Swerve Strickland: AEW Continental Classic Has Been The Shot In The Arm Wrestling Needed
Swerve Strickland comments on AEW Continental Classic.
From the past two months, AEW has run the first-ever Continental Classic, a round-robin tournament similar to NJPW’s G1 Climax. The round-robin format has rarely been used on national television as companies stick with the more traditional single-elimination format.
Speaking to Jimmy Varsallone of the Miami Herald, Swerve commented on the tournament.
“The Classic has been a shot in the arm of what the pro wrestling industry needed. Introducing a new style of tournament bracketing with the classic round-robin style of blocks and scoring points. The usual tournament, you see [the seeding] and sometimes those guys don’t cross paths and they don’t face each other. In round robin, everyone has to face everyone, and that’s what made it so special. Everyone in the block was like, ‘I get to see these matchups. That’s going to be cool. I don’t know who is going to win here, this could be a draw.’ A lot of fans had a lot of fun with the scoring. Whoever is truly a wrestling connoisseur can have a lot of fun with those things. Me being part of the first one, we had to set the tone for the first-ever Continental Classic. Me being a finalist and going against Jay White and Jon Moxley, who is going to go down as a Hall of Famer and all-time great, being able to not face him once, but face him twice, means a lot. I get redemption for myself. Jay White, one of the pioneers of New Japan for the last three or four years, coming over here, he is new and being integrated to the national audience on-screen. I have a victory over him, and that means something, and it means something to him. He wants his redemption on me. Everyone is after something and we want to take it out on each other,” he said.
Swerve is set to compete in the league finals in a triple threat match against Jay White and Jon Moxley on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite.
The winner will meet the winner of Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston in the finals at AEW Worlds End.
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