shield.  I love it though feel when he loses that last CC match something will snap one way or another.  The tamer aspect will be him splitting with Menard and company as he's sick of hearing them go "No dancing!" all the time.  The admittedly better option would be for him to completely lose his shit, drop the dancing and go into vicious killer mode embarrassed by his CC showing.  Both options can work if done right though I would prefer the latter.

Now there is the chance he beats Brody which if done might work out better than what's mentioned above.  Defeating the most intimidating hoss of the bracket (and CC for that matter) would give him a sense of confidence where he could dance his way through to better things.  He might not be a title contender but even with a couple losses he could pick up a big win here and there.  In time he gets enough of those where the wins happen more and he can at least see the next level is not too far away.

But this is me assuming that things will pan out well.  I love AEW but an not blind to the fact that many ideas either didn't pan out too well or were just given up on before it had a chance.  With Garcia he's young enough where they can take their time and take him on a great path.  But it kind of has to start with the end of the CC as no matter what if nothing changes after this then that'll be a misstep that could take more time for him to get over.

EDIT:  I'm sure Matt could better discuss Garcia but work's slow and the caffeine kicked in (about time, amiright?)  Also, I love that dance though would ruin it for everybody if I ever attempted it.  And yeah same goes especially for the Nana dance.

Edited December 20, 2023 by NikoBaltimore

[Technico Support]

So Saturday's possibilities:

1) Andrade beats Eddie and gets to the semis, facing the winner of Claudio and Danielson (if Claudio wins, both he and Danielson have 9 points and Claudio's win here is the tiebreaker)

OR

2) Eddie wins and has to watch Claudio/Danielson.  In which case either a) Bryan wins and it's Bryan vs Eddie in the semis because Eddie owns tiebreakers over Claudio & Andrade) or b) Claudio wins and we have another three way to decide the semis.

My bet is we get scenario 2a.  There's been no booking around elevating Andrade to that kind of level, while they have been telling the story of Eddie coming back AND Danielson's "Eddie is a bum" thing.  Eddie overcoming Danielson in the end, and maybe even regaining his belts to close out the story, would be awesome.  I really don't see them booking both divisions to end on three way ties.

Edited December 21, 2023 by Technico Support