Pantoja’s AEW Continental Classic 2024 Night 6 Review

AEW Winter is Coming

December 11^th, 2024 | T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri

We’ve got two tournament matches on tap for this special edition of Dynamite.

Gold League: Claudio Castagnoli [6] vs. Will Ospreay [3]

Honestly, probably the most anticipated match in this tournament for many. Will came out hot, attacking at the bell and overwhelming Claudio with some aerial offense. Claudio weathered the storm and started using his power advantage to swing the momentum. He did that quite literally, using the big swing to send Will into the steel steps and then doing some vicious limb work on the left wrist using the steps. That feels like the Moxley influence and I like that it has helped Claudio make some changes to his game. Claudio held serve through a commercial break where he used the Sharpshooter. Kind of weird given the stuff he just did to the arm. Upon returning, Will got going with a big rana and then he avoided the Ricola Bomb to apply an Octopus Hold. It has been years and I still pop when Claudio catches someone diving with an uppercut. It looks fantastic. The same goes for the popup uppercut. Then, Ospreay caught Claudio with a jackknife to get a surprise win in 13:26. Great stuff from two of the best here and I love that finish because you need to vary things up in a tournament like this. I do think it felt like nowhere near the best they could deliver, which is how a lot of this tournament feels to be honest. [***¾]

Gold League: Brody King [3] vs. Ricochet [3]

AEW is wild for letting Ricochet talk for as long as they did in a pre-match interview a few segments prior to this. Brody threw Ricochet around in the early stages as we got set up for a good old fashioned David vs. Goliath match. That was how this went heading into the first commercial break, with Ricochet just getting his ass kicked. The PIP was funny because he was just silently taking a beating as commercials played. He tried a rally but got caught with a sick German suplex upon returning. Ricochet’s actual successful rally involved a slew of kicks and a plancha to the outside. Brody got another big spot with a corner cannonball but Ricochet survived and hit a Shooting Star Press. I thought that was it but Brody grabbed him by the throat and looked for the sleeper. Ricochet fought free and hit a modified DDT onto an exposed buckle. He then added two Spirit Gun elbows to win in 12:46. Good wrestling here. Nothing to write home about but that was really good. [***¼]

Blue League	Points	Gold League	Points
Kyle Fletcher	9 (3-0)	Will Ospreay	6 (2-1)
Kazuchika Okada	4 (1-1-1)	Claudio Castagnoli	6 (2-1)
Daniel Garcia	4 (1-1-1)	Ricochet	6 (2-1)
Shelton Benjamin	3 (1-1)	Brody King	3 (1-2)
Mark Briscoe	3 (1-2)	Darby Allin	3 (1-1)
The Beast Mortos	0 (0-2)	Komander	0 (0-3)

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

A good, simple night of wrestling for the C2. I will say, as good as Claudio/Will was, it felt a bit disappointing given who was involved. This is far from the “best tournament in wrestling” they’ve been hyping up but it has been consistently good.