Claudio Castagnoli’s Original AEW Debut Revealed
Claudio Castagnoli shocked the world by debuting at Forbidden Door but now Tony Khan has lifted the lid on his original plans for the Swiss star.
The former WWE Superstar known as Cesaro made a splash by forging his own entry through the Forbidden Door during the supershow held by AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Several AEW stars missed the event through injury with Bryan Danielson one of the more high-profile cases. Danielson was due to face NJPW star Zack Sabre Jr. in one-on-one action but The American Dragon revealed on Dynamite that injury would prevent him from competing at both Forbidden Door as well as Blood & Guts.
Danielson did tantalise the world with a tease that he had a replacement for both matches with Claudio Castagnoli making his entrance to the loudest roar of the night to face Zack Sabre Jr. in Chicago.
Tony Khan explained at the post-show media scrum that Castagnoli’s entry into the world of AEW was originally set to look very different from what transpired:
“I asked him about coming in before I knew for sure that Bryan was out, though I had a pretty good idea that Punk would be out. I could tell there would be a lot of changes. We already had a lot of injured people, I had no idea we would have even more on the run-up to the show.”
“It was the day after the Forum, so June 2nd, I called and had interest, there was definitely mutual interest. At that point, I felt there was a good chance. I wasn’t sure if it would be here or another thing or Death Before Dishonor, July 23, on pay-per-view in Lowell, Massachusetts. Ring of Honor’s return event.”
“I figured there was a chance that if Bryan made it back, there was a good chance that he would have started at Death Before Dishonor and it would have been a great moment there.”
Prior to becoming Cesaro in WWE, Claudio Castagnoli was a mainstay of Ring of Honor where he captured the ROH Tag Team Championship twice with his Kings of Wrestling tag team partner Chris Hero.