CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI

Claudio Castagnoli first came into Ring of Honor at the FATE OF AN ANGEL event on July 16th of 2005, and immediately made an impression in his loss to Nigel McGuinness. From that point forward, and for the next six years, “The Swiss Superman” became a staple of ROH events, occasionally beloved and sometimes reviled, but always respected for his in-ring skills.

Claudio unsuccessfully went on the hunt to become Pure Champion during Nigel's historic reign, he stuck a knife into the back of Ring of Honor during the Ultraviolent summer of 2006, and captured his first ROH World Tag Team Championship with Chris Hero. While that first title reign was short-lived, ended by Matt Sydal and Christopher Daniels after just 70 days, it gave the ROH faithful but a taste of what was to come for The Kings of Wrestling.

Claudio tried in vain to become ROH World Champion, challenging the monstrous Takeshi Morishima for the prize and even renewing his rivalry with Nigel McGuinness in pursuit of that goal, but it never came to be during his original Ring of Honor tenure. But what would come to Double C, following his alliance with Prince Nana's Embassy, was a historic second World Tag Team championship reign with Chris Hero. Now it wasn't historic because it was the second, that was a feat first accomplished by The Briscoes years prior, but because at 363 days, it held the record as longest reign in ROH history for nearly a decade, until The Foundation shattered it with their 441 day run on top of the division.

Still, all good things must come to an end, and that was true for both The Kings of Wrestling championship reign and their tenure with Ring of Honor. On August 13, 2011 Claudio bid farewell to the ROH faithful and set about continuing his wrestling journey elsewhere, but the lure of home would return as part of Castagnoli's arrival in All Elite Wrestling. With DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR 2022 just days away, Claudio stepped up to the challenge of then-ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham, and on that night in July, he finally achieved his dream of becoming a World Champion!

Then came Chris Jericho to ruin it all and, through his own nefarious tactics, put an end to Castagnoli's dream just 60 days after it began. But that doesn't mean Claudio ever stopped striving to reclaim the ROH World Championship from “The Ocho”, and at FINAL BATTLE 2022, with the risk of being forcibly-inducted into The Jericho Appreciation Society at stake, Claudio defeated Jericho and became only the sixth man in twenty years to be called a 2-Time ROH World Champion!