Claudio Castagnoli Details Why He Was Excited To Do AEW Continental Classic

By in large, the consensus regarding AEW's Continental Classic tournament is that it was a huge hit, delivering great matches, and a satisfying conclusion in Eddie Kingston defeating Jon Moxley to become the AEW Triple Crown Champion. But Kingston wasn't the only one to enjoy the spoils of the tournament, as it featured many AEW stars stepping up to the plate, including Claudio Castagnoli, who barely missed out on a trip to the semi-finals after drawing in his final match with Bryan Danielson.

In an interview with "Denise Salcedo" days before the C2 finals at AEW Worlds End, Castagnoli gushed about the tournament and how excited he was to take part in it. A big reason he was chomping at the bit for it is that it allowed him to work a round-robin style tournament, an itch he almost got to scratch before joining AEW in 2022.

"Right before I joined AEW, I was extremely close, like probably a couple of days away, before doing the G1 for New Japan," Castagnoli said. "And I always wanted to be in the G1, and I'm still owed one I feel like. So to do the Continental Classic, I was super excited."

Among the many other reasons Castagnoli was up for the tournament was because it allowed him to work matches every week against a high caliber of opponents. In the end, he believes the Continental Classic proved to be a huge success for those reasons and more.

"It's been a very good thing for AEW and the fans," Castagnoli said. "It just brought it down, to me, what wrestling is, because it's fun, it's sports, it's storytelling. You've seen all the guys through the interviews, through the promos, and the matches...everybody put their heart and soul into it, and you can tell."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Denise Salcedo" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription