After an incredible month plus of in-ring matches and (largely) online promos, the Continental Classic officially came to an end at AEW Worlds End, with not one but two matches booked by Tony Khan closing out the event in resounding fashion.

First came the eight-man tag team match between some of the “losing” members of the tournament, with the members of the Blackpool Combat Club plus Mark Briscoe and Danial Garcia going head-to-head with “Switchblade” Jay White, Brody King, Rush, and Jay Lethal for nothing more than intra league bragging rights.

Now, for fans out of the know, placing eliminated members of a tournament in tag team action on a Pay-Per-View is nothing new, as New Japan has been known to do it with the G1, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla does the same during its Battle of Los Angeles every January, but for AEW, who has never done a tournament quite like the C2, it served as a fun way to close out the contest and provide a little extra juice to an event loaded with interesting storylines.

Taking the ring for the opening contest of Worlds End, all eight members of the match were afforded a chance to get in some work, with no one but Jay Lethal looking worse for wear as the match went on, which, based on how his C2 went, is largely by design. After largely feeling like the odd man out in the tournament, Garcia built on his upset win over King by securing the pin on Lethal with a roll-up for the 1-2-3. And the best part? After securing the win and maybe even a shortlist spot in the Blackpool Combat Club, Matt Mennard, his wrestling “Daddy,” allowed him to dance it out in the center of the ring, something he's been reluctant to do for weeks now in the hopes of making the 25-year-old a more “serious” wrestler.

While the C2 would largely be defined by who won the tournament later in the show, this opening contest proved that there are no true losers in a fantastic round-robin tournament, except, again, Jay Lethal, who will likely now leave Jeff Jarrett's faction, in order to return to his babyface ways.

Eddie Kingston earns the win of his career at AEW Worlds End.

In the penultimate match of Worlds End, Eddie Kingston took the ring against Jon Moxley for the grandest prize of them all, the Modern-Day American Triple Crown, the Ring of Honor Championship, the New Japan Strong Openweight Championship, and the brand-spankin' new AEW Continental Championship.

This wasn't so much a David versus Goliath match per se but more so a battle of styles, with an underdog, Mick Foley-esque figure going head to head against a man who did it all at the corporate level and lived to tell the tale, as if Paul “Triple H” Levesque had a really good run in New Japan instead of joining the corporation.

Working a match with surprisingly few gimmicks, Kingston and Moxley beat each other mercilessly until only one man was left standing, an outcome that the crowd was 100 percent bought into, especially if their hometown-ish hero, the “Mad King” was the performer left holding the crown.

And guess what? He was!

That's right, after fighting one of the premier performers all of professional wrestling, arguably the Ace of AEW, Kingston outlasted his long-time friend and occasional rival and finally got a win on Mox when it counted.

What does the future hold for Kingston? Only time will tell, but after securing the win at Grand Slam, Kingston got an even bigger dub on Long Island at Worlds End, proving that maybe, just maybe, he really is the “King of New York” after all.

Claudio Castagnoli celebrates the value of AEW's Continental Classic.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
Kazuchika Okada holding the Continental Championship belt with the AEW Dynamite logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ¡

2024 Chris Jericho next to 2001 Chris Jericho with the AEW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ¡

Eddie Kingston next to the blacked-out silhouette of Terry Funk with the AEW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ¡

Before taking part in the Continental Classic's penultimate match, Claudio Castagnoli discussed the tournament with Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture.

While some wrestlers may not be particularly jazzed about competing in such a grueling, fast-paced tournament, Castagnoli loved it, as the routine allowed him to excel in his professional wrestling efforts.

“To do the Continental Classic, I was super excited. I feel like I’m at my best when I get into a routine, so to speak. With the Continental Classic, it’s like you know you wrestle every week. Then again. looking back, I was like, I pretty much wrestled every week multiple times. [Laughs] So to me, it’s cool. Then I looked at all the talent announced, which is awesome. I was like, there’s not one person that I wouldn’t want to be in the ring with,” Claudio Castagnoli shared via Fightful.

“I saw the brackets or whatever, and the blue group. Every single competitor is top-level, every single competitor, it’s gonna be fun and a big challenge. Every match is gonna be different. Gold Group was fun to watch as well, but I feel like the Blue Group just had so many different styles and competitors in it. It was so much fun, not just for me. I feel like my fellow competitors as well, and for the viewers because you kind of knew what matches you were getting. You knew what the matches were, but you didn’t really one quite when. So it’s cool, and then it gets announced, and you can look forward to it. Then, of course, it all came down to the last day, which was a lot of fun I feel like for everyone watching. It’s not quite over yet. It’s been a very good thing for AEW and the fans. It just brought it down to me, what wrestling is. It’s fun, it’s sports, it’s storytelling, and you’ve seen all the guys do the interviews and the promos and the matches. Everybody put their heart and soul into it, and you can tell.”

If you're a fan of the Continental Classic, then you should be happy, as it sounds like the wrestlers enjoy it too, which is a pretty good indicator that it could and should be back in 2024.