When Claudio Castagnoli was in WWE as Cesaro, fans constantly hoped he'd get a run as WWE Champion. For whatever reason, Vince McMahon just didn't view him as a top star, with the end result being his exit from the company.
AEW President Tony Khan wasted no time in signing him to a contract and, in 2022, he made his debut as an "All Elite" wrestler. However, in the two years that have followed, that world title has continued to elude Castagnoli.
He's been the world champion of promotions like PWG, wXw, and CHIKARA, but never AEW or WWE (while he's had two reigns with the ROH World Championship in recent years, it still doesn't feel like the "big" one).
Talking to Sports Illustrated, Castagnoli admitted he's at peace with not necessarily being the top guy.
"Everybody should aspire to be the World Heavyweight Champion," Castagnoli explained. "I think I may have realized as I'm getting older, that that single-minded focus can actually be a big detriment to me. Not everybody is the main character. Not everybody can be the hero of the story. So to me, it is how can I make the most impact?"
"John Cena said it once to me, 'You're only as good as your last match,' and I very much believe that. That's very much how I approach every single match," he added. "Every single match I wanna be proud of and I feel I owe that to the people who follow my career, and I owe that to every single person tuning in for the first time or for the 100th time. When I'm in the ring, they just know they're getting the best consistently."
Two years ago, Castagnoli said this about his decision to leave WWE:
"A lot of thought [went into it] actually. I felt for a while that I needed a change, and leading up to it there was a bunch of signs and a bunch of stuff that different people said that they did not even realise that helped me make up my mind. One of the things that just popped in my head was Johnny Gargano’s last promo in NXT where he said to bet on yourself. That was one of those thoughts where it was like yeah he is 100% right. ‘Rather go out on your own horse…’ Is that even a saying? But it is now, I will tell you that now, put it on a t-shirt! But it was a lot of things leading up to it."
"I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, because a lot of people do. When Cody left the first time he made a list of people that he wanted to wrestle, and then after that everybody made that list. So I just wanted to do it different, I am kind of against the grain a lot. Oh, someone is doing this? Let me try and do something over here. I felt that it was better that way because if I want to keep wrestling and then I pop up somewhere, it’s going to be a bigger surprise. I feel that wrestling is all about moments, and if I went ‘All right. I am leaving.’"
"Then people would have known and it would have been like oh he is going to show up somewhere or whatever. But if it’s quiet, then no one really knows what is going to happen and when it’s going to happen, that is the beauty of wrestling, you want to be surprised. Yes you want to know, but you want to be surprised. To me that is a very important thing of you do know maybe, but there is always that doubt, and that is what makes magic happen."
Do you think Castagnoli could still win a world title in AEW or perhaps WWE?