When Tony Khan announced the field for the 2023 Continental Classic, there was one match above all others that fans circled on the golden bracket: Swerve Strickland versus Jon Moxley.

Suddenly, the hottest performer in AEW, fresh off one of the most incredible death matches you will see at Full Gear, was destined for a match against the purveyor of “Death Jitsu,” and it was going to be given to fans for free on television with limited commercial interruptions.

Needless to say, the match did not disappoint.

Facing off in their fourth round of matches, with both performers sitting with a perfect nine points and an unblemished record, Strickland and Moxley went to war in the main event of Dynamite, exchanging blow after blow, near-fall after near-fall before Moxley, with his a little help from a hand on his tights, rolled up the “Realest” in order to get the win, pushing his record to a perfect 4-0 and putting himself in the driver's seat for a match at Worlds End against the winner of the blue bracket.

Talking to the camera after the match on Wednesday night, Moxley gave Strickland his due before acknowledging that the C2 is his for the taking.

“That's 4-0. You know I'm making this look easy, but trust me, it's not. Swerve Strickland, I know you're very upset right now, but you shouldn't be. I mean, I know you're going to watch that tape over, you're going to watch it over and over and it's be my shoulders down for two, two and a half, two and three quarters, and I'll say I was this close to getting your own shoulders down and you're gonna say, ‘He grabbed my belt! See, he grabbed my belt! He pulled my tights, I got screwed! It's illegal, right?' I told you I would do whatever it takes, not just for the win but for something much more important,” Jon Moxley told AEW fans on social media.

“Tonight, I walked away with the points, but Swerve, you walked away with something much more valuable – I  taught you a lesson, a lesson only I can teach you. This business is not fair, this sport is not fair, this world is not fair. No matter who you are, at some point, you will lose. At some point you will face adversity, at some point, you will get royally screwed! And you don't always get what you think you deserve, you don't always get what you earn, it's what you do when you face that adversity that counts. I'm like a mirror, a teacher; guys look at me, and they seem themselves. When they step in the ring with me, they find out who they are; they find out what they're not. ‘Hangman' Adam Page, Orange Cassidy, I wasn't out to destroy them, I was out to make them. If AEW's going to survive for another ten years, twenty years into the future, we need the best of the best. We need warriors, man!

“I wouldn't have bothered teaching you that lesson if I didn't like you, if I didn't think Swerve Strickland could be one of those guys who leads AEW into the future. When you wake up tomorrow, look in the mirror and ask yourself the tough question: Who exactly do you want to be? For the rest of this tournament, for next year, for the future, and the rest of your career. Tonight was not your night, Swerve, the Continental Classic belongs to me.”

Will Moxley maintain his unblemished record in the C2, securing one final win over “Switchblade” Jay White to go a perfect 5-0, or will the cards fall perfectly in Strickland's favor, with White beating Moxley and Strickland beating Rush in order to force a three-way tie and potentially a win for Swerve since he holds the tye-breaker win over White? Fans will have to wait and see, as the logistics of the tournament will be incredible to see.

Jon Moxley doesn't think a belt can make a wrestler.

So, with Jon Moxley suddenly able to control his future in the C2, you would think the leader of Blackpool Combat Club would be excited for an opportunity to hold up the new American Triple Crown and become a champion in AEW, Ring of Honor, and NJPW all at once, right?

Eh, not necessarily, as Moxley, in a conversation with Chris Mueller of Bleacher Report midway through the tournament, noted that, in his opinion, championship belts rarely make a wrestler, with the performers instead responsible for getting over their hardware.

“There's a lot of belts,” Jon Moxley told Bleacher Report. “Belts come and go. They're what you make them. I've never seen a belt get anyone over in my life, personally. I've seen people get belts over. They come and go, and they're devices. If you treat them as important, they become important. If you treat them like a joke, they become a joke. People don't pack arenas to look at shiny pieces of metal and jewels.”

Turning his attention to the tournament, Moxley discussed the Continental Classic and why fans should be excited about what AEW is bringing to American television.

“Maybe this will be the only one, maybe it's a Brawl for All situation that only happens one time, or maybe it becomes an annual thing. There are those things like G1s and stuff like that. Those prestige tournaments that build up a reputation. King of the Ring used to be like that where it was a destination to prove yourself for young guys. Being the first one, I think everybody involved in it wants it to be good. You'll always be connected to it, being the first one to win it, so that would be cool. Especially if it becomes a big important thing people look forward to in the future. I think there's a little bit of competitiveness and a little bit of pride-in-your-work kind of thing. Even though we're all competitors against each other, there's almost like a team spirit attitude. Everybody is going in to bust their a** and make this the best tournament possible,” Moxley noted.

“The main comparison is going to be the G1 because, at its core, it's basically the same idea. It's a round-robin tournament. We have to be different from what the competition does, what WWE does, what everyone else on TV does. We have to always be different and give things you can see nowhere else. We don't want to do the same thing as the G1 so whenever we can do something that will make it different, we should, especially for a Western audience.”

While the idea of the Continental Classic drew skepticism from some fans for a variety of different reasons, with some fans suggesting that it was too complicated and others questioning the point of the tournament since the physical AEW Continental Championship hasn't even been debuted yet, the strength of the matches and the quality of the storytelling has made fast fans out of folks around the world and legitimized the idea of the C2 becoming the promotion's answer to the G1 long-term.