Pantoja’s AEW Continental Classic 2024 Night 7 Review

AEW Winter is Coming

December 14^th, 2024 | Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri

So Winter is Coming spans two shows I see. Also, between this tournament and Saturday Night’s Main Event, it has been hard for me to get a review up of the Goddesses of Stardom Tag League Finals. I’m working through it though.

Blue League: The Beast Mortos [0] vs. Kazuchika Okada [4]

In the promo to start the show, Okada called him “The Bitch Mortos” and honestly, you can’t come back from that. Man just gotta put his mask on, take his L, and go home. Okada looked like he was having fun as the jerk heel. It’s a role he’s always been good at. The crowd likes Mortos so they got behind his offense, whenever he managed to get some in. He was kind of getting dominated until hitting a spinning plancha. Okada still ended up in control through the break, leading to the Mortos comeback after the commercial. That said, it never felt like he truly threatened. He got in a big lariat late and a popup Samoan Drop that you knew wouldn’t end things. Then Okada won with the Rainmaker in 12:44. A good match but nothing more. Kind of a simple showcase for Okada. A thing I did like here was Okada messing with Mortos’ mask early on, which caused him some discomfort later and threw him off his game. [***]

Blue League: Kyle Fletcher [9] vs. Mark Briscoe [3]

A win for Kyle make shim nearly uncatchable in the block.  A subdued start here as they killed some time and Kyle talked smack to fans. However, once Mark got going, this kind of took off. He had a ton of energy behind everything from his red neck kung-fu to his dives outside. Kyle hitting a modified Brainbuster onto the top of the guardrail was a cool spot but it did feel kind of wasted. Mark’s suplex off the guardrail was a better mid-match spot though still wild. What boosted this was the crowd being so behind Mark Briscoe. Kyle entered this match on a tear, yet Mark is exactly the kind of lovable face who the fans were dying to see shut him up. Mark just kept fighting through it all and every big shot he got caused the crowd to pop. Every flash pin attempt worked because the crowd really wanted him to pull it off. I loved when the ref caught Kyle using the ropes for leverage since he used that earlier in the tournament to success. Then Mark kicked out of the Brainbuster and you got the feeling he’d do it. That’s a move that put down Okada. When they called that one minute was remaining, I thought time limit draw. Thankfully, it was only a tease as Mark hit the Jay Driller to win in 19:44. Best match of the tournament so far. [****¼]

Blue League	Points	Gold League	Points
Kyle Fletcher	9 (3-1)	Will Ospreay	6 (2-0)
Kazuchika Okada	7 (2-1-1)	Claudio Castagnoli	6 (2-1)
Mark Briscoe	6 (2-2)	Ricochet	6 (2-1)
Daniel Garcia	4 (1-1-1)	Brody King	3 (1-2)
Shelton Benjamin	3 (1-1)	Darby Allin	3 (1-1)
The Beast Mortos	0 (0-3)	Komander	0 (0-3)

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

A good match to start things (*** is basically the floor for the tournament) and then the best bout of the C2 so far. That’s a win. Plus, we love Mark Briscoe.