Claudio Castagnoli Believed WWE World Title Was In His Reach

Claudio Castagnoli was with the WWE for over ten years before deciding to leave after his contract concluded and spoke with Chris Van Vliet about his history with his former company. The conversation occurred when Castagnoli, now the current Ring of Honor World Champion, put in an appearance at Starrcast V in Nashville, Tennessee per Fightful.

When asked about not getting the chance to win a WWE World Championship and if he ever thought he was close to that World Title, Claudio said he did believe he was close to the chance at the time. You can check out the highlights below:

On whether he was close to the WWE World Championship: “Yes, it’s all about building momentum. I feel I created that momentum a lot of times with the fans.”

On how similar momentum led to Becky Lynch’s advent in the WWE: “That natural thing, you’ve seen that with them. The last time that really happened was with Becky. Becky got red-hot and the fans made her undeniable. I feel I was on that verge a couple of times where the crowd was with me, my stuff was going awesome, and it was, ‘We’re going in this direction now.’ Okay, back to square one. That happened a bunch of times. In the end, it all led to this. A lot of stuff in life is about the journey.”

Claudio Castagnoli made his debut with AEW in June and is the currently the Ring of Honor World Champion after beating Jonathan Gresham.