Claudio Castagnoli fka Cesaro in WWE made his surprise debut at Forbidden Door and joined the BBC. His free agency was a blessing in disguise for AEW and Tony Khan as a number of big names had to be removed from the PPV due to various injuries.
In the post-Forbidden Door media scrum, the AEW president told the story of how Castagnoli’s AEW debut came together. He revealed that he had contacted the former WWE star before he knew that Bryan Danielson will not be competing at the PPV. The original idea was for him to debut at ROH’s Death Before Dishonor PPV on July 23:
‘I Have Claudio Under Contract, Bryan’
“I asked him about coming in actually before I knew for sure that Bryan was out, but I had pretty good idea that Punk would be out. I could tell there were going to be a lot of changes. We already had a lot of injured people. I had no idea we’d have even more on the run up to the show.
“So I figured there was a chance that if Bryan made it back, that there was a good chance that probably he would have started at Death Before Dishonor. It would have been great moment there but I think for the crowd here this is something very special. As long as Bryan’s Okay, that’s the most important thing. I think he will be fine. It was great to have a great moment here at Forbidden Door. So things worked out perfectly.
“I was very fortunate. I talked to Bryan on the phone last weekend. He just wasn’t feeling 100%. As soon as he said that I said ‘We’re eight days from the pay-per-view. but if you’re not feeling 100% today, don’t even think about wrestling on the pay-per-view. Don’t even think about wrestling at Blood and Guts.’ I didn’t even want to take another chance as soon as he said that. So he mentioned Claudio, and, I said ‘it’s funny cause I have Claudio under contract, Bryan.’ I hadn’t told anybody. You’re the first person I mentioned it to.”
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