Pantoja’s AEW Continental Classic 2024 Night 2 Review

AEW Collision

November 30^th, 2024 | Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois

We’re back with day 2 after a solid start to the tournament.

Gold League: Juice Robinson [0] vs. Will Ospreay [0]

I know upsets tend to happen in the first matches for some wrestlers in this kind of tournament but this one feels like a no-brainer win for Will Ospreay. The thing that gave Juice his opportunity to pull off the seemingly impossible was the damage Will was dealing with after the loss to Kyle Fletcher. He was taped up like a mummy with all that Kinesio Tape and that gave Juice places to target. To Will’s credit, he did well selling at every turn. Man, Juice really reminds me of the old Honey Comb mascot. Juice’s main focus was the neck which made sense given how he got dropped on it against Kyle. He held serve throughout the picture-in-picture commercial break. Will made the expected comeback but he’s at a point in his career where he can make even basic match layouts seem better than they would in someone else’s hands. I really liked when Will shut up a screaming Juice with a superkick from behind and then rolled him into the Styles Clash for two. He then won with Hidden Blade in 12:34. Just some good back and forth wrestling. About on par with the rest of the tournament to this point. [***¼]

Blue League: The Beast Mortos [0] vs. Kyle Fletcher [0]

Beast Mortos is one of the more intriguing tournament picks. He’s had a good run recently but he still kind of feels a bit goofy and seems like the low man on the totem pole in terms of his place on the card. Kyle is hot off a huge win against Will Ospreay. Kyle was in firm control as this went through the expected commercial break. However, he started growing frustrated upon return as he couldn’t keep Beast down and the crowd started chanting for the luchador once he survived a Michinoku Driver. Kyle remained a step ahead as Callis, who was on commentary, said that nobody in one of his stables would ever lose to someone in LFI and he has his own reasons for that. Hmm. Again, Beast kicked out of a big  move, this time a Last Ride style powerbomb. Beast started rallying with a headbutt and a sweet diving Samoan Drop/Crucifix Bomb of sorts. Kyle weathered that storm though and won with the Brainbuster in 9:52. Again, good match here. [***]

Blue League: Daniel Garcia [0] vs. Kazuchika Okada [0]

Two champions facing off. I predicted Okada wouldn’t lose a match until the Finals at least, so let’s see. Right off the bat, you could kind of tell where this was going. We got New Japan Okada and his love for methodical starts where not a lot goes on. It’s wild to me that Okada is so good yet he never mastered how to make the first third or so of his match interesting. After the first break, things picked up a bit like most Okada matches, including Garcia flipping him off as he charged in for a dropkick on the outside. Okada turned the tide and after another commercial break, had a strong final few minutes against Garcia. It’s the Okada Formula but in a 20 minute format rather than the 36 he used to work with SANADA. Man, I’m glad those days are gone. Garcia pulling him into an Ankle Lock as he attempted to do his Rainmaker pose was really cool and the kind of thing you get when you have a guy like Daniel in this position. I also liked the Garcia close calls on things like flash pins. The finish saw Daniel slap on the Sharpshooter and Okada struggled to the ropes before time expired, giving us a draw. A really good match but one that disappointed because I think they could’ve had a great one. It just felt like they were working to get to the time limit for the first half rather than having a purely engaging first 10 minutes. [***½]

Blue League	Points	Gold League	Points
Shelton Benjamin	3 (1-0)	Brody King	3 (1-0)
Kyle Fletcher	3 (1-0)	Claudio Castagnoli	3 (1-0)
Daniel Garcia	1 (0-0-1)	Will Ospreay	3 (1-0)
Kazuchika Okada	1 (0-0-1)	Juice Robinson	0 (0-1)
The Beast Mortos	0 (0-1)	Darby Allin	0 (0-1)
Mark Briscoe	0 (0-1)	Ricochet	0 (0-1)

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Another good night of the tournament. There has been nothing bad yet, though there also hasn’t been anything great yet. So “best tournament in wrestling” is a stretch through two nights. Lots of time to get going though.