Backstage Report On AEW Star After Tony Khan Says He'll Miss 2025 Continental Classic

The 2025 Continental Classic tournament begins this Wednesday on the Thanksgiving Eve edition of "AEW Dynamite," and while the line up has yet to be officially announced, one man who will likely miss out on competing is Kyle O'Reilly. At AEW Full Gear 2025, O'Reilly once again managed to make Jon Moxley tap in their No Holds Barred match, but was viciously attacked by Moxley after the match was over. AEW President Tony Khan would claim in the Full Gear post-show media scrum that Moxley's attack will keep O'Reilly out of the tournament.

"After the actions of Jon Moxley and after the hard-hitting match, Kyle O'Reilly will probably be out of action," Khan said. "It's unfortunate because Kyle did want to wrestle in the Continental Classic. He was really excited about it, and he's been breaking through. He's had some of the biggest wins of his career and I was excited to see Kyle O'Reilly in the field, but I think Kyle's probably not going to be cleared."

However, there might be some hope for fans of O'Reilly as Dave Meltzer claimed on a recent episode of "Wrestling Observer Radio" that the injury is just a storyline to sell Moxley's attack, and that there is every chance that O'Reilly will be in the Continental Classic. "It felt very storyline to me," Meltzer said. "Maybe the idea was that he would beat Moxley and they wouldn't put him through the tournament, but they were going to say it like pretending to be in the tournament otherwise...With Kyle O'Reilly, it was very clear that [injury] was storyline."

At the time of writing, the only men officially confirmed for the tournament are Kyle Fletcher, the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita, and the winner of last year's tournament and the defending AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada. The field will officially be revealed before Wednesday night where the first set of league matches will take place.

Please credit the original sources when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.