Tony Khan has elaborated on making a significant adjustment to the 2024 AEW Continental Classic compared to the previous year.
Returning for a second year, the round-robin tournament sees 12 competitors split into 2 leagues of 6 with 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss taking place over 5 rounds. Matches have a 20-minute limit and no one is allowed to be at ringside for the contests.
However, unlike the inaugural tournament in 2023 that saw the winners from each league advance to the Worlds End pay-per-view in the final, the 2024 tournament will see the winner of each league face the runner-up from their opposing league in the semi-finals and the winners of those matches face off later that night in the final to crown the overall winner of the tournament.
Tony Khan Explains Continental Classic Alterations
Speaking with Alex Hunt on the AEW Worlds End media call, Khan stated how proud he was of everyone’s efforts in the 2024 tournament and touted the upcoming semi-final matches at Worlds End [Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher and Kazuchika Okada vs. Ricochet] before elaborating on his decision:
“There’s several things that this came down to. I’m very proud of the work that everybody has done to make this Continental Classic so tremendous. As we go into the semi-finals we’ve 4 great contenders and 2 semi-final matches with Kyle Fletcher against Will Ospreay and Ricochet vs. Kazuchika Okada. Then we will have a great finals match on AEW Worlds End.
I felt that it would add to the pay-per-view to have the semi-finals and the finals. It’s gruelling competition and it adds another aspect to the tournament, what it takes, the tenacity and the adversity involved for somebody to come out on top in this tournament.
I think it really adds to the format and it’s why I made this change since the inaugural competition to have the Blue League winner wrestle the Gold League runner-up and have the Gold League winner wrestle the Blue League runner-up to create fresh matches that have not happened in the competition. With 33 matches in the tournament, there’s so many great moments and things that have happened throughout this tournament.
I think this format change makes Worlds End even more exciting and adds more intrigue to the tournament. With the timing of Worlds End coming off AEW Full Gear and the scheduling of the tournament, I thought this would be a very interesting change and I think it has been a very positive change to the tournament in 2024.”
Following the event, Tony Khan addressed WWE’s decision to hold a live event in Orlando on the same night as AEW Worlds End.
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