Continental Classic finalists to be decided on Dynamite on TSN2
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The Continental Classic finalists will be decided on Wednesday night when Jon Moxley takes on Swerve Strickland and Jay White in the Gold League Final and Eddie Kingston meets Bryan Danielson in the Blue League Final. Plus, MJF and Samoa Joe defend the ROH World Tag Team Championships against the Devil's Masked Men. You can catch AEW Dynamite LIVE at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN2, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.
Continental Classic Gold League Final: Jon Moxley (4-1, 12 points) vs. Swerve Strickland (4-1, 12 points) vs. "Switchblade" Jay White (4-1, 12 points) - A spot in the match for the inaugural AEW Triple Crown Championship at Saturday night's World's End pay-per-view in Long Island will be determined as Jon Moxley, Swerve Strickland and Jay White compete to become the Gold League representative in Wednesday night's final. All three men finished their round-robin slate with a 4-1 mark, leaving the trio tied atop the group. Interestingly enough, each man's sole loss came against another competitor in the Gold League Final. Strickland's loss came against Moxley, while White fell to Strickland. On last Wednesday's Dynamite, White earned his spot in the final by reversing a Death Rider into a Blade Runner and pinning Moxley. The question heading into Dynamite will be what kind of shape Moxley's knee is in. White worked it over for the duration of their match last week and then took it out with a chop block after the match when Moxley was jawing with Strickland on the stage. Moxley will need to be as close to 100 per cent as possible to deal with only one of White or Strickland, let alone both. And what will undoubtedly aggrieve one of the parties in the match will be the fact that he will lose this match without being pinned or submitted, but such is the nature of a triple-threat match. Of the three men, only White has never held AEW gold before with Moxley being a three-time former AEW World Champion and AEW International Champion, while Strickland has held the AEW World Tag Team Championships (with Keith Lee). Of course, White's championship mettle is unquestionable with the Auckland native being the first ever New Japan Pro-Wrestling Grand Slam Champion, having held all of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, the IWGP United States Championship and the NEVER Openweight Championship. Any one of these men is more than capable of taking this match and heading to Saturday's final, but only one will. Who will it be?
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Continental Classic Blue League Final: ROH World Champion and New Japan Strong Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston (3-2, nine points) vs. "The American Dragon" Bryan Danielson (4-1, 12 points) - Two men who don't much care for one another will face off on Wednesday night as the Blue League comes down to Eddie Kingston and Bryan Danielson. Both men have been outspoken over the course of their careers about their dislike of one another, but when it comes to their in-ring rivalry, it's been very one-sided. In five previous encounters, Kingston has never beaten Danielson. Their last match opened up Blue League action on the Dec. 2 edition of Collision and Danielson won the hard-hitting encounter with the Busaiku knee. After losing his first two matches, to Danielson and Brody King, Kingston fought back with wins over Daniel Garcia, archrival Claudio Castagnoli and Andrade El Idolo to claim his spot in the final. Danielson's sole loss came against Andrade. The match on Wednesday night will be doubly personal for Kingston. Not only will he be looking to pick up his first ever victory against Danielson, but he will be trying to hang onto the two titles he put on the line - the ROH World Championship and New Japan Strong Openweight Championship - in the tournament to help create the AEW Triple Crown Championship. A proud man, Kingston will fight until there is nothing left in him and Danielson must be prepared for a desperate opponent on Wednesday night. Can Danielson take one step closer to his first-ever title in AEW or will Kingston live to fight another day?
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ROH World Tag Team Championship match: AEW World Heavyweight Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman (c) and Samoa Joe vs. The Devil's Masked Men - Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Samoa Joe are defending the ROH World Tag Championships held by MJF and Adam Cole on Wednesday night, but they're not exactly sure of their opponents' identities. The Devil, the masked man who has been terrorizing AEW and leaving bodies in his wake, made the challenge to the duo on last Wednesday night's Dynamite to put their titles on the line against two of his henchman before MJF defends the AEW World Championship against Joe at the World's End PPV on Saturday night. While Joe quickly accepted, it's quite clear that Joe doesn't exactly trust Friedman. Echoing what Roderick Strong has said for weeks, Joe noted last week that not only does the Devil wear a mask that admittedly once belonged to MJF, he's never directed any of his attacks towards the champion. In fact, the only time we have seen MJF allegedly victimized by the Devil, it was after the fact. There's never been any visual proof of an attack. But MJF was quick to rebut his challenger with the fact that we've never actually seen the Devil sic his men on Joe before, either. The duo will have to put their mutual distrust aside in a hurry no matter who their challengers might be. And will we learn anything more about the Devil or his men's identities? Over the course of these weeks of attacks, rumours and theories have spread online about just who these people might be. Will we come any closer on Wednesday night to finding out?
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PLUS:
- Renee Paquette sits down with "The Glamour" Mariah May
- After making a challenge to former partner Swerve Strickland last week, we will hear from "Limitless" Keith Lee