Backstage News On Claudio Castagnoli Signing With AEW – At last night’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, Claudio Castagnoli debuted as the newest member of William Regal’s Blackpool Combat Club, replacing the injured Bryan Danielson in a victory against Zack Sabre Jr. However, AEW initially had a different plan in place for the incoming Swiss wrestler, according to Fightful Select.
While the original plans for Castagnoli’s AEW debut weren’t specified, the report noted that AEW had already prepared merchandise and promotional material for the former Cesaro prior to Sunday’s AEW X NJPW crossover event. Furthermore, the duration of Castagnoli’s contract was described as “long term” but Fightful couldn’t confirm if he had put pen to paper yet. As reported earlier, Castagnoli had been spotted training at the Flatbacks Wrestling School in Orlando, which is owned by AEW star Shawn Spears and former WWE star Tyler Breeze, multiple times over the last several weeks.
Castagnoli was reportedly backstage “throughout the night” Sunday, which would mean the locker room was aware of his debut. In contrast, Bryan Danielson’s debut was kept under wraps at last year’s All Out pay-per-view, with Danielson admittedly spending much of the night waiting in the production truck until he stepped out during the main event segment.
During the post-show media scrum, Castagnoli described what joining AEW in this scenario meant to him.
“Sometimes the stars align for a perfect moment,” Claudio said. “It’s what happened tonight. I hope [Bryan Danielson’s] alright, I know Bryan will be back. It’s just a perfect fit, I just talked to [Jon Moxley] and we’ve been going back 10-12 years, a long time. We used to ride together, work out together and we still do and we talk. It just fits yanno and at the end of the day, I’m always looking for new challenges and here in AEW, it’s like I’m a kid in a candy store.
Less than four nights after his AEW debut, Castagnoli will be in action again this Wednesday on “AEW Dynamite” when he teams up with Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz in a “Blood & Guts” match against The Jericho Appreciation Society. During the closing stages of Forbidden Door, Castagnoli was confronted by Kingston, who didn’t appear very pleased to be on the same team as his old CHIKARA and PWG rival. Castagnoli would take to Twitter later to comment on his AEW debut, as seen below.
