AEW’s Tony Khan has discussed not wanting to make a “hacky” decision regarding the booking of the Continental Classic tournament. 

Khan had to make changes to the Continental Classic tournament following Darby Allin’s injury, choosing “Jungle” Jack Perry as his replacement. He recently said on “Q101” that he rescheduled the matches for Perry once he was added to the mix and did not follow the same set of matches he had lined up for Allin. He noted that it would have felt predictable if Perry and Pac had faced each other on the final night of the tournament, as many would have assumed that this was the plan for Allin.

“Jungle Jack Perry stepped into the tournament, and I thought he delivered and was fantastic. He had great matches, and talk about big shoes to fill with Darby Allin, but Jungle Jack Perry’s another great AEW star. They’re totally different wrestlers, which is why I felt like the schedule should go differently. I shouldn’t just paste Jack into the Darby schedule,” Khan added. “I thought it would be very hacky if it had ended up with Jack and Pac on the last night, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is exactly what Darby was going to do.’ And so I reorganized things a lot to make sure that you wouldn’t feel like on Christmas like, ‘Did they just paste Jack for Derby in here?’ No, I didn’t at all. And Jack stepped up and delivered so much.”

The AEW CEO was pleased to see Perry get the opportunity and make full use of it, showering praise on his character and calling him a great wrestler.

“I’ve always loved the presentation. I’ve always thought Jack’s a great wrestler, and I’m really glad that we were able to make lemonade out of the lemon that was Darby’s injury,” he said.

Perry had a good showing in the tournament, securing two wins, first against Mike Bailey and then Pac.