There are only two C2 matches this week, but that's okay because we also get PAC vs Jay White which should absolutely slap.

This week we got the news that Juice Robinson is out of the tournament due to a fibula he broke a few minutes into his match on Collision. Juice rules. I love Juice. I hope he's back soon, especially since he's just coming off of an injury.

Juice has been replaced with Komander in the tournament and I'll stick by my previous points picks just to make things easy. I could see Komander going the full goose egg, but I'll hold out a little hope for him by way of my confidence in Juice Robinson.

Also, call me simple but I love a god damned battle royal. I had hoped this would be the year someone upended MJF for the Dynamite Diamond Ring, but since we're in MJF/Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly (sadly) Hell forever I assume one of those two guys wins the right to face MJF for the ring and then wipes out. I assume KOR so we can drag this bullshit on even longer.

But, nevermind that shit – it's the Continental Classic, week two!

Shelton Benjamin is still the coolest

While I've not watched WWE in ages, I did love Shelton Benjamin when he first showed up in that company and always thought he was great. Since arriving in AEW, he's cemented that for me.

I was sheepish on The Hurt Syndicate coming to AEW only because it's felt like a slew of ex-WWE wrestlers have shown up to take spots on the roster in the past year or two. I miss the early days of AEW when it felt like surprise debuts would be for people on the indies getting their long overdue big break rather than just picking up people who had just left or been fired from WWE.

I'm happy to admit I was wrong about MVP and Shelton, at least. I haven't been marveled by anything Bobby Lashley has done in AEW thus far, but maybe that'll change.

All that to say, Shelton has just been turning out great matches every single time. He looks like a monster whenever he's in the ring. I never thought of him as a big guy or anything, but he looks like an absolute beast on AEW TV. Maybe it's because 95% of the WWE roster has always been gigantic humans making dudes like Billy Gunn look small by comparison.

Against Kyle Fletcher, Shelton was able to showcase everything that makes him special – from his technical skills to his strength and power. It didn't hurt that the crowd was going absolutely nuts for him the entire time.

Fletcher picked up the win, as I predicted in my picks, but this was as much a showcase for Shelton as it was for Kyle. I don't know where anything is going with Death Riders, but I'd love to see Shelton and The Hurt Syndicate step up to them at some point. Shelton could have remarkable matches with every guy in that group.

Don Callis, don't ever say anyone is "riding the sword of destiny" ever again.

Brian Cage's beard

Brian Cage looks cool with a beard. It seems like he changes his facial hair a lot, but I hope he sticks with this look because it's pretty fuckin' dope.

I wish Brian Cage had won the battle royal, or at the very least his beard.

Adam Cole, to his credit, looked much less yellow this week. Good for him. And good for MJF calling out Cole's weeks of bad spray tan in his promo!

I'm not thrilled to see Cole vs KOR and I couldn't care less about what happens next with MJF. This shit is snooze city for me.

Death Riders breathe with the Switchblade

Was there ever any question that a Jay White vs PAC match would be sensational?

Not only did we get a great match, but we got some more beats in the stories surrounding Death Riders.

Wheeler Yuta, that little shit, proved again that he's not quite the killer Death Riders need him to be – at least not yet. Despite his attempt to interfere to give PAC the win, Switchblade bounced right back and hit the Blade Runner for the win.

Post-match, Jay dropped Yuta with another Blade Runner before Marina and Mox showed up to lay waste to ole Switchblade.

And then? A wild Hangman Page appears to somehow save Jay White? Only to have Orange Cassidy, decked out in crew gear, pop up to strangle Mox with some camera cables?

With OC, Jay, and Hangman standing in the ring together – and Christian Cage looming in the distance with his contract – it finally felt like a true "Team AEW" had arrived. The John Silvers and Alex Reynolds and Top Flights of the world aren't going to be the ones to actually stand toe to toe with Death Riders.

But a ramshackle crew of guys who generally hate each other but hate Mox & Company even more? That's the good enemy-of-my-enemy shit right there.

BANDIDO

BANDIDO

BANDIDO

Bandido is coming back and that wild west vignette fucking ruled.

It's so good when someone gets built up like this for their return. Sure, a surprise return is fun – but this makes it feel like the company is really going to be behind Bandido and do something cool with him.

BIG BAD BRODY KING

The ending was total trash, in my opinion, but everything else about Claudio Castagnoli vs Brody King was great. It just seems like we've seen that hold-the-ref-so-you-can-kick-a-guy-on-the-dick spot a lot in AEW and it deflates the whole ending for me. It's not like I didn't expect Claudio to win, and I understand they wanted to protect Brody a bit but I don't know – just always feels like such a copout.

I've said it before, but this tournament feels like it's going to be a coming out party for Brody to establish him as a serious singles competitor. The crowd is always into him but they were super into him tonight and biting on every nearfall.

If Brody doesn't come out of this tournament and immediately get put into some kind of program for one of the several singles titles on the roster then AEW is dropping the ball. He proves time and time again how good he is and deserves to finally have that hard work pay off.

Wrapping Up

Kicking off the show were some great little video packages highlighting everybody who wrestled tonight in the Continental Classic. This shit was great! It makes everything feel more important and while we're only one week into the tournament so it's easy to remember what happened in week one, these will become increasingly important and cool if they keep doing them through the entirety of the tournament.

My picks go unmarked after this episode of Dynamite, as I picked both Fletcher and Claudio to win:

Swerve killing Max Caster was perfect. Max Caster as a delusional heel who can't back up his own shit talking is a great place for him to be. I assume he'll still wind up with The Hurt Syndicate and he'll be a wonderful Scrappy Doo to the rest of the guys in the stable – running his mouth too much while being unable to back it up and having to rely on his bigger, cooler friends to bail him out.

Penelope Ford and Anna Jay had a really fun match. I've been a fan of Penelope's for a long time and she really showed a ton of improvement right before she went out with injury. Anna has also shown a lot of improvement since coming back from STARDOM and they really just kind of beat the hell out of each other here. Plus, Anna got to show off her Gory Bomb finisher variation which is much cooler than Mercedes Moné's variation. The Anna/Moné feud should be as much about the TBS Title as it is about Anna Jay having the superior Gory Bomb finisher variation.