Exclusive: AEW's Claudio Castagnoli explains why he decided to leave WWE
Claudio Castagnoli surprised fans when he made his AEW debut in June at Forbidden Door, four months after quietly leaving WWE.
Castagnoli had spent 11 years as Cesaro in WWE, becoming a multiple-time tag team champion and capturing the United States Championship.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Castagnoli explained why he decided to make the leap from WWE to AEW after spending so long as Cesaro.
"I feel, when you want to grow as a performer, as a human you sometimes have to take a leap of faith, or a risk, or do something new and I figured AEW is exactly that for me," Castagnoli said.
"Not so much a risk as a fun new challenge and change can be scary but it's been nothing but fun because I feel like I fit right in with the Blackpool Combat Club, who made me feel at home immediately.
"I've watched AEW since the beginning and there's always been thoughts about maybe going there or that's a possibility but the time had to be right," he continued.
"And I kind of believe that everything happens for a reason and it happened at the perfect time because, I mean everything kind of worked out, and that's how I feel, the right thing always happens."
Castagnoli made his debut at Forbidden Door taking on Zack Sabre Jr after Bryan Danielson had to pull out of the match due to an injury.
While it wasn't the original plan, Castagnoli is happy with how it all worked out. "I think there was a slightly different plan where I was gonna start at Ring Of Honor a little bit later," he explained.
"But then with Bryan getting hurt plans change and that's the beauty of wrestling, everything changes and then moments happen or things happen that you may have not expected.
"To me Bryan's health is paramount and the most important thing and the fact that everything else worked out around it so well I thought was was pretty awesome," he added.
Catch AEW Dynamite live every Thursday at 1am in the UK and Rampage every Saturday at 3am on FITE with an AEW Plus subscription. US customers can also watch Dynamite on TBS and Rampage on TNT, and in the UK, Dynamite repeats air on ITV4.
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