Though he wrestles for AEW now, Claudio Castagnoli is a Ring of Honor legend.
The mainstream wrestling world may largely know him for his decade-spanning run in WWE from 2011-2022, and fans have been getting really familiar with his time in Chikara to prepare for his eventual feud with Eddie Kingston – read up on that here if you feel so inclined – the “Swiss Superman” actually called the Philadelphia-based promotion home from 2005-2011, where he wrestled in 217 matches and counting.
And yet, despite wrestling in a number of title matches for the Pure, Television, and World Championships, Castagnoli never actually won a singles belt of his own in the promotion founded by Rob Feinstein and popularized by Cary Silkin.
Hmm… considering how Tony Khan has opted to keep his new stable of ROH belts in the greater AEW family, there's no way he would break that drought with the biggest belt in the honorable promotion, right? Like, despite having Jonathan Gresham already under contract, there's no way he'd turn the “Face of the Foundation” heel only to take his belt a few days later, right?
Well, considering how don't-call-him-Cesaro Castagnoli came out to confront Gresham after his championship win over Lee Moriarty with the belt gesture across his waist, it feels an awful lot like that's the direction the promotion is looking to go, especially since Tony Khan, the new owner of Ring of Honor, made the match official for the forthcoming Pay-Per-View Death Before Dishonor live from Lowell, Massachusetts on July 23rd.
A ROH title win would cement Claudio Castagnoli's legacy in and outside of AEW.
It took Claudio Castagnoli four months to earn his first championship shot in Ring of Honor, where he wrestled Nigel McGuinness in a Pure Title match; a match he lost via disqualification. Though Castagnoli did get in the ring versus McGuinness on two more occasions for the strap, he was never able to get the belt off of the current NXT UK commentator, with the belt eventually being won by Bryan Danielson in a unification match for the ROH World/Pure Title at ROH Unified live from Liverpool, UK in August of 2006.
From there, Castagnoli turned his attention to the Ring of Honor tag team championship alongside his The Kings of Wrestling partner Chris Hero, whom he performed alongside in Chikara, CZW, PWG, and beyond. That team won the titles off of Austin Aries at Roderick Strong at Glory By Honor V, and went on to defend it successfully three times before the tag team of Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal – if you can believe it – took it off of them at Dethroned, live from New Jersey. Though the team stuck it out for a few more weeks and added a match versus the Briscoes to his resume, when Hero left the group to pursue singles action with his manager, the vastly underappreciated Larry Sweeney, Castagnoli turned his attention back to singles action in the pursuit of the ROH World Championship, which was then held by Takeshi Morishima.
And then… nothing. Outside of a slew of elimination matches, tournament appearances, and gimmick matches like a steel cage bout versus Brent Albright, the only other attempt Castagnoli made at a championship in Ring of Honor was reunited with The Kings of Wrestling, where he and Hero ultimately unseated the Briscoe Brothers, Mark, and Jay, for the ROH Tag Team Championships at The Big Bang! in April of 2010. The duo defended the belt on nine occasions, including bigtime wins over the Briscoes, The American Wolves, and The Motor City Machine Guns, and ultimately lost their titles to Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin, “Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team,” in what would be Castagnoli's sixth-to-last match in the promotion.
While Castagnoli did try his hand at one more singles belt in the promotion, as he attempted to take the ROH TV Championship off of Christopher Daniels during his final run with The Kings of Wrestling, “The Fallen Angel” was able to retain and that, as they say, is that.
Fast forward to 2022, and Claudio Castagnoli has never won a World Championship in any of the five major global wrestling promotions, with his biggest achievement being the United States Championship all the way back in 2012-13, when he was still known as Antonio Cesaro in WWE. Will that change at Death Before Dishonor? Only time will tell, but after watching the way Jonathan Gresham has been booked so far in his time employed by AEW, it might be more entertaining to see him antagonize Castagnoli as a challenger than ultimately best a performer who is undefeated in matches booked by Tony Khan.