First three participants confirmed for AEW Continental Classic
Two current champions and a former one are officially in this year’s AEW Continental Classic and they are all in the Don Callis Family.
Confirmed during a backstage segment on Saturday’s AEW Full Gear, reigning Unified/Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita are in as is former TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher.
Okada won last year’s tournament and is looking to keep his Continental title while Takeshita will be making his tournament debut. Fletcher also competed in last year’s tournament, losing in the semifinals.
In the aforementioned segment, Callis said Okada was back in and said when Okada and Takeshita got into sync, they’d be unstoppable. Okada then blamed Takeshita for their Tailgate Brawl loss that cost them the CMLL Trios titles and a frustrated Takeshita said he was in the tourney as well.
An irate Fletcher walked in and called both men out for not having his back earlier and costing him the TNT title to Mark Briscoe. He said it wasn’t a problem as he was entering as well. Callis tried to play it off as positive all of these faction members were entered.
The tournament begins this Wednesday on Dynamite, but the blocks have yet to be revealed. The round robin tournament is in its third year with the winner expected to be crowned at December’s Worlds End.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.