[8.0] "I'm a huge fan of fights in the crowd so I liked the beginning of this match. They got a fine execution with not only just 3 wrestlers in the same match, but 3 of their biggest stars throwing hands together, showing extreme balance between them. I was hoping for a little bit more of work in Mox's leg but it's fine, I'll take a chairshot as enough. Some moments were really smart and the throwbacks to Mox and Swerve singles match was cool. The usage of a chair being a keypoint for Jay White and utimately costing him the tournament was awesome. A lot of great nearfalls and a sick ending to the Gold League."
[8.0] "Excellent interactions between all three competitors. This didn't suffer from the typical triple threat drawback where one guy is always on the floor and it becomes a normal singles match between the other two. I would have liked to see some carryover work on Moxley's knee from his match with Jay White the previous week, but on the other hand that probably wouldn't have fit into the pacing of this match as well."
[9.0] "[4.25*] The storytelling here was insanely good, with a lot of callbacks and cool references, such as Moxley leaving his back for Jay White to hit the sleeper suplex and then reversing it on the sleeper hold (because Jay often does this thing to outsmart his opponents) and Swerve almost defeating Mox with the roll-up in the same way Mox beat him. The nearfalls kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time and the crowd atmosphere was amazing, even reaching Fight Forever chants. The limb-work and selling was very well executed and every man played his role perfectly, with Jay being my MVP of the match on a superb performance. I just loved everything about it."
[9.0] "Excellent match, really great dynamics between the three of them. Jay White isn't one of the MVP's of the Continental Classic but here he truly brought a big match performance. The beginning of the match with them brawling in the stands was pretty cool, then the match had an amazing and edgy progression, with those final moments being incredibly tense. I loved the moment where Swerve lost the balance on the top rope, and then managed to get balance and made the most out of the moment by delivering awesome grit expressions, this just showed how special and amazing the guy is. Incredible match and beautiful final stretch - {****1/4}"
[7.0] "Good match. I did kind of predict the win but they still had me on the ropes for the majority of the match. The match was good but chaotic, the action could be hard to follow at times but they managed to tailor it tightly towards the end with great finishing sequence. ***3/4"
[7.0] "Epic and very exciting match. It was long but it's a one were you actually wanted to last for more minutes, great action. They played with a "don't turn your back on your opponent" factor, so a lot of transitions between the 3. The references to the previous matches were cool too, Moxley with the leg, Swerve almost getting the win with a roll up over White, Mox countering the Blade Runner and Swerve going for the tights in another roll up. The ending was near fall after near fall, they executed everything very well, great chemistry. ***1/2"
[8.0] "A very good 3 way match. In the beginning of the tournament I wouldn't have thought Moxley would win the Gold League, I really was into a Swerve's victory but as the ace of AEW, it is logical. Jay White and Swerve shone in this fight and it's a good ending to the block."
[10.0] "I thought this was an absolute heater of a match. I think if you don't like the way AEW is structured and how it is in general, you wouldn't like this match. But I thought it was the perfect comeback story for Eddie Kingston. I think this outcome is exactly what Tony Khan was looking for when he was setting up this tournament. It was such a fun match for me. I was worried that they were going to kill Jay White's momentum when it was looking bleak but having this side of the tournament end in a 3 way was fantastic wrestling writing. I loved this, if you are more a fan of WWE style could see why you wouldn't, but in my opinion, this match was AEW at its best, and it took no weapons and no outside interference. Hats off to Tony Khan."
[8.0] "A near 9/10 for the Gold League Final, which was pretty good either way. Moxley redeems his loss to White the previous week a bit by pinning him here, even if it's in a Three-Way. As much as I like Strickland, I knew he wasn't going to the Final simply because Moxley and White have better stories going into it against Eddie Kingston, who I was pretty sure would go to the Final as well. They could have used the fact that Kingston is the (kayfabe) reason White left NJPW if they had gone that route, but I'm more excited to watch a match between Kingston and Moxley. Not that White isn't good, because he's really good. I just think Moxley and Kingston's styles mesh better together."
[10.0] "I was looking forward to this match a lot, both because this tournament has been really great and because I love Strickland and Mox and I think knew they could have some hot interactions even if their singles match wasn't quite as good as we hoped, though it was still very good. I was a bit trepidatious because I really don't care for Jay White, but not only did he not get in the way too bad I'd say he had his best showing since the FTR feud. But the stars were Swerve and Mox, who both killed it here. A touch heavy on some modern 3way tropes but all in all this was a hot match and I had a great time with it, as did the live crowd."
[8.0] "Great 3-way match although Im not sure with having Swerve lose here. I loved Jay White picking his spots in his match as to whenever or not he should be attacking, and the follow up he had on working on Moxleys leg from their previous match ruled. Moxley selling here was actually good which is rare to see! They ended up running through their big moves toward the end, and the added drama of Moxley leg put the result in doubt. Really enjoyable brawl between these three.****"
[6.0] "As usual, 3-way matches are inherently limited because of the constant run-in saves, meaning you can never bother biting on any near falls or hope spots because you know that the guy who was tossed outside or took a big move outside anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes ago will suddenly run in to keep the match going. Jay's slimy and gritty beatdown work early on was typically good, and he and Swerve had some fun interactions playing off of Swerve's agility and creativity against Jay's well-timed aggressive shots. The block final really should've just been a singles match between them. My issues with Moxley here were various. I'm mostly just over his forced, melodramatic 'unhinged badass tough guy' character work. He also has issues with his 'unhinged' character work seeping into his real-time selling, where he'll make wildly deranged faces to almost make a mockery of his opponent. He'll also often look pretty awkward physically when cooperating for a sequence or spot, like he's always a half second slow or doesn't know where to position himself or his limbs naturally (compared to when he can just lead the match himself by executing his signature offence without getting anything in response, which is where he always shines best). Swerve's character work is the complete opposite, since his displays of arrogant confidence feel entirely natural and perfectly play off of his flashy style. Jay's ability to pick and choose the opportune moments to engage with the other 2 was fun, especially because his inherently slow pace therefore made his faster-paced attacks, or his opponents faster-paced attacks *on* him, feel earned and quite cathartic. Jay was also enjoyably dastardly as he beat Moxley down with the chair, though Moxley unfortunately still couldn't help but sell with wildly unhinged facial expressions. Jay and Swerve's back-and-forth trades back in the ring were fun, featuring a variety of energetically executed moves. Moments like Moxley CONVENIENTLY recovering from those chair shots JUST in time to save -- via his weak-looking curb stomp -- Jay being pinned by Swerve; or all 3 men's various "stand in a triangle taking turns striking each other" segments, were pretty disappointing, again going to my issue with the inherent hokeyness that results from 3-way matches. Jay's aggressive leg-targeting on Moxley was good, and, aside from his typically over-the-top real-time selling, Moxley's long term leg-selling was at least pretty consistent and still featured the finishing stretch. Their run-on big-move and finisher trades were actually pretty good because each was mostly protected, since the 3rd man was always required to run in to save the guy on the receiving end of whichever big move/finisher, which prevented the match becoming merely a near-fall kickout fest. I still of course had issue with the convenient timing of the various 3rd-man saves, but I'll at least take this form of 3-way 'epic' trades over a pure "big-move- > near fall, repeat x100" structure. The final 1/4th featured a good story of Jay trying to hit the same Bladerunner he beat Moxley with in their block match. It was definitely disappointing seeing Moxley of all people be the one to win here and proceed to the finals, given he's been pushed far beyond his abilities in this company many times before, and especially when you've got Swerve that you actually need to push right now (and not just do a cheap 'slow burn' build with). Even if this just 'frees' Swerve up for the World Title scene, him taking losses like this clearly undercuts his rise (and are we all just ignoring the utter stupidity of this C2 being for anything OTHER than a World Title shot anyways? ). Still quite a good match, but almost entirely because of only 2 of the 3 guys involved. ***1/4"
[8.0] "This was a great match and the right guy won. It's been pretty obvious from the start that Eddie Kingston is winning the tournament, and Mox is the perfect final opponent for him."
[8.0] "Great triple threat. The brawling throughout the arena was good and returning to the ring we got a lot of false finishes. I don't understand why Strickland didn't win, I love Mox and he pinned White but people this was HIS time. At least we got an entertaining match, I just Hope TK won't fuck this guy. ****1/4"
[8.0] "This was a match of two halves. The first half spent a lot of time on the outside brawling into the crowd, and took some time to get back into the ring. The second half was where things picked up and we got to see 3 of the best wrestlers in the world have some excellent exchanges. One of the more exceptional passages was Swerve hitting Jay White with a flatliner, pumphandle slam, 450 splash. The nearfalls in this match were quite good, and the ending worked as well."
[7.0] "I fine triple threat that just seemed like a convoluted way to give Jay White a singles win on Moxley and also protect Swerve from losing again. It's whatever but the no DQ aspect in a league final is kinda dumb."
[9.0] "The first act of this match was a little messy but this just kept getting better and better. A lot of moving parts for such a simple match, each sequence flowed pretty well into the next despite it falling into some usual triple threat trappings. I fully expected this format being a way to give Swerve a win without him beating Mox, but it ended up being the inverse. It goes to show though, that I bit on at least nearfall for all three men here, all of them have really great late kickouts (Jay most so). Swerve of course had the smoothest and best performance with smart plays throughout that nearly got him the W, but White's use of the chair was really what made that last act just off-kilter enough to make anybody a reasonable winner. ****1/4"
[7.0] "fine match, good brawl on the outside at the start, and decent exchanges even though the pace was very much unsteady, maybe it's just a style clash. Unfortunately, a Moxley win was obvious with the dramatic amount he was selling his knees, which is a disappointing result, neither was it helped by the relatively weak finish"
[8.0] "A great finale for the gold league. While it felt somewhat messy at the start, with them fighting at the crowd area, the match picked up momentum fast. Mox and Swerve in particular had some great exchanges, while White, for some reason, was mostly in-and-out for the match just to take a move and continue to sell. As for a winner, I would've loved for White/Swerve and Danielson to be the finale, but it looks like we are going into Eddie winning the tourny and retaining the titles. I am not a fan of this, as it just feels like the C2 was basically made for Eddie to become a Triple Crown champ just because he is a big fan of Japanese wrestling."
[8.0] "Really a nice triple threat, all the fighters involved made a good impression and had some nice interactions with each other, once again Swerve was more than protected despite the defeat. 4.25 stars."
[5.0] "I don't really understand the high rating, as I thought this match was fine at best - the start in particular was slow. Swerve Strickland looked pretty good in this match, but his top rope dive to Moxley was so short that it was obvious it was going to get reversed. This is a recurring issue in the match, with it being too obvious when moves are going to be hit or reversed. Jay White didn't add much to this match, but his selling for Swerve Strickland and Jon Moxley was generally quite good. The ending was quite dull, the crowd didn't seem to expect it to be the finish."
[6.0] "Fun Triple Threat. All three wrestlers have different styles. Nothing too crazy or innovative here, and there was some stuff that didn't look too good, but not bad at all. Match picked up a bit towards the end but never went anywhere that was super exciting."
[7.0] "Some issues with this match. Mox, and Jay especially, were not as comfy in this format as Swerve, whose offense hit way more flush than the other two. An awkward dive into the rollup by Jay, some loud ref communication. And the format was annoying too, as Excalibur kept saying single elimination which I read as 'elimination'. Jay bringing the chair in took the wind out of this match, as it was against the C2 normal rules, and should've caused the match to descend into a No DQ match. Aside from that, the action was pretty good, with Swerve showing once again he's at his most confident."
[8.0] "Jay looked kinda off. What relevant did he do besides chops and chair shots and maybe one Blade Runner? Anyway, just like I expected. Not a classic, but a good triple threat. I think Swerve moves on to the world title scene after his feud with Keith Lee, so hasn't lost much of his momentum"
[9.0] "Tremendous match: the first minutes with the brawling in the crowd were cool once they moved towards the ring the action slowed down, expect for a beautiful crossoby by Swerve, and only picked up after the commercial break when White brought a chair into the match and Mox hit a vicious stomp to stop Swerve from covering White. They started a slugfest and after a bit the action got more exciting with lots of twists and thrilling moments. White almost stole it with a blade runner on Moxley but wasn't enough. All three men's styles mashed up very well to create many good sequences and exchanges towards the end where they really had me on the edge of my seat. But in the end Moxley got the win by pinning White. The obviuos choice but also the best choice as it will create a beautiful dynamic for the final against Eddie Kingston. Swerve got protected by not taking the pin and altough, as a huge fan of his, White took the pin somebody in this match had to lose and he was the most expendable so I'm not super mad. Nevertheless amazing match, one of Aew's best triple threats. 9/10 - 4.5*/5*"
[8.0] "[4.25*] That was a great match. Swerve's performance here was incredible, he was the MVP of the match without a doubt. The dynamic between the 3 was interesting, the ending could have been more exciting but the match fulfilled its objective."
[7.0] "This was pretty good, but started out way too slow to elevate it beyond just another Pretty Good match. The walk-and-brawl in the first 5 minutes didn't do anything for me, and some of the sequences that followed didn't feel like they had any impact. The Swerve/Mox forearm/strike exchange in particular. Barely any effective selling and they kind of just MOVES'd each other until the obligatory nearfall spam towards the end. Definitely paled in comparison to Danielson/Kingston. The major highlight for me was seeing Jay White act like such a shithead. It's the bit of his character that fans of his NJPW run hyped up that I felt was missing until now. Him brutalizing Mox with the chair and spitting on him was great. I'm a bit baffled by the finish, since Mox's injured knee didn't end up costing him the tournament and all the momentum White and Swerve had going into this was shifted onto a guy who absolutely did not need it, but it was still a fun match and a solid conclusion to the gold league. Just a bit strange when you consider the wider context of this tournament and who exactly it's building up."
[7.0] "I wrongly assumed that Moxley overselling the knee was foreshadowing and his excuse for not winning here. Maybe it becomes his excuse for losing at Worlds End. Either way, this was a win Mox didn't need and one which could have been used to elevate White or maintain Strickland's upward trajectory. Big sections of this were pure three-way videogame content with guys taking turns getting their shit in and the match going nowhere in particular. The use of chair shots and the No DQ stipulation that wasn't fully realised were strangely jarring given the nature of the tournament up to this point. There were some exciting near falls along the stretch for sure, but this feels like a major misfire from a company that needs something fresh to claw back the fans who've lost interest ***1/2"
[8.0] "A very good triple threat and among the best matches out of the Gold League. It got plenty of time and Strickland & Moxley particularly looked very good in the match (even if the work on Moxleys knee did not come to mean much.) Jay White was the least popular of the three but still put in a good performance. Some very strong nearfalls. Strickland at least not taking the pin was the right call as Moxley goes to the finals. One of the things that carried this Dynamite on its back although it would later be outdone. 8-8.5"
[9.0] "This was a great match, just action from start to finish. I particularly enjoyed Jay White in this, he manages to be a sneaky heel in any way possible. The only thing I would criticize was Moxley's injured knee, and disagree with the majority in that I found his selling inconsistent, although it didn't particularly bother me as the overall action was very satisfying. The multiple nearfalls had me on the edge. I wasn't a fan of Mox winning, as he doesn't need big wins and it clearly signaled that Eddie would be winning next. But from a character POV it does make for a nice finale."
[9.0] "This match was an excellent triple threat match to crown the winner of the Continental Classic's Gold League. The match felt like it could've gone any direction and all of these athletes were arguably deserving of winning this tournament. After wrestling a very high quality match in front of a very hot crowd that was loving the entire match, the victory ended up going to Jon Moxley. Mox wasn't my pick to win the Gold League and I still do not think he will win the Triple Crown Title however I cannot deny that he is a great wrestler and will likely have a great match with whoever wins the Blue League final. (****1/2)"
[9.0] "Yes it had the wrong winner, I didn't want Mox to Win and by reading comments from a lot of others people on reddit they didn't want Mox to Win either but it does make sense for the Kingston story. This match was spectacular, 3 of the best Wrestlers on AEW, 3 insane sellers fighting in a match that is more than spot after spot (though I am a fan of spotfest wrestling) I personally feel that White should've won but the match itself was absolutely insane and maybe Mox's first absolutely spectacular match since his return, I really hope their match at Worlds End will be great"
[10.0] "Absolutely incredible match! It was nothing short of absurd and served as a phenomenal opener for the show. This 3-Way encounter easily ranks among the best I've witnessed this year. Moxley truly embodied the role of the boss, making everyone eager to take him down. Swerve showcased once again why he is a phenomenal ShowMan, stealing the spotlight effortlessly. Jay White's exceptional limb work elevated the entire match, and in my view, he truly earned the title of MVP. I must highlight the brilliant detail at the end, with Swerve attempting to save the pin a masterful touch that added even more excitement. Without a doubt, this match deserves a perfect 10/10 rating."
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