Claudio Castagnoli has discussed former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon thinking that the Swiss star didn’t have the all-important ‘it’ factor.
Castagnoli recently captured the first world championship of his storied career when he defeated Jonathan Gresham for the ROH World Title at Death Before Dishonor. This win comes just weeks after Castagnoli joined AEW and Tony Khan’s umbrella of wrestling promotions.
This is somewhat in contrast to the years Claudio Castagnoli spent in WWE as Cesaro when he only achieved one world championship shot in all that time. Although the star did capture multiple tag team titles as well as the United States Championship.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight at Starrcast, Claudio Castagnoli explains why he never quite broke through to the upper echelons of WWE and it was all down to Vince McMahon’s perception that he didn’t have ‘it,’ something Castagnoli doesn’t agree with:
“I thought he was wrong. Yeah, I feel that charisma comes in very different forms, shapes, and sizes. Not everybody has that over-the-top Ultimate Warrior shaking the ropes and running around crazy, yelling and screaming charisma. Not that I’m sitting here telling you all how awesome my charisma is, but I felt like I had a connection with the fans, with the WWE Universe, whatever you want to call it, in the United States and all over the world.”
“While other people were known for long promos that get translated into many other languages and don’t necessarily come across, mine was about the in-ring work and people can connect with that. It may take a bit longer, but I did connect with the fans and they were behind me. I don’t know if that was not what he was looking for, but the end effect brought me here and you get to see that.”
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