"Very cool, hungry environment" - Top AEW Star recalls his time in a developmental system with Seth Rollins and former WWE Champion
AEW star Claudio Castagnoli recently spoke about his stint at WWE's former developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), along with Jon Moxley and RAW Superstar Seth Rollins.
Castagnoli started working for FCW under the name "Antonio Cesaro" in 2011. He made his FCW debut in a loss against Rollins on September 17, 2011, in a house show. The Swiss Cyborg also worked with Moxley in FCW on numerous occasions.
Speaking on The Kurt Angle Show, Claudio shared that working with Rollins and Moxley in WWE's developmental territory was cool. He added that the atmosphere there was fun but competitive at the same time.
"I went there [FCW] and it was cool because that was when Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley would... were there and they were kind of starting to do their thing. They had like....... it just took some matches that started to become available on YouTube and people watching and talking about it. So, it was really cool to come in at that time and there was some tremendous talent down there as well. Like just for example, Jason Jordan was down there and like a lot of other people that you see on TV now, and it was just a very cool, hungry environment to be in," Claudio said. [8:42 - 9:19]
Check out the interview here:
WWE Superstar Seth Rollins talked about his rivalry with Claudio Castagnoli
Seth Rollins and Claudio Castagnoli (fka Cesaro) had a storied rivalry in 2021, with Castagnoli beating Rollins at WrestleMania 37 and on SmackDown in May 7.
From there, The Visionary had a three-match winning streak against The Swiss Cyborg, including Hell in a Cell on June 20.
Despite meshing well in the ring, Rollins wished that his feud with Castagnoli could've gone longer.
"My point is the Cesaro story had so much, there was so many legs and different directions we could have taken it and I think one of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t press hard enough to do that. I feel like that’s an untapped story, if we ever cross paths again there’s such a great story there that we could do."
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Castagnoli's last significant feud in WWE was against Roman Reigns in an unsuccessful bid for the latter's WWE Universal Championship.
He later signed with AEW and debuted at Forbidden Door on June 26, beating Zack Sabre Jr. Castagnoli and Moxley are currently teammates at AEW's Blackpool Combat Club.
What are your thoughts on Claudio Castagnoli's stint in FCW? Sound off in the comments section below.
Please credit The Kurt Angle Show and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.