Wrestling legend Jim Cornette has offered some words of praise for one of AEW’s newest stars and says he’s glad to see them in the company.
At Forbidden Door, the wrestling world was stunned to see Claudio Castagnoli – former WWE Superstar Cesaro – make his AEW debut against New Japan Pro Wrestling star Zack Sabre Jr.
Castagnoli picked up the victory in that match and one man watching on from his Kentucky castle was legendary wrestling manager, Jim Cornette.
Speaking on his Jim Cornette Experience podcast, Cornette discussed Castagnoli’s talents but suffice to say he did not feel the same way about Zack Sabre Jr:
“They’ve now got Claudio Castagnoli and did you see the difference in this match? Claudio Castagnoli versus we finally see Zack Sabre Jr. They botched this bad in a way but I’m so happy to see Claudio there. I mean, this was like again this was almost like a Make A Wish match.”
[…] But, Claudio, besides he was madly over with the people, he’s got the WWE sympathy factor, he’s a great wrestler that they maligned and misused. And also, he’s right down this audience’s alley because he’s worked all at Ring of Honor and all the independents but also he’s f*cking talented. He knows what he’s doing. He’s got the size, he’s got the strength. He can put a match together.”
Jim Cornette then added that Claudio Castagnoli’s talents were also on full display during the pandemic era in WWE and he lauded him as one of the few wrestlers who could make wrestling in empty arenas look good:
“Remember, one of the first empty arena matches when the pandemic became a thing. We were watching one of the WWE shows I said, Claudio is the only one that can actually do this. Because everybody else is just doing their normal match in front of f*cking no people, and it looks goofy.”
“Whereas Claudio, is a good enough worker, and a realistic enough man that he wrestled and laid hands on people and you could hear the smack and it translated even with no fans, he was one of the only ones. So you’ve got a guy here that can do almost everything.”
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