Claudio Castagnoli Explains His Odd 2014 Pairing With Paul Heyman

Claudio Castagnoli is getting what he deserved for so long after jumping ship to AEW. He became the Ring of Honor World Champion at the Death Before Dishonor PPV and even retained it throughout a number of title defenses.

The former Cesaro is fresh off his 11-year-long WWE tenure from 2011 to 2022. While he pretty much became a stock character later in his run, WWE tried a couple of things with him early on in his run. One of them was pairing him with Paul Heyman back in 2014.

Claudio appeared on the latest episode of the Kurt Angle podcast and talked about his fondest memories from his WWE days. He also explained why he and Paul Heyman came together.

I’m not exactly sure, but I think Paul said once that they just needed somebody to go out and talk about Brock Lesnar breaking the streak and they needed a reason for Paul to go out there. I was there with him for him to go out there and talk about me and then talk about Brock. I think right before Brock got back, we kind of got split up again. I think that was that if my memory serves me right there.

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The former WWE star thinks that he would have liked to be represented by Paul Heyman. However, things didn’t go his way, and he dealt with what was there for him in the best way possible.

I mean, yeah, but you have to make the best out of every situation. That was one thing I would have loved was to keep him as a mouthpiece, just seeing the success that he’s had, of course, but those were not the cards that I was dealt. So I was trying to make the best of what’s next.

The ROH World Champion said that he is thankful for never winning the WWE world title. WWE superstar Seth Rollins recently expressed regret for never finishing his feud with Castagnoli during his Cesaro days. Castagnoli is finally getting things his way, and that’s not going to change any time soon.

What’s your take on Claudio’s push in AEW? Sound off in the comments!