Claudio Castagnoli wants to be a fighting champion, and he aims to give opportunities to other competitors.
Castagnoli regained the ROH World Championship at ROH Final Battle, making Chris Jericho tap out in the process. During the ROH Final Battle post-show media scrum, Castagnoli was asked to describe how he plans to represent ROH with his second reign with the gold. He noted that Jericho did a “tremendous job” with the way he represented the company.
Castagnoli stated that, like Jericho, he wants to defend the gold, and he emphasized that he wants to put it on the line against people who either want to prove themselves or showcase their skills to an audience who might not be familiar with them.
“To give credit where credit is due, I think Chris Jericho did a tremendous job putting a lot of eyes on the Ring of Honor World Championship, defending it almost on a weekly basis against former Ring of Honor Champions. I would like to do something maybe in a similar vein, but maybe without the theatrics around and attacking ringside personnel and stuff like that, just in a more honorable way.
“To me, this has always been the championship for people to prove how good they are and to prove how good they are, and to prove to everybody else that maybe they’ve been missing out, or how good they really are.”
Claudio Castagnoli went on to use his first reign as an example, as he faced Konosuke Takeshita, Dax Harwood, and Ari Daivari. He also discussed the different challenges presented by wrestling proven names and competitors who are lesser known.
“So to me, I would love to defend kind of like how I did when it had it in my first run against Takeshita, where people are kind of maybe sleeping on him, against Dax, against Ari Daivari, it’s just giving people a chance to step up and showcase what they have and test themselves,” Castagnoli said. “To me, when I was younger, when I was in Ring of Honor, that was always, to me, okay, who can I step in the ring with and go as hard as I can and see where are my limits.
“That’s the only way you get better, if you get pushed to your limits, and sometimes that can be, if you step in the ring with Chris Jericho, it’s very intimidating, and you know what he’s gonna bring. That’s one challenge. But to step in the ring with someone that’s young and hungry and you may not know as well, that’s a completely different ball game. They have nothing to lose. To me, I would like to represent that part of Ring of Honor and just defend this title with as much honor and integrity as possible.”
Read More: Tony Khan Reveals What His 2022 Highlight Is In Professional Wrestling
