Eddie Kingston announced his entry into the first-ever AEW Continental Classic, which starts on Wednesday’s Dynamite, during the Full Gear pay-per-view event on Saturday night. He also announced he would be putting up the ROH World Championship and the NJPW Strong Openweight Title up for grabs in every match he wrestles.
In addition, he revealed the tournament winner will become the “Triple Crown Champion” with the introduction of the new Continental Championship. Mark Briscoe, Andrade El Idolo, and Bryan Danielson have also declared for it. The match winners get three points and draws earn each wrestler in the bout one point.
AEW’s plans
AEW President Tony Khan later noted during the Full Gear media scrum that the winner of the Continental Classic would become one champion in the way of the Triple Crown Championship.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer laid out the details for the tournament.
“So the deal with this is that the Ring of Honor Championship essentially is changed to the Triple Crown. The New Japan Strong title essentially goes away as part of the Triple Crown. This is what All Japan did in the late 80s when they had the International and United National Titles all merged. And essentially, it becomes one title. The key to this is that they have a championship that is defended in New Japan, Ring of Honor, and sanctioned by all three. So that’s the uniqueness of it in the sense that it’s a three promotion.”
Meltzer later added, “So it’s a championship that was formerly the Ring of Honor Title that allows the Ring of Honor Title to be defended in three different companies as a joint promotion title.”
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