AEW Continental Classic 2025 Discussion

[Kamran]

Just a heads up for everyone, Dynamite and Collision have already been taped this week, so beware of spoilers. I noticed it when I was looking at the Worlds End card on Wiki which has been updated with the semi-final matches.

[Supremo]

Hoping Roddy Strong ends the tournament on a flat zero, which fuels him losing his mind, turning heel and attacking The Conglomeration.

Turn the sitcom into a wild horror film. Like in, “Friends,” when Eddie moves in with Chandler, but instead of just leaving and allowing Joey to move back in, he violently murders them.

[organizedkaos]

Theres only one path to Fletcher/Okada bith qualifying right?

Spoilering it is probably unnecessary but might suck the fun out of things if you believe theyll qualify but don't want every result laid out

Spoiler

Fletcher beats Perry. Okada beats Bailey (these both feel very likely).

Pac has to lose to Perry and then draw with Kevin Knight? Otherwise he or Kevin Knight get 9 points and seeing as Pac beat Fletcher and Knight beat Okada one of them would have to qualify 

 

[organizedkaos]

Double post. Thought i was so clever had to post it twice

Edited December 22, 2025 by organizedkaos

[Statto]

7 hours ago, AshC said:

Do you think though they hold off on the Takeshita vs Okada match, much like how the 2001 Vengeance tournament final ended up being Austin vs Jericho, rather than the anticipated Austin vs Rock (which they never actually got back to until much later).

I've just caught up with Saturday's hour of Collision & am unaware of the spoilers for this week, but the thought did occur to me whilst watching that they could do Takeshita winning the tournament (and therefore the Continental Championship) without beating Okada, leading to Okada vs Takeshita being Okada's attempt to re-unify the Unified Championship.

If it were up to me though I'd do both - have Takeshita beat Okada in the final then go title-for-title in a reunificaton rematch the following month. 

[LaGoosh]

Great final week of matches. Especially on Christmas Collision. I miss it already.

Takeshita/Orange Cassidy  - PPV main event level bout. Takeshita has steamrolled through the tournament with nothing but excellent matches. 

Pac/Jack Perry - man, Pac really likes taking headbumps on the floor. Perry selling a foot injury definitely helped give his final matches a bit more grounding and weight as well as his new biting tactic. Perry's slight frame made Pac look huge.

Fletcher/Perry - easily Perry's best singles match in absolutely ages, possibly ever. Fletcher was brilliant in this. His early match heel stooging always pays off later in his matches because it gets the fans really invested in the big final third. 

Claudio Castagnoli/Roderick Strong  - a surprise cracker, great sprint and one of my favourite matches in the tournament. A newly inspired Strong against a desperate and dominant Castagnoli. Claudio brutalised Strong with a rapid fire run of his usual tactics to get the win with zero chance of a timeout but this directly led to Claudio being careless and Strong breaking through with a surprise knockout blow was the perfect shock finish.

Takeshita/Dorada - an obvious result and the expected incredibly impressive bonkers spots. A strong statement win for Takeshita going into the finals but Dorada looked good coming out of it.

Pac/Knight - superbly played draw. Knight is a huge work in progress character/promo wise but in ring he's definitely not just a flippy guy. He's shown in the CC the aggression and drive to win he needs to to be a top act. He didn't feel out of place going toe to toe with Pac and the final frantic minutes were exhilarating. 

Moxley/Orange Cassidy - another cracking bout between these two. They must be good friends in real life because Mox always seems to hit a bit harder than usual against OC. Mox has had a brilliant tournament where he has low key turned babyface by just hunkering down, dropping the bullshit and trying to straight wrestle his way through it. Orange wasn't having it though, you can tell Mox is the one guy he absolutely hates and was throwing real fire and aggression at Mox. There was a great spot where Orange was attempting to do his trademark kip up and failing, when he finally got it Mox lunges from off screen and grabs him in a chokehold. By the end Orange was wild and out of control but Mox kept his cool, buried his demons and won the match with a simple flash pin. Beautiful.

Okada/Bailey - a good solid bout to end it on. When others came into these final matches with an air of desperation and panic Okada was completely confident and wrestled as such. His sick grin after victory was an all time character moment. 

What a tournament! Fantastic matches and stories told throughout. The CC is my favourite thing in wrestling. Surprised by the semi finals but pleasantly so. We're getting Okada/Takeshita but not the obvious finals that we expected. I could easily see them going with any combination of Okada/Mox, Takeshita/Mox or Takeshita/Fletcher as the finals so it's a brilliant bit of booking to turn something that felt obvious into something way more unpredictable. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I was blindsided by Takeshita-Okada being a semi-final - but I hope this means a Takeshita-Fletcher final, which could be an absolute classic.

[I Bent My Wookie]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I was blindsided by Takeshita-Okada being a semi-final - but I hope this means a Takeshita-Fletcher final, which could be an absolute classic.

The only way this could go wrong is a draw between Okada and Takeshita where Callis gets it made into a triple threat and then they do the Rollins Punk Reigns thing with Callis as Heyman. 

If only because Fletcher still has that fire and spark to be a great baby face, him also leaving the family is the only good that can come from that fever dream nightmare I had two hours ago (shortly after I dreamt Abe Simpson was eaten by a Crab). 

[abucalves]

There was chat on Twitter (I know) about people not liking Gabe Kidd because he is working class, whereas I just feel like his whole act seems forced

[Supremo]

Fletcher winning the whole thing would be a cool way to subvert expectations. Whole tournament felt built towards Okada or Takeshita beating the other in the Final, confirming themselves as King of The Callis Family, so it’d be cute if Fletcher snuck in and stole it from both of them.

Shoot a skit in the New Year where Kyle gets the Master Bedroom in Callis Castle, forcing Okada and Takeshita to share a bunk bed.

Mark Davis stuck in the box room, cursing that injury that let Kyle develop into one of the best singles wrestlers alive today.

[westlondonmist]

3 hours ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

The only way this could go wrong is a draw between Okada and Takeshita where Callis gets it made into a triple threat and then they do the Rollins Punk Reigns thing with Callis as Heyman. 

If only because Fletcher still has that fire and spark to be a great baby face, him also leaving the family is the only good that can come from that fever dream nightmare I had two hours ago (shortly after I dreamt Abe Simpson was eaten by a Crab). 

The way you described it actually makes sense. Surely the IWGP champion isn't taking a pin tonight? So a draw leading to a triple threat where Fletcher or Okada pin the other makes sense? 

Edited December 27, 2025 by westlondonmist

[I Bent My Wookie]

23 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

The way you described it actually makes sense. Surely the IWGP champion isn't taking a pin tonight? So a draw leading to a triple threat where Fletcher or Okada pin the other makes sense? 

You'd think the week before Jan 4th for IWGP they wouldn't have him lose to someone on the undercard of that show or someone not even booked for New Japan at all (especially as he has his own unification match coming up). Unless there is a plan to push the two New Japan world titles into a combination with the Continental title and have it as the Combined AEW/IWGP Continental Champion. 

 

Which in hindsight would leave us

 

AEW World Champion

 

AEW/IWGP Continental Champion

 

AEW International Champion 

 

AEW National Champion

 

AEW TNT Champion

 

I guess if the CMLL World belt tied into the Continental (Christ at a push even the Rev Pro Heavyweight), you've a strong secondary title, the International as a third and the National and TNT can easily use up TV feuds on Collision or Dynamite while occasionally being on PPV.

They obviously have way too many titles but there is a way around it. AEW is the natural biggest company right now of the lets say 4 that work together across 3 Continents. It makes sense to have a champion that can represent those companies as a special attraction (especially if it opens up a bit more of say Zack Sabre Jr in the UK or US, Ospreay heading back for a holiday to do a Rev Pro show, even someone like Claudio or PAC in the future or Fletcher). Treat it like Ultimo Dragon's J Crown was. 

This way you've a natural prize for the tournament every year, the Owen gets a World Title opportunity (8 or 16 of the best), the Continetal Classic gets names not just from AEW for a short month or so stint where the winner faces off for the Unified Continetal Championship. 

I wouldn't even mind people occasionally vacating belts if they want to challenge for a higher prize, it gives chances for Casino Battle Royales and all that stuff to mean a little more if someone "thinks they're ready". 

While writing this I realised it would maybe solve the ROH not meaning as much too, their programming could still work with just the TV and Pure title to fight for.

[Kamran]

Final points:

[The King of Old School]

I find it annoying that the league tables aren't in position order.

At first glance you would think that Okada and Speedball qualify from the gold league.

[LaGoosh]

Pretty great ending to the tournament this year.

You had Takeshita getting screwed out of it after looking completely dominant throughout. Good match with Okada but this very much felt like the first match between them, with the next one being a much bigger deal.

Another brilliant showing by Fletcher and an incredible match with Moxley. Fletcher's neck must be made of rubber, he loves those gruesome neck bumps.

On a night that looked like almost guaranteed success for the Don Callis Family it was absolutely inspired booking to have Okada fuck over both Takeshita and Fletcher to get himself into the final and then lose. Unexpected and brilliant.

And huge credit to Mox for after a year of being a despicable heel managed to naturally and successfully turn himself back into a mega babyface in about four weeks. Him tapping out so many times previously now instantly adds huge drama to his matches whenever he's put in a submission - genius. Mox crawled his way out of the hole by putting the Deathriders aside and digging deep and fighting out alone. Moxley dedicating his win to the fans while the rest of the Deathriders stand to the side uncomfortably is brilliant storytelling. Their proud leader they've all blindly followed now doing a 180 and soaking in fan adoration is a twist I didn't see coming.