Claudio Castagnoli has been a member of AEW since Forbidden Door 2022, when he replaced Bryan Danielson in a match with Zack Sabre Jr. that was meant to unofficially decide on who was the best technical wrestler in the world. From there, Castagnoli took part in Blood and Guts as a member of the Blackpool Combat Club, worked extensively with Wheeler Yuta, and even became the Ring of Honor World Champion, a title that had eluded him up to that point despite an extensive run with the promotion from 2007-11.

While Castagnoli's reign was short-lived, as he lost the strap to Chris Jericho at AEW Grand Slam just 60 days after he took the belt off of Jonathan Gresham at Death Before Dishonor, ever since, the “Swiss Superman's” goal has been a singular one: to restore honor to Ring of Honor's top prize at Final Battle.

Fortunately, Castagnoli had an opportunity to do just that at Final Battle and he ran with it, building off the momentum of other OG ROH members like Samoa Joe and The Briscoes to beat “The Ocho” for his strap even after the team (formerly?) known as 2point0 tried to run out and uneven the odds in the JAS's favor. Call it a deeper purpose to make William Regal proud, or just a byproduct of a few extra minutes in the gym each day for 20 years, as Ian Riccaboni suggested on commentary, but in the end, when the match met its conclusion, Castagnoli stood happy in the ring while fans rained streamers onto him before the show went off the air on a positive note. Goodbye, Hat Trick, the team name Menard suggested for Castagnoli and Jake Hager, and AEW later trademarked – it's been emotional.

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