Claudio Castagnoli returns to Ring of Honor and makes it clear that his mindset has changed over the last year.
Claudio Castagnoli is the Ring of Honor World Champion. While he doesn't appear on ROH television regularly, he did appear in a backstage vignette on the August 17 episode, giving some thoughts about how his mindset has changed over the last year since he has kept his focus on Ring of Honor.
"I hear the whispers. I see the writing. 'Where's the world champion? Why is he not on the show? Does he not care?' Well, I do care. I am here; just because you don't see me doesn't mean I'm not watching. That doesn't mean I'm not scouting. That doesn't mean I'm not training. That doesn't mean I'm not taking this seriously. Eddie Kingston, I told you you're not worth it. Mark Briscoe. I told you you're not ready. PAC, bastard, I told you would pay for this. You just didn't know how dearly," he said. "See, when I won this Ring of Honor World Championship a little bit over a year ago. It was my first world championship, and I was so proud. I loved it. It's an achievement after 20-plus years of wrestling, and I thought you know what? I love Ring of Honor. I love wrestling. I'm gonna want to be the best champion possible. Then I lost it to Chris Jericho, and he didn't give a damn about Ring of Honor. He couldn't care less. Then, I beat him, and became a two-time champion. But I learned something from him. I wasn't as naive as I was before. I wasn't going in all bushy-tailed and bright-eyed. I was going in knowing that I had a job. A simple job. Don't get me wrong, just because it's simple, doesn't mean it's easy to do."
Continuing on, Claudio says he realized his love of wrestling was a burden, and letting go of it allowed him to become even better at his job, even if it meant letting go of the passion that he felt personified him.
"What it meant was to let go of the thing you love. Now what is it that you love? What is it that you worked your whole life for? What is it that you left everything for? Imagine having to let go of that, having to let that die in order to take the next step," he said. "I had to realize that for all the passion and love I have for wrestling. It was nothing but a burden. Because my job is to be the Ring of Honor World Champion and to keep people like Eddie Kingston, like Mark Briscoe, like PAC, and like so many others of you on the roster away from this. Because there's not many people in this world that I can they can do what I can do. There's not many people that can wrestle in Blood & Guts for 60 minutes and then two days later defend this championship like nothing happened. There's not many people that can take a 48-hour-plus travel to Japan have 30 seconds to get ready, and then take on three of the best wrestlers in the world and take them to the limit.
"Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this to brag I'm not saying this to get a pat on my shoulder," he continued. "Now I know what I'm capable of. I know what's asked of me, and sometimes when I think about it, that frightens me because I know what I have to do to hold on to this if you step in the ring with me -- I am in the Blackpool Combat Club, I've stepped in the ring with my friends, and I've stepped in the ring with my enemies. I've stepped in the ring with people I've respected, and I've stepped in the ring with people I don't respect. There is only one thing, and that is competition, and at the end of the day, for me, you might think it's sad, but it's a reality. I have no personal attachment. This is just a job. Not just any job, this is my job, and I am really, really, really good at my job. So if you want to take this from me, you simply have to be better than me. Good luck."
While he is completely dedicated to being Ring of Honor World Champion, Claudio has to focus on AEW All In, where he will compete in Stadium Stampede. Learn more here.
Check out our full coverage of Ring of Honor here. Also, there will be a review podcast on our YouTube channel.
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