AEW superstar and current ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli recently spoke with Sports Illustrated to hype up tomorrow’s Dynamite Grand Slam event, where the Swiss Superman will be defending his title against NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston, whose title will be on the line as well.
During the chat Claudio explained why winning a title for NJPW means a lot to him.
The chance to be a New Japan champion very much excites me. I wanted to go to New Japan after I left WWE, and I did–but I’d like to go again, and what better way than as Strong Openweight champion? It opens a whole new set of possibilities. And I am very proud to be the Ring of Honor champion. I learned a long time ago that you don’t need a belt to hold yourself like a champion. But when you do have one, you must hold yourself to a higher level.
He later reveals two of his biggest goals, which is to wrestle at the Tokyo Dome and Arena Mexico.
Tokyo Dome and Arena Mexico, those are two legendary venues that have eluded me throughout my career. I need to wrestle at both of those places, and I’d love to start with the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom. I’m looking forward to taking this title away from Eddie–and wrestling at the Tokyo Dome is something else I’m looking forward to doing.
AEW recently released a playlist highlighting Claudio’s rivalry with Kingston, which dates back to Claudio’s first run with ROH prior to him signing with WWE. You can read about that here.