Claudio Castagnoli recently made history by winning a major world title outside AEW, ending the previous champion’s more than three-year reign. Some information has come to light regarding the potential backstage reason for this.
The Death Riders member ended the reign of Gran Guerrero, which had been going on since November 2022. It has been almost two weeks since then, but this move remains controversial as an outsider was the one to dethrone the long-time champion.
During his appearance on Keepin’ It 100, former WWE Spanish commentator Hugo Savinovich gave his take on why this change was made. He mentioned how CMMLL President Salvador Lutteroth Lomeli may have taken a liking to Claudio Castagnoli due to his strong style of wrestling. This was something that the promotion may have leaned more towards.
“I’ll tell you why. Because Lutteroth, the guy that is the boss there, he identifies himself with that style, like New Japan, and Claudio kind of strong style. And CMLL, they resent a lot of the American-style wrestling. They like over 90 years of history, and they just don’t approve of like the modern wrestling.”
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He continued by mentioning how he felt that this was a wrong move on their part, as Claudio was not over with the crowd. Savinovich compared him to El Grande Americano, who has now become popular among both WWE and AAA fans. He wished CMLL would do the same and listen to the fans, instead of continuing to push Castagnoli.
“And they feel Claudio, he’s got what it takes, and I think they’re wrong because even with El Grande Americano, you know that he’s getting over. He’s getting like a hundred times more over than whatever character he did in WWE. So to me it’s like, give the people the opportunity to tell you, okay, we like that, or we don’t like that. Right now, they’re just forcing Claudio.” [10:13-11:12]
AEW may have hinted at Claudio Castagnoli’s next challenger
Claudio Castagnoli has also been on a roll in the Continental Classic, as he has already taken down the likes of Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy.
However, his first loss came last weekend on Collision. It seemed as if he was going to dominate yet another match, but he ended up suffering an upset at the hands of Mascara Dorada, who pinned him after connecting with a Shooting Star Press.
This not only gives Dorada his first points of the tournament, but may give him the right to challenge Claudio Castagnoli for the CMLL World Heavyweight title, as he has already pinned him before. It remains to be seen whether they will continue to build up this potential feud.
Edited by Enzo Curabo
