Dalton Castle made his AEW debut at AEW Battle of the Belts II when he challenged Jonathan Gresham for the ROH World Title.
Castle was a former ROH World Champion himself and was a staple of the company for years before they went on hiatus at the end of 2021.
Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Castle recalled learning of his AEW debut.
"I think I got the call two days in advance. I was excited. I wasn't nervous. I was most nervous about like, 'entering a new school,' and then once I got there it was, 'Oh, I know all these people. These are all my friends. I've known them for a decade.' I knew the weight of seeing more eyes on me, but I didn't fear it because I've always trusted in myself. I know I'm good. I know I'm real good at this. I just had to keep doing what I was doing," he said.
Castle continued, "The entrance and everything is always a risk. Just because someone likes what you do in the ring doesn't necessarily mean they're going to allow you to do everything that you've been doing prior. With Tony (Khan), that wasn't the case at all. He wanted it. We did Supercard of Honor and when I came to the back and talked to him, he was like, 'Hey, we need to get The Boys back.' 'Yeah, that makes the most sense in the world.' We did Battle of the Belts and the production team was so patient to rehearse everything and make sure they got the camera shots right. That settled me down and set my mind at ease. Having Brent and Brandon there alongside me was like riding a bike. It was a comfort level that I remember. I trust these two more than I trust anybody. To get to do that on the big stage of AEW was setting me up for some really easy success. Once that went well, I remember getting a couple of weeks of traveling with the show. It might have been Toronto, I got told, 'You're going to be doing a segment with (Chris) Jericho.' That was words I didn't think I would ever hear in my wrestling career. So thrilled to do it. The next night, I'm going out on this program where I'm not really featured, nobody should know who I am in the AEW audience, and I'm going out on a Canadian show against their Canadian hero. The second I walked out it was, 'how is this going to go?' The crowd was so welcoming and loud. They chanted my name. 'Okay, I'm comfortable this is going to go great.' Then I had four days to freak out about it until we had the show in Cincinnati. That's how I heard."
Castle challenged Jericho for the ROH Championship on the October 18 episode of AEW Dynamite.
Elsewhere during the interview, Castle discussed nearly leaving ROH in January 2021. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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