New AEW TNT Champ Daniel Garcia Becomes First To Declare For 2024 Continental Classic

At Full Gear, Daniel Garcia defeated "The Scapegoat" Jack Perry to claim his first AEW title — that being the TNT Championship. Following his title win, Garcia also became the first to declare himself for the 2024 Continental Classic, which kicks off on this week's episode of "AEW Dynamite."

"I feel like there's still a lot more that I want to do here," Garcia said on the AEW Full Gear post-show media scrum. "I feel like I'm still hungry. I feel like I want to accomplish more, so I will say right now, there's been nobody announced yet, I'm going to be the first person to announce myself for the Continental Classic. I'll be returning this year."

Last year, Garcia boasted a 1-4 record in the inaugural Continental Classic, with his lone victory coming over House of Black's Brody King. This year, Garcia looks to boost his record in the tournament, and potentially walk out of it as a double-champion. 

"I feel like last year, it was a very important part of my journey over the past year of AEW. I feel like my story was very important in that tournament to building the identity of what the Continental Classic was. I feel like it would be a shame for me not to come back and be part of that again. I'm really excited. Hopefully I do a little bit better than [last] year, we'll see. I'm walking in with a lot more confidence this time, so we'll see what happens."

With his announcement, Garcia joins the automatically-entered Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada as the only wrestlers confirmed for the 2024 round-robin tournament. Like last year, the Continental Classic will run under Continental Rules, meaning outside interference is prohibited, no one is allowed at ringside, and competitors have a 20-minute time limit.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.