AEW Continental Classic 2025 Report: Collision Winter Is Coming
History was made on the 2025 Winter Is Coming edition of "AEW Collision" as matches in the annual Continental Classic tournament were held outside of North America for the very first time. Fans in Cardiff, Wales got to see action in the Gold League between two men who know each other very well, and a match with high stakes at the top of the Blue League.
In the Blue League, it was a battle of current world champions as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita went one-on-one with the CMLL World Heavyweight Champion Claudio Castagnoli. Following Kyle Fletcher's loss to "Speedball" Mike Bailey, Takeshita walked into this match as the only man left in the tournament to have not suffered a loss. However, he was met by an angry Castagnoli who wanted to bounce back from his loss on the December 6 episode of "Collision" against Mascara Dorada, as well as exact a little measure of revenge after Takeshita defeated Jon Moxley on the same show.
Both men walked into the match level on points with six each, and they left the match level on points as Takeshita and Castagnoli went to a 20 minute time limit draw, the first of this year's tournament. The match turned into a slugfest in the final few minutes with a lengthy strike exchange on the outside, but Takeshita thought he had the match won in the last minute as he tried to get Castagnoli counted out. Castagnoli kicked out of the Power Drive Knee while Takeshita kicked out of the Neutralizer, and as they were ready for one more exchange, the bell rang and the time limit expired. Takeshita and Castagnoli remain tied at the top of the Blue League with seven points each.
Over in the Gold League, JetSpeed exploded as "Speedball" Mike Bailey and Kevin Knight faced-off with three points on the line. Both individuals entered the match with three points already on the board as Knight both defeated and hospitalized Darby Allin before losing to Kyle Fletcher, while Bailey was able to beat Fletcher but lost to PAC. As expected, both men knew each other very well through teaming with each other over the past year, meaning that neither man could truly establish an advantage. Knight did try and target the back of Bailey which was heavily worked over in the match on Wednesday, while Bailey tried to ground his tag team partner.
The match came to an end after both men dug deep into their respective bag of tricks, but it was "Speedball" who executed something he has never done since joining AEW, the Flamingo Driver, which was enough to give him the win and the three points. Bailey now sits atop the Gold League with six points alongside Kazuchika Okada and Kyle Fletcher, while Knight remains on three points.