Claudio Castagnoli teases that he wants to face Kazuchika Okada.
On the October 25 episode of AEW Dynamite, NJPW star Kazuchika Okada made his Dynamite in-ring debut. He teamed up with AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy, and the duo faced Claudio Castagnoli and Bryan Danielson. Danielson went down with an apparent injury after Cassidy and Okada hit him with an Orange Punch and a Rainmaker. Castagnoli scored the pin, and he earned a shot at Cassidy's title.
On the November 1 edition of AEW Control Center, Orange Cassidy stated that his one goal is to wrestle and defeat Jon Moxley. Claudio Castagnoli, Moxley's stablemate in the Blackpool Combat Club, stated that he could arrange the match. He then noted that if Kazuchika Okada is man enough to return to AEW, he could potentially defeat him.
"I mean if you want to wrestle Mox, I can arrange that, but it won’t be for that title because I’m gonna beat you this Wednesday. Then if your buddy Okada is man enough to come back, maybe I’ll defeat him too," Castagnoli said.
The episode then played a video in which Castagnoli sent a message to Cassidy ahead of their match. He praised Cassidy's talent and described how the champion had everyone else fooled with his games. Castagnoli emphasized that he knows about Cassidy's inner fire, and he is a world-class competitor beneath the ames and the tricks.
“You meet a lot of people with a lot of potential, and what it always comes down to is, are those people willing to put in the work? At the time, when potential ends, the work comes into play. When nobody’s looking, what are you doing? What are you doing to get better? Orange was willing to go that extra mile. That’s why he’s here. That’s why he’s one of the most decorated champions in AEW. That’s why he was able to capture the imagination and hearts and love of so many people worldwide. He went that extra mile. He has the talent, he had the fire, he had the drive, but he also put in all the work. So Orange Cassidy has a very different style. People think, he has an unorthodox style. People think he is so different. He’s not. He just likes to fool people into believing that he doesn’t really care, that all this is just a joke to him. I know it’s not. I know of the fire that’s within him. He may have a lot of other people fooled with his mind games and tricks. I know what’s beneath all this. If you strip it all away, you will see there’s a world-class competitor. He just has everybody fooled. Not me," Castagnoli said.
Castagnoli also claimed that he’s the epitome of what the AEW International Champion should be. He then vowed to avenge Bryan Danielson after Cassidy and Okada took him out.
As of this writing, there is no word on when Okada will return to AEW.
In a previous interview, Castagnoli expressed his interest in competing in the Tokyo Dome. Check out his comments here.
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