Brock Lesnar's return to the WWE in 2014 potentially changed the career of a man that was known as The Swiss Cyborg in his former company.
Claudio Castagnoli (known as Cesaro in the WWE) was in Nashville, Tennessee for a Starrcast V appearance. Claudio would sit down with Insight's Chris Van Vliet for an interview appearance.
When asked about what went wrong with the Paul Heyman partnership storyline from nearly ten years ago in 2014, Claudio would go on and explain ''It was right after WrestleMania 30 when I won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which is still one of my favorite memories of my career. Also, me and Jack Swagger broke up as the Real Americans and we both went solo. I was clearly liked as the babyface in that scenario, but they kind of kept us both heel.''
"Then they switched Swagger as the babyface and kept me heel. It was this weird mix of happenstances. They put me with Heyman, he talked about Brock, I was supposed to be a bad guy, but the crowd liked me and wanted me to be good. I think it was a series of unfortunate circumstances." Claudio said.
Claudio was in a middle of a push after winning the Andre The Giant Battle Royale, but the push would not last long because Paul Heyman would soon be exclusively paired with Brock Lesnar.
''I can speculate. I think Paul said the same thing, that he was put out there to talk about Brock Lesnar ending the streak and I was the tool because I could wrestle. It was an excuse for him to go out there and talk about Brock. Brock came back and I stopped being with Paul. It was a series of unfortunate events for me. Looking back, it was a great learning experience. I got the chance to wrestle great guys and to be out there with Paul Heyman and watch him do his thing.
It was a good learning experience. You just have to learn from it and grow from it. I wouldn't agree that I didn't have any interactions with Paul. We talk all the time. It was four months, we were riding together. I definitely had the chance to learn from him.'' Claudio said.
Claudio is set to defend the title against Konosuke Takeshita at AEW Battle of the Belts. Fightful will be providing live coverage for AEW Battle of the Belts.
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