Claudio Castagnoli is a Swiss professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club stable.
80 Facts About Claudio Castagnoli
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Claudio Castagnoli is best known for his 11-year tenure in WWE from 2011 to 2022, where he performed under the ring names Antonio Cesaro and Cesaro.
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Claudio Castagnoli began his career in the European independent wrestling circuit in the year 2000, and wrestled for numerous independent promotions around the world, including Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Combat Zone Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Noah, and Westside Xtreme Wrestling.
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Claudio Castagnoli was signed to WWE in 2011, and given the ring name of Antonio Cesaro.
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Claudio Castagnoli was assigned to WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, before making his debut for WWE's main roster in April 2012.
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Claudio Castagnoli left WWE in February 2022, and made his debut for AEW in June of that year, returning to his Claudio Castagnoli name and persona.
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When playing a villainous character, particularly in the United States, Claudio Castagnoli has been known to emphasize his European origin as part of his gimmick, proclaiming a superior intellect and fashion sensibility while regularly using moves such as the European uppercut.
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Claudio Castagnoli gained a reputation for impressive in-ring feats of strength, and was called one of WWE's best and most underrated performers for much of his time there.
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Claudio Castagnoli was voted "Most Underrated Wrestler" for a record four years in a row, by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
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Claudio Castagnoli was born in Lucerne on 27 December 1980.
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Claudio Castagnoli found an advertisement on an online forum, which encouraged him to train to become a wrestler.
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Claudio Castagnoli received his initial training in his homeland from fellow Swiss wrestler SigMasta Rappo, and made his debut on Christmas Eve 2000 in Essen for the Germany-based Westside Xtreme Wrestling under the name Double C, losing to SigMasta Rippo.
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Claudio Castagnoli first used a Japanese gimmick before changing it to a Swiss banker, along with Ares, together known as Swiss Money Holding.
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In 2004, Claudio Castagnoli received permanent United States residency in his first try at the green card lottery and moved to the United States, where he began making regular appearances for Ring of Honor and Chikara, while Ares remained in Switzerland and formed the new Swiss Money Holding with Marc Roudin.
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Claudio Castagnoli returned to Chikara in 2004 as a member of Larry Sweeney's Sweet 'n' Sour International faction.
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In November 2006, it was revealed that Claudio Castagnoli had signed a developmental deal with the World Wrestling Entertainment, having impressed them with an appearance on Raw and a successful tryout for Deep South Wrestling.
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Claudio Castagnoli returned to Chikara on 16 February 2007 as a masked character named "A Very Mysterious Ice Cream", part of Los Ice Creams.
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Claudio Castagnoli forced Hero to tap out and then pinned Ryder to win not only the match, but his freedom from the Kings of Wrestling.
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On 9 December 2007, Claudio Castagnoli defeated Hero to finally end their long feud.
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In 2008, Claudio Castagnoli started a new feud, this time with Brodie Lee.
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On 19 October 2008, Claudio Castagnoli won a seven-on-seven Global Gauntlet match where Chikara wrestlers faced off with wrestlers from Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
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Claudio Castagnoli entered the 2009 King of Trios teaming with Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor as Team Uppercut.
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On 24 May 2009, Kingston, who had claimed technical superiority over Claudio Castagnoli, pinned him cleanly with an Oklahoma roll.
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Claudio Castagnoli won the match, but instead of showing respect, Kingston attacked him, claiming that both Claudio Castagnoli and his former partner were shady and did not deserve respect.
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Claudio Castagnoli eliminated himself from the match by low blowing Eddie Kingston, but his plan did not work out as Kingston came back to eliminate Tursas and win the match.
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In late 2004, Claudio Castagnoli made his way to Combat Zone Wrestling, where he teamed up with Chris Hero to form the Kings of Wrestling.
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Claudio Castagnoli has not returned to the company since the loss.
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Claudio Castagnoli made his Ring of Honor debut on 16 July 2005, at Fate of an Angel.
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Claudio Castagnoli wrestled on Ring of Honor's first pay-per-view Respect is Earned on 12 May 2007, teaming with Matt Sydal to challenge the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship.
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Claudio Castagnoli gained success in ROH singles competition on 28 July 2007, by winning Ring of Honor's Race to the Top Tournament, a 16-man, two-night event.
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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Hallowicked, Mike Quackenbush and Jack Evans en route to the final, where he defeated El Generico.
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Claudio Castagnoli received a second shot, this time a three-way match with Brent Albright, later that month, but was again unable to win the title.
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On 28 June 2008, Claudio Castagnoli scored one of his biggest victories in Ring of Honor by pinning Bryan Danielson in their first meeting in ROH.
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On 19 December 2009, at Final Battle 2009, ROH's first live pay-per-view, Claudio Castagnoli reunited with his former Kings of Wrestling partner Chris Hero as they attacked the new ROH World Tag Team Champions, the Briscoe Brothers.
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On 6 August 2005, Claudio Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, losing to Joey Ryan.
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On 2 September 2006, Claudio Castagnoli entered his first Battle of Los Angeles tournament, but ended up being eliminated in the first round by Jack Evans.
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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Doug Williams in the first round, but lost to Pac in the second.
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In late 2007, Chris Hero was involved in a feud with Human Tornado and when Hero's scheduled tag team partner Eddie Kingston turned on him in a mystery tag team partner match and sided with Tornado instead, Claudio Castagnoli came out and took Kingston's place as Hero's partner.
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However, when Hero went to tag Claudio Castagnoli, he nailed him with a European uppercut, turned heel and joined Tornado and Kingston.
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On 6 July 2008, at PWG's fifth anniversary show Life During Wartime Claudio Castagnoli wrestled his last match at the time for the promotion, defeating Phoenix Star.
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Claudio Castagnoli returned to the company for the annual Battle of Los Angeles Tournament on 4 September 2010.
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Claudio Castagnoli made it to the semifinals of the tournament, defeating Ricochet and Roderick Strong, before losing to the eventual winner Joey Ryan.
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On 29 January 2011, during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, Claudio Castagnoli made his first successful defense by defeating El Generico.
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Claudio Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Noah on 15 February 2008, when he teamed up with Chris Hero in a losing effort against Jun Akiyama and Kentaro Shiga.
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Claudio Castagnoli primarily wrestled in the promotion as Chris Hero's tag team partner and in January 2010 the Kings of Wrestling entered the Global Tag League, where they ended up losing all of their matches.
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Claudio Castagnoli lost in the opening match against CZW's representative and former partner, Chris Hero.
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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Pepper Parks in the first-round qualifiers and Sicodelico Jr.
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Later in September, Claudio Castagnoli competed in Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South's Ted Petty Invitational 2007 tournament.
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Claudio Castagnoli defeated Nigel McGuinness in the first round, Davey Richards in the quarterfinals, and Brent Albright in the semifinals to compete in a three-way elimination match, with finalists Mike Quackenbush and IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion Chuck Taylor.
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Claudio Castagnoli was first eliminated by the eventual winner, Quackenbush, being pinned following a Quackendriver II.
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Claudio Castagnoli replaced Fergal Devitt in the eight-man NWA Australian Championship Tournament which was held in November 2007.
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On 13 March 2010, Claudio Castagnoli made his debut for Evolve Wrestling, at the promotion's second event, defeating Bobby Fish.
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In September 2011, Claudio Castagnoli signed a contract with WWE and began working in its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling under the new ring name Antonio Cesaro.
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Claudio Castagnoli unsuccessfully challenged Cena for the title again the next week on Raw.
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Claudio Castagnoli adopted a new part of his gimmick where he would only allow backstage interviewers to ask him only one question before walking away.
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Claudio Castagnoli then made his AEW debut, defeating Sabre and revealing himself to be the newest member of the Blackpool Combat Club.
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Claudio Castagnoli would compete in a Blood and Guts match at the eponymous event alongside Blackpool Combat Club members Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta when the group teamed up with Eddie Kingston and the duo of Santana and Ortiz.
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In July, Claudio Castagnoli would make his return to Ring of Honor for the first time since 2011 as the company had recently been taken over by AEW president Tony Khan.
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On December 10,2022 Claudio Castagnoli regained the ROH World Championship during ROH Final Battle.
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Claudio Castagnoli's wrestling ability has been praised by fellow wrestlers and wrestling icons such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, and William Regal.
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Claudio Castagnoli uses a "no-nonsense", European style as the basis for his move set.
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Claudio Castagnoli uses the Gotch Neutralizer and Very European Uppercut as finishing moves.
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Claudio Castagnoli has been credited as one of the strongest wrestlers in WWE.
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Foley later added that he was baffled by WWE's treatment of Claudio Castagnoli, stating that if he could make one change to WWE, it would simply be to "push [Claudio Castagnoli]".
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Just days before the injury was announced, Ric Flair answered a question on which current wrestler he thought should have already been WWE World Heavyweight Champion by discussing how he thought Claudio Castagnoli was "phenomenal" and that "nobody [brought] more to the table as a performer".
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Flair further stated that he thought Claudio Castagnoli could be built up for a major storyline with Brock Lesnar within two months, even suggesting for himself to become Claudio Castagnoli's manager to help with his work on the microphone.
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Claudio Castagnoli is known for his love of coffee, having maintained a blog and YouTube channel called Claudio's Cafe before joining WWE.
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Claudio Castagnoli's Cafe is the name of his secondary Instagram page, on which he documents his visits to coffee shops worldwide.
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Claudio Castagnoli is in a long-term relationship with former wrestler and current wrestling trainer Sara Del Rey.
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Claudio Castagnoli is close friends with his former tag team partner Ares and Ares' wife Allison Danger.
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Claudio Castagnoli is a fan of franchises such as James Bond, which he incorporated into his WWE gimmick from 2016 to 2018, and Star Wars.
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Claudio Castagnoli is a fan of the Austrian band Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung.
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Claudio Castagnoli described his training regime in 2015 as a mix of different approaches, with particular focus on CrossFit and variations of Olympic weightlifting.
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Claudio Castagnoli has said that he continually tries to learn new ways to work out in order to keep improving.
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Claudio Castagnoli made a brief appearance in the 2008 drama film The Wrestler.
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Claudio Castagnoli regularly appeared on the WWE web series The JBL and Cole Show until its cancellation in June 2015.
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Claudio Castagnoli became a fan of League of Legends after practicing the game prior to the WWE vs NXT League of Legends match, and has been a guest analyst during the North American League of Legends Championship series.
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Claudio Castagnoli was a recurring guest on Xavier Woods' YouTube channel UpUpDownDown.
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Claudio Castagnoli lost the title to Alexa Bliss in the finals of a Brawlhalla tournament that included Rusev and The Miz.
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Claudio Castagnoli appears on the YouTube channel Da Party with Xavier Woods, Adam Cole, and Tyler Breeze as they play Uno.