For weeks I've had it in my head that the winner of the Continental Classic would get a shot at the World Title at the end of the tournament. I don't know why! That didn't happen last year! I think I'm just too G1-brained and got my wonderful round-robin tournaments mixed up.

So, the winner of this tournament won't be a stopgap for Jon Moxley on the way to losing to Darby Allin (assumed). Darby mentioned recently that he's planning on climbing Mount Everest in April, so I guess we can expect the Moxley & Death Riders run to last at least until All In. If you're going to crown your new babyface champion, it probably makes sense to do it at your biggest show of the year.

It's still frigidly cold here in upstate New York so the Winter Is Coming theme continues to fit, though it's going to be 47 on Tuesday so who the hell really knows what's coming or going other than a fine two hours of professional wrestling television!

Booking a coherent women's division is easy if you just try

Willow Nightingale and Jamie Hayter kicked off the show with an excellent women's match, placing Willow into the Wrestle Dynasty four way match in the Tokyo Dome. I've been in that Dome! It's a great Dome! I think I'll also be watching Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestle Dynasty this year, maybe even doing the ole set-the-alarm-to-wake-up-at-3am-eastern-time razzle dazzle to watch them live.

It's great that Willow and Jamie were given the spot to open the show, a spot you generally reserve for something that's going to hook the viewing audience of the gate. They absolutely delivered in what was maybe Hayter's best match since coming back from injury.

And they got a lot of time! Nothing felt rushed, the match had time to breathe, and the crowd was solidly into it from beginning to end. Isn't it amazing what can happen when you consistently book the women's division and give goals and motivations to more than just the women wrestling for the titles? It's not that hard!

I think I expected Willow to win, but assumed there would be shenanigans with Julia Hart leading to the decision. Happily, the match ended clean and it kicked complete ass! After the match, though, we got the blackout and the official return of Julia Hart driving Jamie Hayter into the mat with a hammerlock DDT.

THIS. SHIT. RULED.

Julia was heating up and getting quite good before her injury took her out, and I'm excited to see her back on TV. It feels weird to put her up against the also-just-returning Hayter because it feels like neither woman should be losing a feud right now, but I guess we'll see how it all plays out.

The other women's matches on the show weren't anything compared to Willow/Hayter, but they were important from character and storybuilding perspectives.

After Toni Storm grabbed the quick win against Shazza McKenzie, she got on the mic to announce that she was officially All Elite. So, what's the play here? Did Toni Storm's brain completely break and she thinks she's back in AEW for the first time again? Or is this the latest role of "Timeless" Toni Storm, method acting as the excitable new signee Toni Storm?

We got official confirmation that Thunder Rosa will be challenging Mariah May for the World Title at Worlds End in a Tijuana Death Match. Is Rosa somewhat cooked and she can only fully go in hardcore matches now? Her match quality has been inconsistent since returning, but she always delivers in street fight situations. During this segment, Toni Storm burst onto the scene to introduce herself to Rosa and Tony Schiavone further weaving whatever web in which Toni is currently entangled.

Like Toni, Kris Statlander had a similarly quick squash and put away Tootie Lynn in just a couple of minutes. Statlander didn't have any storyline beats that came out of the match, but she seems to be working her way back toward the TBS Title by way of slaughtering opponents. On Rampage, she said she'd wrestle on every show if she had to and I hope she does. Let's keep this train rolling.

We have SO MUCH happening in the women's division up and down the card and I only wish every Dynamite and Collision could be loaded with so many different women's matches and stories. There's no excuse to only have one women's match per night and to cram the other women's segments in around that match. It's just lazy.

I'm a Continental Classic Idiot

The Beast Mortos looked like a million bucks against Kazuchika Okada in their C2 match. Picking Okada was an easy choice in this one, but things feel a bit all over the place after having Okada lose to Kyle Fletcher.

Not only did Mortos get a lot of great offense in, standing strong against Okada the entire time, but the moment Mortos sat straight up after eating the Okada dropkick sending Okada stumbling backwards in shock was a delight. Not only was it made clear that Mortos could hold his own with Okada with wrestling alone, but his resiliency was on display and putting Okada (and those on his level) on notice.

I think Mortos could still end up with 3 points by the end of this, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see him come out with the big goose egg. It's not really clear what's going on with LFI these days and where Mortos will end up once the C2 shakes out, but I'm holding out hope that he doesn't get lost in the shuffle once the tournament is done.

Coming off of a big win over Daniel Garcia last week, Mark Briscoe would need to pick up another shock win against Kyle Fletcher to keep himself alive in this tournament. We're at the point where some guys are going to be mathematically eliminated from making it to the semi-finals and Briscoe slots firmly right into that category.

I was pleased as punch that referee Bryce Remsburg caught the feet on the ropes when Fletcher tried using the ropes as leverage on a pin. Finally, a referee in the C2 catching some obvious cheating! We got a familiar spot later in the match with Bryce being briefly incapacitated leaving the door open for a low blow from Fletcher, but Briscoe was to wily to let it happen.

After some back and forth in the final minute, Briscoe laid Fletcher out with the Jay Driller (after crushing him with a Cutthroat Driver a few minutes prior) to give Fletcher his first loss in the tournament. I wasn't banking on Briscoe being the spoiler in this tournament at all but I'm loving it!

Each man now has only one match a piece left – Shelton Benjamin awaits Kyle Fletcher and The Beast Mortos is on the horizon for Mark Briscoe. For Fletcher, he could still lose his final match and make it to the semi-finals but Briscoe will need to win against Mortos to guarantee himself a spot.

With focus, AEW's tag division could be on another level

Top Flight vs Lio Rush and Action Andretti was a ton of fun and highlighted AEW's tag team division positively and negatively. It's great seeing exciting matches with young teams like this, but it's also frustrating that we're not getting them more often.

Thus far in their run as champions, Private Party have yet to have a storyline or title defense that's actually about them, their characters, or anyone's beef with them in particular. I think that's fine in general – it's okay if title defenses happen because one party has the belt(s) and the other party wants the belt(s). That's just basic wrestling stuff.

But, since Private Party had such big hurdles to overcome with both Death Riders and The Elite trying to crush them it'd be nice to see that growth continue now that they've actually reached the pinnacle of tag team wrestling in AEW. That hasn't happened yet. We don't know anything more or anything new about Private Party since they've won the belts.

So, while Private Party vs Lio & Andretti will almost assuredly be a batshit crazy and fun match at Worlds End I'm hoping that we soon get to see some character building for Zay and Quen.

Also, where the hell is Stokely Hathaway and will he ever find a tag team to manage??

Wrapping Up

The show started out with a recap before heading into the cold open promos we used to get at the start of Collision. I miss those so much! I wish they'd do them every week the same way they used to do them with the same music building behind everyone. It gave the show such a unique feel and really helped each episode feel important.

It's always easy to tell when a show has been pre-taped because almost nothing gets breathing room post-match. This show was operating at a break-neck pace and was loaded with matches, interviews, and video packages to promote stuff on the show, to build stories, and to promote future events like Fight For The Fallen. It gives the show a bit of a hectic feel.

The ten-man tag match had no real purpose or meaning or anything but god damn it was a fun time and the crowd went ballistic for the finish. Sometimes you just need a party match where all of the crowd's favorite guys get to beat up some of the best lower mid-card guys on the roster. It certainly worked tonight!

In the final moments of the show, Death Riders bagged and tagged FTR. FTR laid out a challenge to Death Riders on Dynamite, but they're outnumbered – could we see a return or some strange partners arise to even the odds at Fight For The Fallen?

No changes in the gold bracket this week, but let's snoop in on the blues!

I stupidly did not believe in Mark Briscoe enough in this tournament. He's spoiled things for me twice in a row now with wins over Daniel Garcia and Kyle Fletcher. That god damned redneck kung fu!