Claudio Castagnoli To Defend ROH World Title On AEW Rampage

Claudio Castagnoli’s next challenger for the ROH World Championship has been made official, with the bout slated for this Friday’s Rampage.

Claudio Castagnoli has defended the ROH World Championship against a handful of AEW stars since lifting the gold, but his next bout may be the toughest challenge to date for ‘The Swiss Superman’.

As was made official on the latest AEW Dynamite, the Blackpool Combat Club man will collide with Dax Harwood of FTR. The first-time ever singles meeting will air on the forthcoming broadcast of Rampage.

Although they’ve shared a locker room for the better part of the last decade, the former Cesaro and Scott Dawson, respectively, have only faced each other on five occasions. Four of those were tag team affairs, and the final one was a 50-man Battle Royal from Super ShowDown 2019.

The match will also mark Dax Harwood’s first-ever attempt at a singles championship. Even when he held the WWE 24/7 Championship in 2019, he was co-champion alongside Dash Wilder. He does, however, currently hold the World Tag Team Championships of AAA, NJPW, and ROH.

Claudio Castagnoli won the ROH World Championship from Jonathan Gresham at the titular promotion’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view this past July. He’s amassed three successful defences thus far; Konosuke Takeshita, Dustin Rhodes, and Ari Daivari.