A very busy week of professional wrestling closed the way most weeks this year did. Will Ospreay racking up another couple of instant classics. On this particular week, he turned in one of the greatest single days in the sport's history with two 5* matches within a couple of hours of each other as the 2024 edition of the Continental Classic wrapped up at AEW's World's End. It was the third straight week where a C2 match topped my list in a tournament that may have topped last year's inaugural edition in terms of match quality by the time it was over.
I watched a lot of wrestling and much of it was excellent. In fact, three 4.25* matches didn't even crack my top 10 as you'll see from the list below. In all, there were 85 matches rated (over 12 a day!) and you can see the entire list of matches here.
For the week of December 23-29, including some shows that took place prior to the 23rd but that I watched this week, the matches took place on the following shows: ROH on Honor Club (aired Dec 19), ROH Final Battle (aired Dec 20), WWE RAW, WWE NXT, AEW Rampage (aired Dec 20), AEW Collision (aired Dec 21), NJPW Road to Wrestle Kingdom Night 4 (aired Dec 22), WWE Main Event (aired Dec 20), NXT Lvl Up (aired Dec 20), NJPW Road to Wrestle Kingdom Night 5, WWE Smackdown, ROH on Honor Club, AEW Rampage and AEW World's End.
Listed below are my top 10 matches for the week. First in each entry is my personal star rating and at the end of each is the Dave Meltzer star rating, where available, along with the Cagematch rating.
1. 5.25* Kazuchika Okada beat Will Ospreay in the final of the Continental Classic at AEW World's End on December 28. 9.32/10 on Cagematch
2. 5* Will Ospreay beat Kyle Fletcher in a Continental Classic semi-final match at AEW World's End. 8.94/10 on Cagematch
3. 4.75* Brody King beat Komander in a Gold League match at AEW Rampage on December 20. 7.55/10 on Cagematch
4. 4.75* Komander won the ROH TV title in a Survival of the Fittest Match at ROH Final Battle on December 20. 4.5* from Dave Meltzer; 8.37/10 on Cagematch
5. 4.5* Will Ospreay beat Brody in a Gold League match at AEW Dynamite on December 25. 4.5* from Dave Meltzer; 8.14/10 on Cagematch
6. 4.5* Darby Allin and Ricochet drew in a Gold League match at AEW Dynamite. 3.75* from Dave Meltzer; 7.42/10 on Cagematch
7. 4.5* Shota Umino and Tomohiro Ishii beat Zack Sabre Jr and Ryohei Oiwa at NJPW Road to Wrestle Kingdom Night 5 on December 23. 4.5* from Dave Meltzer; 8.90/10 on Cagematch
8. 4.5* Kyle Fletcher beat Daniel Garcia in a Blue League match at AEW Dynamite. 4.5* from Dave Meltzer; 8.01/10 on Cagematch
9. 4.25* Konosuke Takeshita defended his AEW International title against Powerhouse Hobbs at AEW World's End. 7.27/10 on Cagematch
10. 4.25* Mark Briscoe beat The Beast Mortos in a Blue League match at AEW Collision on December 21. 4* from Dave Meltzer; 7.15/10 on Cagematch
The following matches also scored 4.25* but just missed out on my top 10:
Athena defended her ROH Women's title against Billie Starks at ROH Final Battle. 3.5* from Dave Meltzer; 6.92/10 on Cagematch
Ricochet beat Will Ospreay in a Gold League match at AEW Collision. 4* from Dave Meltzer; 7.81/10 on Cagematch
Mercedes Mone defended her AEW TBS title against Kris Statlander at AEW World's End. 8.46/10 on Cagematch
