Eric Bischoff Details How Continental Classic Tournament Can Be AEW's TNA BFG Series

AEW is set to begin its first Continental Classic, a 12-man round-robin tournament that will conclude at AEW Worlds End on December 30. Many fans think the tournament is reminiscent of New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax, but on "Strictly Business," Eric Bischoff compared it to TNA Wrestling's Bound For Glory series, which Bischoff remembers fondly.

"It was an attempt to create structure that people could follow along with, and use actual win/loss records, and create a real tournament where the wins and the losses and the ties factored in and were absolutely legitimate," Bischoff explained. "The tournament structure — the idea of it — can be really effective, if you reverse engineer it effectively so that what you're really doing is telling stories that are focused on an endzone ... while it fits within the tournament structure that people understand."

Bischoff says the real trick is making sure that fans don't pick apart and figure out the tournament plans too early, and are taken on a ride throughout the matches instead of awaiting an inevitable conclusion.

"It forced us to really work in detail backwards so that the action and the results all made sense to the viewer," Bischoff explained. "Again, it's all about the story." Bischoff warned that it's easy to use the tournament as an excuse to have matches, but said that if the planning is done thoroughly, it could enliven AEW programming.

TNA (now Impact Wrestling, though not for much longer) held the Bound For Glory Series in 2011, 2012, and 2013 before abandoning the tournament. It was revived it for one more year in 2016.