Line #9 Awesome/ClaudioCastagnoli


1	For the awesome moments regarding Wrestling/TheBar, go [[Awesome/TheBar here]].
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3	* He and Wrestling/ChrisHero won their second ROH World Tag Team Championship from Wrestling/TheBriscoeBrothers at ''The Big Bang!" on April 3, 2010 and had a 363-day reign, making them the longest reigning champions in the titles' history.
4	** Hell, Wrestling/TheKingsOfWrestling had a tremendous 2010 after reforming in ''Final Battle 2009'' that they were voted Tag Team of the Year by readers of Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter.
5	* His 2 out of 3 Falls Match with Wrestling/SamiZayn in [[Wrestling/{{WWENXT}} NXT]]. At the end of it, the entire audience was chanting "Match of the Year!" and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in the IWC who'd disagree.
6	* Anytime he does a Big Swing, mostly because he doesn't seem to know when to stop. It's widely believed that he holds the record for longest Big Swing (and since Guinness isn't gonna keep track of that record anytime soon, wrestling fans just tend to say "screw it" and give that accolade to him).
7	** Castagnoli also holds (or maybe held - it's been a while) the world record for longest standing vertical suplex: 71 seconds against Wrestling/ChristopherDaniels in 2006.
8	* February 14th, 2014: '''Cesaro defeats Wrestling/RandyOrton'''. And the crowd is loving ''every single minute'' of it.
9	** What makes this even better is that not only does Cesaro put on a hell of a great technical match with Orton, but he also plays exactly to what the crowd wants. And what did they want? Him to [[MegatonPunch uppercut Orton's chin through his forehead as many times as possible.]] Then comes [[FinishingMove the Neutralizer]], 1-2-3…and now Orton's about to go oh-fer against his 2014 Elimination Chamber opponents in singles competition.
10	* '''February 18th, 2014''': Taking Wrestling/JohnCena to the ''absolute physical limit'' in a hell of a PPV-quality main event match despite coming up just short of beating him. Highlights include countering the STF into the Cesaro Swing and hitting a freaking '''DEADLIFT SUPERPLEX''' on the 245-pounder from the ring apron. Cena may not be ready to "pass the torch", but damn if Cesaro doesn't have a firm grip on it already with his star-making matches with Cena and Orton in the last week.
11	* '''March 17th, 2014''': In a match against Wrestling/TheUsos (non-title). One of the Usos dives over the top ropes in an attempt to splash on Cesaro, who's on the outside. Cue Cesaro countering in the most awesome way possible: jumping up and delivering '''SWISS. DEATH.''' as the airborne Uso collapsed into a heap. He essentially gave him a {{Shoryuken}} (Wrestling/KofiKingston tweeted as much after the match).
12	* Winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania XXX'' by last eliminating Wrestling/TheBigShow by scooping up '''the 450 pound man, holding him on his shoulder for several seconds''', and tossing him over the top rope.
13	** [[https://twitter.com/WWE/status/716636348782743552 Watch that moment]] where he picks Big Show up, and listen to the crowd. He picked that giant up like he was a '''child.'''
14	* '''April 7th, 2014:''' Five words: "I'm a Wrestling/PaulHeyman Guy". The crowd is behind him ''all the way''. To put this in perspective - the uber-heel manager who had, not an hour ago, spent a full 15 minutes crowing about [[Wrestling/BrockLesnar his other client]] [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeating]] [[BrokenBase the]] [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Streak]] (in a result that will likely be hotly debated for YEARS), got a face pop ''just by association with Cesaro.'' And then the following match where Cesaro wears out Wrestling/JackSwagger's jaw with uppercut after uppercut - culminating in a spot where Cesaro hits Swagger with a superplex - by lifting the 270-pound Swagger '''''off the ring apron.'''''
15	* '''April 11th, 2014:''' He Neutralized ''The Big Show''.
16	* '''January 25, 2015:''' He and '''Wrestling/TysonKidd''' had several of these during their match with the New Day. But one of the notable moments was when Cesaro sets Kofi Kingston when preparing for the Big Swing, which the move itself is worth an awesome moment, and then he tags in Tyson Kidd who heads up the top rope. Cesaro then swings Kofi rapidly and releases him, RIGHT at the exact moment Tyson does a DOUBLE FOOT STOMP on Kofi who still a couple inches off the ground. Please note this was just the PRE-SHOW. How to kickoff a PPV indeed!
17	* '''February 22, 2015:''' Two of the most underrated performers in the WWE as of late, [[Wrestling/TysonKiddAndCesaro Tyson Kidd and Cesaro]] himself, win the Tag Team Titles from the Usos. FACT.
18	* '''Extreme Rules 2015''' the 285 lbs. Wrestling/{{Big E\|Langston}} jumps on him for a cross-body block and Cesaro simply catches him, without even stumbling back a little.
19	* '''July 6th, 2015.''' After cutting off Wrestling/KevinOwens' promo and intimidating him out of the ring (kinda Awesome in itself), Cesaro takes Wrestling/JohnCena's US Championship Open Challenge and takes him to the limit in a show-stealing, instant Match Of The Year candidate that had the Chicago crowd ''flipping right out'' for most of it. (And as the icing on the cake, Cena [[WorthyOpponent put Cesaro over]] '''huge''' in his post-show promo to the crowd.)
20	* '''July 13th, 2015.''' He faces Kevin Owens and Wrestling/{{Rusev\|AndLana}} in a triple threat match. Which has performing a ''double'' German suplex on both men.
21	* '''July 16th, 2015.''' He becomes the second person to defeat Rusev by pinfall. The first and only other person as of that date? John Cena.
22	* His triumphant return to Raw after months of being benched, participating in a #1 Contender match alongside Wrestling/AJStyles, Wrestling/KevinOwens and Wrestling/ChrisJericho as a replacement for Wrestling/SamiZayn. The kicker is showing up in a [[BadassInANiceSuit sweet suit]] before proceeding to lose it [[https://49.media.tumblr.com/b7487cc9c082b5a61877bb6c6d024125/tumblr_o566tijZqw1sbzhteo1_250.gif in the most epic manner possible.]]
23	* He may have been on the losing end at Extreme Rules 2016 in the IC Fatal Four Way, but Cesaro was every bit the {{Determinator}} in that match, kicking out of ''both'' the [[Wrestling/TheMiz Skull-Crushing Finale]] and the [[Wrestling/KevinOwens Pop-Up Powerbomb]], before ''finally'' being felled with a surprise [[Wrestling/SamiZayn Helluva Kick]] long enough for Miz to steal the victory.
24	* His match with Wrestling/{{Sheamus}} at ''Clash of Champions'' 2016 was the single best match on the entire card that night, with both men hitting each other with everything they had in their arsenal to the point where the two had completely exhausted one another -- ''and yet still wanted to keep going''. Before the match, fans just wanted it over, as it was the final match in a best-of-seven series. By the end, when medical staff was forcibly separating the two men, the fans were chanting to ''let them resume fighting''.
25	* '''''NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff:''''' Cesaro swings Ilja Dragunov 40 times, with the Cardiff crowd counting along.
26	* '''[=WrestleMania=] 37''': After nine years on the WWE roster, Cesaro finally gets his first head-to-head singles match at [=WrestleMania=] in a victory against Wrestling/SethRollins, and the newly-returned audience was behind him for every single second of it. After highlighting the move in the buildup to the show, Cesaro finally managed to catch Rollins in the [[SignatureMove Giant Swing]] for a record-breaking 23 rotations. In another spot, Cesaro lifted Rollins up into an airplane spin that transitioned into a hands-free UFO spin, a spot that garnered such a reaction that the follow-up television shows heavily replayed and described as one of the greatest [=WrestleMania=] moments ever.
27	* '''WWE Backlash 2021:''' Cesaro vs Wrestling/RomanReigns is a masterpiece of selling with both wrestlers giving it their all. And when Reigns has Cesaro in the Guillotine submission hold, Cesaro pulls a Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin and ''refuses'' to tap out. And when the match ends, Cesaro ''instantly wakes up'' as if being choked was him falling asleep.
28	* Showing up in Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling in 2022 at the '''''Forbidden Door''''' PPV, hand-picked by Wrestling/BryanDanielson as his replacement in his hotly-anticipated match against fellow master technician Wrestling/ZackSabreJr, and now the latest member of the Wrestling/BlackpoolCombatClub. Danielson had promised the fans that, even if they weren't going to get the long-awaited dream match between himself and ZSJ just yet, his replacement would absolutely not disappoint, and disappoint Claudio Castagnoli certainly did not!
29	* It was only his second match in AEW and Claudio was already involved in a ''Blood and Guts'' match. Starting as the first entry for his team, Claudio went through 45 minutes of sheer brutality, including going toe-to-toe with his former Real American teammate [[Wrestling/JackSwagger Jake Hager]]. As the fight shifted to the top of the cage, Claudio managed to save Wrestling/EddieKingston from tapping out to the Walls of Jericho before putting the Wizard on his trademark swing at nearly twenty feet high. At the end, both Castagnoli and Kingston put Matt Menard and Jericho into a Sharpshooter and Stretch Plum respectively but it was Menard who tapped out first, giving the Blackpool Combat Club the victory.
30	* Claudio Castagnoli had long been considered one of the most underrated and underused wrestlers of all time, and going into ''Death Before Dishonor 2022'' against Wrestling/RingOfHonor World Champion Jonathan Gresham the story was focused on how, in his more than 2 decade career he'd ''never'' won any leading promotion's World Championship before. Yet on this night, opening the card against one of the most skilled technical workers in the world, Castagnoli did just that, pinning Gresham with the Ricola Bomb and finally claiming the same championship that had eluded him in 2007 and 2008, becoming Ring of Honor World Champion.
31	* In the main event of ''Final Battle 2022'', Claudio went in against Chris Jericho, the man who had ended his first ROH World Championship reign with a low blow, for his last chance to win his title back. If he lost, he'd be forced to leave the BCC and join the JAS instead. At the climax of the match, after kicking out of a baseball bat shot from Jericho, Claudio got his opponent up into his trademark Giant Swing... and swung and swung ''and swung!'' After a mind-blowing ''thirty-plus'' rotations with no sign of slowing down, Jericho (who infamously hates taking the Giant Swing) couldn't take any more and tapped out against the mat in mid-air, making Claudio Ring of Honor World Champion for the second time in his career.

Context Awesome / ClaudioCastagnoli