The internet went absolutely insane over the last few days and that was all because of Claudio Castagnoli’s long awaited debut in AEW at Forbidden Door. To reiterate something I may have said in the last piece…his debuting for AEW is something that his true fans can really appreciate, as he wasn’t given the proper opportunities he deserved on that WWE platform.
To be clear, WWE’s greatest asset is the roster…most of the men and women that do the work day in and day out. Management and creative on the other hand, often drop the ball.
In AEW things work differently. Many detractors online like to say that the roster is too full, that the acquired wrestlers don’t have enough TV time, and so on….
What these detractors would do good to remember is that AEW operates on a different level. Tony Khan has developed an entirely different system that is paced and provides the audience with different matches from week to week and not the same old repetitive stuff that is often boring and uneventful.
Pacing…it’s all about pacing, dear readers. In AEW, if you work and have patience and perseverance, there’s a piece of the pie for everyone.
One man that understands the difference between the two companies is of course Jon Moxley. He spent time in WWE as Dean Ambrose of course, and he recently recalled his time with Castagnoli back in WWE. Of course they have now reunited and are both members of the Blackpool Combat Club faction.
via WWE on YouTube
Here’s some of what Mox had to say as he spoke to the press following Forbidden Door at the media scrum. He also went into a few other topics:
“It’s the best thing, man. That’s another thing, The Blackpool Combat Club came together at a perfect time and it’s just so good for me, it just fits so perfectly. For instance, Claudio, I mean, it wasn’t even a question. It’s a real thing; it’s not an act we’re putting on. He’s a real student of Regal and he’s a real training partner of mine, a former training partner for years. We were in developmental together and we traveled together a lot…
I said something once about ‘hey, we have to bleed together if you’re gonna be on my team,’ I wrestled Claudio a million times. I have busted him open on multiple occasions. You can go back and watch that sh*t on Peacock, I knocked his f***ing teeth right down his throat and he wore adult braces for two years. So we’ve been there, we’ve been down the road together…
I just want to keep getting better. I feel like right now is also a jumping-off point, this feels like the baseline I’ve been trying to get to, what I’ve been picturing in my mind for three years and it’s all starting to become a reality…So here’s the baseline starting off point, imagine how good we could get…”
Castagnoli, Moxley and troop are set to take on the Jericho Appreciation Society at Blood & Guts on Wednesday, live on TBS and TSN in Canada (and for the record, no…TSN is still not showing Rampage – oh the frustration!)
