"I've been following AEW" – Former WWE star says he followed All Elite Wrestling before leaving Vince McMahon's promotion

Former WWE Superstar Claudio Castagnoli (fka Cesaro) opened up about his decision to join AEW earlier this year. He professed to follow the promotion during his time in Vince McMahon's company.

The Swiss Cyborg parted ways with WWE after his contract expired in February. He made his debut for Tony Khan's company at the recent AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, where he defeated Zack Sabre Jr. He was also introduced as a member of the Blackpool Combat Club managed by William Regal.

In a recent interview with SEScoops correspondent Steve Fall for NBC Sports Boston, the 41-year-old said AEW offered him many more challenges. He added that there are many talents in the promotion he'd love to face:

“Obviously I've been following AEW for a while. And when it came to making time for me to just kind of take a step back and look, and I felt that I was a better fit at AEW. There was a lot more for me to do with AEW when it comes to challenges when it came to, you know, people I want to work with. They’re just, there’s so much, so many people that I haven’t wrestled either at all or in a very, very long time."

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Claudio Castagnoli felt it was the right time to move on

The former WWE United States Champion had an amazing first week in AEW. Claudio Castagnoli followed up his win over Zack Sabre Jr. with another victory at Blood and Guts 2022.

At the event, Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, and Castagnoli), Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz beat the Jericho Appreciation Society (Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Daniel Garcia, Matt Menard & Angelo Parker).

In the same interview, Castagnoli explained that he took the right step at the right time by joining AEW:

“So I was just kind of like that’s what I want to do. That’s what I’ll have fun doing. And that’s always for me, I always kind of felt that whenever it was time to move on, I moved on."

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Claudio Castagnoli has quickly established himself as a serious force in the promotion. It remains to be seen how the star will be booked in the future. Do you think Castagnoli could one day become the AEW World Champion? Sound off below!