Last year, Claudio Castagnoli made his All Elite Wrestling debut at Forbidden Door, where he defeated Zack Sabre Jr. and joined Blackpool Combat Club.
Castagnoli found success in Tony Khan’s company after his lackluster run in WWE. He has held the ROH World Championship two times.
In an interview with WrestleTalk, Claudio Castagnoli responded to fans calling him an ex-WWE star. Castagnoli clarified who he is by using football as an example.
“Before AEW, if you wanted to make it or, like, work on a more consistent basis or just all the time, [WWE] was the goal; WWE or maybe New Japan [NJPW] if you want to do the tours and stuff. So before AEW, if you wanted to do this full-time as a valuable job, you can do the indies towards the end, or you become a WWE guy.
If you want to look at it in football, if you go through Manchester Academy and then you start playing for Fulham, you’re going to be the ex-Manchester guy? It’s kind of like you going to the new team and then that’s who you are. You’re not just going to be like, ‘Ah, why is this ex-Barcelona player on my team?”
Claudio Castagnoli last competed on the December 15th episode of AEW Collision, where he lost to Eddie Kingston in the Continental Classic tournament.