Claudio Castagnoli Confirms Why WWE Split Him From Paul Heyman

Prior to signing with AEW, Claudio Castagnoli wrestled for WWE from 2012 until February 2022 under the ring name Cesaro. For a short period of time onscreen, Castagnoli was deemed a "Paul Heyman Guy" and had Heyman as his manager and mouthpiece, dropping Zeb Colter during his feud with former partner Jack Swagger (now known as Jake Hager in AEW). The pairing of Heyman and Castagnoli did not last very long and current ROH World Champion Castagnoli discussed on The Kurt Angle Show why the gimmick was dropped.

"I think Paul said once that they just needed somebody to go out and talk about Brock Lesnar breaking the streak and they needed a reason for Paul to go out there," Castagnoli said. "I was there for him for him to go out there and talk about me and talk about Brock. I think right before Brock got back, we kind of got, got split up again."

Before Castagnoli was paired with Heyman, he had won the United States Championship in 2012 and teamed with Swagger in the Real Americans from 2013 to 2014, although the duo did not win tag gold. Castagnoli did not find much singles success under Heyman, as he would have to wait until 2015 before he was back winning championships. He first won the WWE Tag Team Championships alongside Tyson Kidd. Following this win, Castagnoli won the WWE Tag Team Championships six more times, one time with Shinsuke Nakamura and five times with Sheamus in a team known as The Bar, who were heels for most of their run.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Kurt Angle Show" and give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.