Claudio Castagnoli Recalls Headlock Match With Bryan Danielson, Says It’s A ‘Tremendous Memory’
Claudio Castagnoli reflects on his “headlock match” with Bryan Danielson.
The match, which took place in 2006, was built around a headlock that Castagnoli applied to Danielson. In the end, the ‘American Dragon’ was able to escape from the hold and defeat Claudio with a quick rollup pin.
Speaking with Robbie Fox, Claudio Castagnoli spoke about the match and called it a tremendous memory.
“Tremendous memory. It’s one of those, do you dare to be different? Maybe in the short term, obviously I would’ve loved to come back to PWG sooner. But also looking back, it was completely worth it to just try something different and do something different. People still talk about that match like you just brought it up to me and said it was one of your favorite matches, so it’s 100% worth it.”
Continuing on, Castagnoli encouraged young wrestlers to try different things.
“I have to give complete credit to Bryan on that one. But again, I had a lot of fun. It was one of my favorite matches too. It’s one of those things you look back like, I’m very proud of that. I think it’s very important that if you talk to the younger talent or even younger people in general, they’re like, ‘No, try something different, do what you like. Do what you like to see. Don’t be afraid to be different, don’t be afraid to try something and fall on your face.’ I’m a firm believer that you learn way more from your mistakes than from your successes. So don’t be afraid to fail. Again, if you look at that match, that could be looked at as a fail but I look at it as a success because you still talk about it. It’s like, if I tell you to take a risk but I don’t do it, then I’m just a hypocrite. I’m very happy that I’ve done it and I’m still trying to do things like that that are different.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Castagnoli named his biggest pet peeve in wrestling. Check out his answer by clicking here.
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