Whenever there's a big show coming up, like AEW Worlds End 2025 this weekend, it can be instructive (not to mention fun) to go back and watch some older, related matches in the lead-up to the event. There are as many different ways to watch wrestling as there are individual wrestling fans, but here at Wrestling Inc., we love to cut up and rearrange wrestling history in interesting and unique ways, selecting a variety of matches with some sort of through-line connecting them and placing them side-by-side. And as the kids say, it's Continental Classic season the semifinals and finals take place at Worlds End and that couldn't mean anything other than going through the current and previous iterations of the C2, seeking the very best matches from AEW's signature round robin tournament!
Much like AEW shows themselves, we ran a little long on this one, as we're bringing you six matches, not just five. But we promise, if you want to get in the true C2 spirit, these are the matches to watch. From the first tournament in 2023 to wrestling from just a few weeks ago, we covered the entire gamut of the tournament in search of its greatest matches. Your list might admittedly be different (tell us about it in the comments) but here's ours!
At a time where MJF was feuding with "The Devil," some of the company's biggest stars were going down with injury, and CM Punk's WWE return had turned that company from red hot to white hot, the inaugural Continental Classic tournament was the one high point for AEW at the end of 2023. The first round-robin tournament to take place inAEW that many saw as a way for Bryan Danielson to wrestle in a G1 Climax style setting without actually traveling to NJPW, the reason why so many people look forward to the tournament every year is down to the success of the first one, and these two men are the stars of that tournament.
Heading into the December 2, 2023 episode of "AEW Collision,"Eddie Kingston had already lost his opening round match to Brody King, and since he had already wagered his ROH World and NJPW STRONG Openweight Championships as a way to create the "American Triple Crown," his match with Bryan Danielson already had a must-win feel to it. As for the "American Dragon," this was his first match of the competition, though he wasn't walking in fresh by any means as he wasn't long off returning from a broken arm, and was forced to wear an eyepatch after breaking his orbital bone just a few weeks earlier.
Even though Danielson had a more compressed schedule due to missing the first week of action, he was able to stroll into this bout with the "Mad King" and pick him apart with expert precision. Knowing that Kingston was already emotional going into it as he knew a loss would put him on the verge of elimination, he was able to pick his moments rather than go all out in order to gain an early victory. He knew that Kingston was going to come in all guns blazing, and even though some of the chops he took sounded like whip being cracked, Danielson knew that as long as he was able to weather the storm, he was the favorite.
All of this combines for an emotional rollercoaster of a match as Kingston is desperately trying to stay in the fight, but he is simply outmatched and outworked by the "American Dragon." Danielson gets the win with the Busaiku Knee, leaving Kingston battered and beaten on the mat knowing that he must be perfect for the rest of the tournament. To rub salt in the wounds, Danielson gets a sign from the crowd that reads "Eddie Is A Bum" and leaves it with the "Mad King" as the show goes off the air, but little did Danielson know he would face an improved version of Kingston weeks later.
Written by Sam Palmer
Losing remains the ultimate black mark in sports competition, and that includes even the fake sport. Though a loss in wrestling isn't real, it doesn't stop fans, pundits, and even the wrestlers themselves from looking at a loss in a negative way. If a wrestler loses too much, they are seen as a loser and not worthy of getting invested in. If a wrestler loses in a certain way, they are seen as "buried," a hopeless case that the promotion has given up on. Thus, it is very rarely where a loss, or a cascade of losses, is used to not just build someone up effectively, but to give them a defining moment of sorts. This makes what happened to Daniel Garcia in the first ever Continental Classic even more impressive.
A well respected mid-carder when he entered the first C2, Garcia was just as well known for seemingly being on the verge of breaking out, only to take a step backward, like when the decision was made to keep him in the Jericho Appreciation Society in the fall of 2022 instead of breaking him out on his own. And heading into the tournament, Garcia seemed like a sure fire candidate, along with Mark Briscoe and Jay Lethal, to be someone who went the whole tournament winless. But while that was true for the first four matches, something happened with Garcia along the way. He did lose, but each match he seemed to get closer and closer to a win, and the closer he got, the more the crowd rallied around him.
As such, even though Garcia was already eliminated when he wrestled his final match against Brody King, the anticipation was still there. It was helped by the fact that King, then a far cry from his current heroics with Brodido, was still in contention to advance to the semi-finals, and was the perfect monster bad guy for Garcia to slay in his quest for that one big win. And so the match played out like everyone expected; King beat the tar out of Garcia, Garcia kept coming, kept fighting back, but seemed to be overmatched...until he wasn't, and Jacknifed King to pick up the win. It may not have been the best match from that C2, but it was the most satisfying, and instantly livened up Garcia in a way he hadn't seemed in a while. Just one year later, Garcia was back in the C2, only this time as TNT Champion, riding a wave of momentum to two wins and a draw against Kazuchika Okada. It's an improvement that can be traced all the way back to that December night with King, arguably still the highpoint of Garcia's career.
Written byEric Mutter
The inaugural Continental Classic in 2023 very much told the story of Eddie Kingston's battle to overcome, as well as 11 other participants, his own personal demons and finally lay hands on some gold in AEW. By this point, Kingston had become both the ROH World Champion with a win over long-time rival Claudio Castagnoli and the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, and he had put both of them up in the tournament to form a Triple Crown of-sorts with the Continental Championship.
That in itself was not an easy task, losing the opening match to Brody King and then his second to Bryan Danielson. He would turn the tide in his favor by the end of the league stage, beating Castagnoli and then Andrade to ensure his place in the semi-finals against none other than the man who had beaten him before, Danielson.
By this point, Kingston had never beaten Danielson in three attempts to do; earlier in the Continental Classic, before that in the 2021 AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament, and in their first CHIKARA bout in 2010. They had very real and deep-seated issues with one another stemming from that shared past on the independent circuit, and this match was treated, much like the tournament as whole, Kingston's road to redemption and proving himself to those who had doubted him so much before.
After Castagnoli, Danielson was the next demon in his career that Kingston needed to vanquish. And Danielson was not going down without a fight and going out of his way to prove he was better in mind, soul, and body than the man stood opposite him. Kingston needed to overcome in all three regards, and while there are those who will bemoan the belief behind it, he did finally manage to do that.
Danielson was punishing, and for much of the bout Kingston was holding on for dear life. Again, much like he had been in the tournament altogether. But it was his sheer refusal to allow Danielson to be right about him that won out. He was never better than his opponent. He was just refused to lose. And he found an answer for all of the things he hadn't before. Those answers put him in the position to flip the scenario, and finally he asked Danielson a question he couldn'tanswer.
If the 2023 Continental Classic tells a story of Kingston's road to redemption and his crowning moment, then this bout against Danielson ranks as one of if not the most important moments in that story. And it still ranks as one of the best matches in a litany of great matches in the tournament's brief history.
Written byMax Everett
C2 Szn is one season that AEW fans look forward to every year. We can expect good matches at worst and Match of the Year Contenders at best. There's always a few match ups that fans look forward to and then there are those that exceed any expectations. Last year, that match was Beast Mortos vs. Kazuchika Okada. On one side of the ring, you have a wrestler in his first C2, who has good matches. On the other side is not only the Continental Champion, but "The Best Tournament Wrestler of All Time". Okada has proven himself many times over in NJPW's prestigious G1 tournament (which the Continental Classic is inspired by).
Coming into this Blue League match, Okada had earned four points over three matches. In his previous tournament match, he lost to Kyle Fletcher. Mortos had just two tournament matches, but had lost them both. Heading into his match with Okada, he picked up a victory over Aaron Solo in a non-tournament match. Mortos started off with some speedy offense, leaving Okada to resort to eye poking and hair pulling. At one point in the match, he even tried to untie the mask of his opponent.
Okada has a background in lucha libre as moved to Mexico early in his wrestling career, but when Okada was in control, he slowed the action down and worked more methodically. Whenever Mortos was in control, he was worked a face-paced style. At the climax of the match, the fans were firmly behind Mortos, chanting his name. Okada would go on to win,giving him 7 points, putting him two points behind Fletcher. While Mortos had some great matches in the C2, he failed to score any points. Okada would go on to win the tournament, making him the first wrestler to win the G1 and the C2.
Written by Samantha Schipman
It's been said time and time again on this website (mainly by yours truly) that Darby Allin has chemistry with virtually everyone he wrestles, but there are some opponents that just pop more than others. Will Ospreay is one of those others.
Heading into this match, Darby had gotten off to the worst possible start as he had to face Brody King in his opening match and tasted defeat in the process, but he bounced back with a win over Komander, meaning he was sitting on three points. On the other hand, Ospreay was still undefeated after defeating Juice Robinson, who got injured in their match and was eventually replaced by the aforementioned Komander, and Claudio Castagnoli. It was a battle between two of AEW's most popular stars at a time where both men were operating at such a high level that they were both in the running for Wrestler of the Year going into this one, and this match only strengthened their cases.
Watching this match one year on, the idea of it going at one million miles per hour all the way through isn't quite true. Darby takes one of his patented Coffin Drop bumps on the apron that looks so nasty that even the most seasoned AEW fan would wince in pain, but what this does is it slows Ospreay down and allows him to target the back of Darby for strong heat segment. Ospreay is known for cramming 50 pounds of everything into a 10 pound bag, but Darby selling the back as if he just hit by a bus (he does know about that sort of stuff) allows the match to showcase Ospreay at his meanest.
It's the second half of the match where things kick into high gear. The sequence where Ospreay misses the Sky Twister Press, only to counter Darby's Code Red attempt into a Hidden Blade, which is then followed by Darby countering a Stormbreaker into a Code Red is so clean that you could eat food off of it. The Washington D.C. crowd was already into this, but they were virtually surfing on top of each other with excitement after that exchange, and it only gets crazier from there. A Styles Clash off the apron to the floor looks to be the killer blow, but Ospreay jamming his knee on the landing allows Darby to find the smallest of openings and gouge them open in the closing stretch.
Another Stormbreaker attempt is again countered, this time into a Scorpion Death Drop, and two Coffin Drops seal the hard-fought win for Darby. If you know anyone who is tempted to start watching AEW, tell them to start with this. They'll understand.
Written by Sam Palmer
A very recent example of the unique opportunities the Continental Classic format provides came during this year's tournament, pitting Death Riders Generals Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli against one another.
Moxley entered this year's Continental Classic arguably at his most fallible in years, having lost the World Championship to "Hangman" Adam Page at All In, said 'I Quit' against Darby Allin at WrestleDream, surrendered for his team in Blood & Guts, and then tapped out to Kyle O'Reilly at Full Gear. Castagnoli went into the tournament with a fresh title around his waist, having become the CMLL World Heavyweight Champion, and has well-established himself as the enforcer of their group and de facto second-in-command.
Naturally, when one's right hand man starts to hold a little more consistency and be the one to continue bringing success to the group, a question starts to form over who would be the best to lead in that stage of time. And the bout between Castagnoli and Moxley, one that really wouldn't have taken place outside of the tournament, came just as that question was starting to be asked.
Thus ensued one of the more violent entries in the CC catalog, with Moxley busted wide open as felt the sting of the beatings he usually commands upon others. For much of the bout, Moxley was just surviving, shown in the flash finish; it had just been announced that five minutes were remaining as both men reached their feet in opposing corners, prompting Castagnoli to launch at Moxley with a European Uppercut, knocking him out and keeping him down for the count.
While many of the matches in the tournament's history have felt like sporting contests best utilizing the skill-sets of AEW's litany of top class wrestlers, this one in particular felt like a fight where the most relentlessly violent would emerge victorious. There was months of context and subtext to this one bout in particular, and it could never be said that they took it easy on each other because they were teammates. Everything that had transpired before only helped to enhance the many dynamics within this one match, and while on its own theirs was a match that delivered on the night, it's still not entirely knownhowthings will shape up in the aftermath.
Written by Max Everett
