{"id":208209,"date":"2025-12-03T13:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=208209"},"modified":"2025-12-03T13:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T19:10:17","slug":"aew-continental-classic-round-up-week-1-evaluating-the-first-weeks-results-and-a-preview-of-the-week-ahead-including-most-anticipated-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/12\/03\/aew-continental-classic-round-up-week-1-evaluating-the-first-weeks-results-and-a-preview-of-the-week-ahead-including-most-anticipated-match\/","title":{"rendered":"AEW CONTINENTAL CLASSIC ROUND-UP &#8211; WEEK 1: Evaluating the first week&#8217;s results and a preview of the week ahead including most anticipated match"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2487570564\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>AEW&#8217;s premier tournament is upon us for the third year in a row. The prize situation is unnecessarily confusing, though. Instead of it being the Unified Title on the line, it seems as that title is dis-unified with only the Continental Title is up for grabs. I hope we get some clarity on that tonight.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, the first week of action is in the books. Let\u2019s take a look where things stand right now.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>GOLD LEAGUE<\/h2>\n<p>Kyle Fletcher, Kevin Knight, and Pac are sitting atop the Gold League for the moment with 3 points apiece.<\/p>\n<h3>Kazuchika Okada vs. Kyle Fletcher<\/h3>\n<p>Okada and Fletcher kicked off the tournament in a rematch from the group stage of last year\u2019s tournament. After a spirited back and forth contest, the outcome ended up the same; Fletcher got the win this time by reversing a Rainmaker into a victory roll.<\/p>\n<h3>Darby Allin vs. Kevin Knight<\/h3>\n<p>This match was something of a coming out party for \u201cThe Jet&#8221; Kevin Knight who repeatedly showed off his insane leaping ability. Darby came into the tourney still nursing the burns from Blood &amp; Guts and that hampered him throughout this match. Knight pulled off the first major upset of the tournament, scoring the win after an unbelievable Coast-to-Coast and a UFO splash.<\/p>\n<h3>Pac vs. Speedball Mike Bailey<\/h3>\n<p>These two had a very physical match. Both men really laid into each other, particularly with kicks. In the end, Pac took Speedball\u2019s head off with a vicious lariat followed by a perfunctory Brutalizer to pick up his first three points.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the &#8220;All Elite Conversation Club&#8221; with Joel Dehnel and Gregg Kanner, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/all-elite-conversation-club-dehnel-kanner-discuss-full-gear-fallout-samoa-joe-world-title-win-continental-classic-tournament-more--68825220\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"All Elite Conversation Club - Dehnel &amp; Kanner discuss Full Gear fallout, Samoa Joe world title win, Continental Classic tournament, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=68825220&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>BLUE LEAGUE<\/h2>\n<p>As of right now, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Konosuke Takeshita are locked in a three-way tie for first place.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3977167056\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<h3>Jon Moxley vs. Mascara Dorada<\/h3>\n<p>The vicious ground and pound style of Jon Moxley and the speed and dazzling aerial skills of Mascara Dorada, this one was a clash of styles that totally worked. Mox came into this tournament in a precarious position, having submitted twice in ten days to Kyle O\u2019Reilly, leaving his command of the Death Riders in question. Dorada attempted to exploit Mox\u2019s weakness with a cross armbreaker. Mox desperately this win to get right and got it after putting Dorada out with an unconventional sleeper.<\/p>\n<h3>Claudio Castagnoli vs. Orange Cassidy<\/h3>\n<p>Orange Cassidy is entering his first C2 while Claudio is competing in his third consecutive one. This wasn\u2019t the first singles match between these two though. OC put up a good fight before ultimately succumbing to Claudio\u2019s lights out pop-up European uppercut.<\/p>\n<h3>Konosuke Takeshita vs. Roderick Strong<\/h3>\n<p>This was by far the most lopsided match coming into this first week of bouts. Roderick Strong was an odd entry into the tournament in general, but it was at least explained that he was a replacement for the injured Kyle O\u2019Reilly. While he didn\u2019t wrestle like a replacement, the outcome was exactly as expected. Takeshita picked the win with Raging Fire in the first match of his second round robin tournament of the year.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>PREVIEW OF THIS WEEK<\/h3>\n<h3>Pac vs. Okada<\/h3>\n<p>Pac is looking to add another 3 points to the board while Okada, the reigning Continental Champion, is trying to avoid finding himself in a hole early.<\/p>\n<h3>Mox vs. Claudio<\/h3>\n<p>Perhaps the most intriguing matchup this week, this battle of Death Riders could have an impact on both the tournament and the future of the faction.<\/p>\n<h3>Fletcher vs. Knight<\/h3>\n<p>In what could be the best match of the week, \u201cThe Protostar&#8221; looks to establish dominance in the tourney while \u201cThe Jet&#8221; is looking for another, even bigger upset.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (11\/26) - AEW Dynamite w\/Keller &amp; Zilem\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xtREMJ5Sxxs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1237667255\"><div id=\"pwtor-3666518339\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>AEW&#8217;s premier tournament is upon us for the third year in a row. The prize situation is unnecessarily confusing, though. Instead of it being the Unified Title on the line, it seems as that title <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/12\/03\/aew-continental-classic-round-up-week-1-evaluating-the-first-weeks-results-and-a-preview-of-the-week-ahead-including-most-anticipated-match\/\" title=\"AEW CONTINENTAL CLASSIC ROUND-UP &#8211; WEEK 1: Evaluating the first week&#8217;s results and a preview of the week ahead including most anticipated match\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6163,2,52,6447,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew-news","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-feud-tracker","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-03-at-1.08.47-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208213,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208209\/revisions\/208213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}