AEW star Claudio Castagnoli has admitted he finds inspiration for his moves in the strangest places, including the hit show Dancing With The Stars.
The connection between celebrity dance show Dancing With The Stars and professional wrestling is a long one. Stars such as Nikki Bella, The Miz, and inaugural AEW World Champion Chris Jericho have all sashayed in sequins on the show.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight at Starrcast, Claudio Castagnoli revealed that even though he’s not been on the show, he has been an avid viewer and it helped him find inspiration for some of his in-ring repertoire:
“OK, you would never guess it, but I stole that move from Dancing With The Stars. That was probably again 15 years ago when you didn’t have the option of Netflix or anything, you just got to watch cable. I was watching Dancing With The Stars, I don’t know why, and they just have this cool lift, where they throw people around and everything.”
“One of my Mexican teachers, he would watch gymnastics or whatever, and he would figure out new moves just by watching anything. So I watched that because they had really cool lifts, the way they pick people up and stuff. And they did a variation of that, I’m like that’s cool, so I gave it a try.”
Claudio Castagnoli recently quickstepped his way to the first world title of his career when he defeated Jonathan Gresham for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Death Before Dishonor.
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