Claudio Castagnoli (FKA Cesaro in WWE) made his All Elite Wrestling debut earlier this year at the first ever AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door event, revealing himself to be Bryan Danielson’s mystery replacement to take on Zack Sabre Jr, joining the Blackpool Combat Club in the process.
Whilst Castagnoli’s Forbidden Door participation this year came as a surprise, he’s already thinking ahead to who he’d like to face should the two companies come together for another historic crossover event. Speaking during a Starrcast V media scrum, Claudio revealed that his dream opponent for a second Forbidden Door show would be the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada.
Castagnoli went on to explain his reasoning, noting that the pair have known eachother for over 10 years, and thus it would mean a lot to him.
“I would just pick Okada, mainly because I’ve known Okada for over 10 years, actually. When he wrestled at Chikara, he stayed at — me and Chris Hero had a house that a lot of the guys stayed, including Okada, and then I saw him again when he was training in Mexico. So, I think I have a picture of me and him when I still had hair and when he was not ‘The Rainmaker’ yet. So I think there’s definitely a lot of history there. So yeah, definitely. He would be one of many guys that we want to face.”
-Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio will has his hands full with another world-class Japanese star on this Friday’s AEW Rampage, as he’s set to make his first ROH World Championship defence against DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
