More about me...

Name: Claudio Castagnoli

Weight: 235 lbs.

Height: 6-5

From Lucerne Switzerland

Twitter: @ccastagnoli

Facebook: ccastagnolifan

Contact: booking@claudiocastagnoli.com






Accomplishments:


Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas (2 times, current) – with Chris Hero  and Ares (current)

Chikara King of Trios Winner (2010) – with Ares and Tursas

Chikara Tag World Grand Prix Winner (2005) – with Arik Cannon

Chikara Tag World Grand Prix Winner (2006) – with Chris Hero

Chikara Torneo Cibernético Winner(2007) 


ROH World Tag Team Championship (2 times, current) – with Chris Hero

ROH Race to the Top Tournament Winner (2007)

ROH Tag Wars Winner (2010) – with Chris Hero


Clevaland All Pro Unified Heavyweight Championshion

CZW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Chris Hero

CZW Last Team Standing Winner (2006) – with Chris Hero


German Stampede Wrestling Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Ares

Juggalo Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship (1 time, current) – with Chris Hero

IPW:UK Tag Team Championship – with Ares

IWA Switzerland World Heavyweight Championship

Swiss Wrestling Federation Powerhouse Championship (2 times)

Swiss Wrestling Federation Tag Team Championship – with Ares

wXw World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

wXw Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Ares

Hey,

I'm Claudio. You probably knew that already. You surely also know that my last name is Castagnoli, that I grew up in Switzerland, that I am a pro-wrestler and a Team NRG-X Athlete. But that's not all there is to know!

Since you took all this time out of your day to visit my great website, let me tell you a little bit about myself. And let me spice it up with some stuff you probably didn't knew before!

The city I was born and I grew up in is called Lucerne. Did you know that there's a Milk/Dairy brand over here in the US that has the same name?



Lucerne is a beautiful town in the middle of Switzerland. It is surrounded by mountains, like the Rigi and the Pilatus and lays by the Vierwaldstätter See (See means lake).

When I grew up I was a very active kid. I started playing tennis when I was six years old. I never made it to the level Roger Federer did, but I don't think anybody ever will, so I don't need to feel ashamed. But after years and years of playing, I decided to give another sport a try. Soccer. I loved playing soccer. I still do, I just wish I had time for it!

Back when I was in school, I would go to school up to an hour early, just so that I can play soccer with my friends before school starts! Of course we would also play during intermissions and after school too.
I went to school with my bike. Which was great exercise, only back then I didn't think of it as exercise, I thought of it as fun and it was my way of transportation!
Soccer went well for me, as I was the top scorer of our squad for some years and even scored 8 goals in one match one time! I must admit that everything that could go well went well that day. Like I tried to pass into the middle and somehow the ball landed in the net.

Never the less, that's quite an accomplishment and I'm proud of it.

But like with tennis another sport would come along to take over soccer. This time it was basketball! I started becoming a huge fan. I would get up in the morning reading the teletext results of games from the past night. You don't know what teletext is? Well it was before we had internet. It was basically text news on the TV provided by the TV station. So thank you CNN for that!



Me and my friends were quite fanatic about it, playing 3 on 3 every chance we got. In the summer till late in the night, in the winter during cold afternoons. Yes, we played in the winter and we even shoveled the snow off the court to do so! Crazy? Nope, just what we had to do. We also brought towels with us in order to soak the puddles off the court.

I was quite successful at basketball as well, getting selected for the regional selection team. But I didn't wanted to take the next step in becoming a successful basketball player and join a more successful team because something else snuck up on me that kept me from playing some weekends.

That something was pro-wrestling. I never thought I could train to be a wrestler in Switzerland, but I found an add on an online Forum about just that! So I went! Of course the training was super basic and there was no ring, just blue mats. But I stuck with it for a couple of months and then got asked by my trainer at that point, Sigi the Swiss Tank, to go to Germany with him. By doing so I would have the chance to see a live event and train in a real ring!

The only problem with that was that the event was held at the 24^th of December. Now in Switzerland, or at least in my family, that's when we celebrate Christmas. But young, exited me made my family understand and went!

Unbeknown to me this fateful day would be my wrestling debut. I did well in the training before the show and my trainer told me he would be willing to wrestle me in a short match on the show.

Now this all sounds too good to be true, but let me fill you in on some details. I wasn't trained very well at that point. I knew the very, very, very basics, I didn't have proper ring gear, the show was in a bar in front of 50 people and I had no business being in a ring.

But I was all super exited and for what it was it went alright! Thanks to the referee having over 104 degrees fever and him also being the ring announcer I also took over that after my match! So, yes on my debut I debuted as ring announcer, referee and wrestler! Oh what a night!

But I wanted to get better and I knew I had to get better. So I started traveling to Germany more often, still training in Switzerland and I also started going to a gym. Because I wanted to also look the part.

And I am really proud to say that I'm 100% natural! When I started I weighted less than 80kg. Now I'm over 100kg! Hard work pays off!

In my first couple of months traveling I met my tag team partner Ares! Me and him should become famous as the Swiss Money Holding.




From the day we met, we just clicked! We both had the drive to get better, trying to get on every show possible and trying to learn as much as possible. We also trained together in Switzerland and became close friends.

It was also in Switzerland were we then met Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush. After a trainings session with those two me and Ares decided to go to the US to train and wrestler there for a couple of weeks. That's when we competed in the first ever CHIKARA Tag World Grand Prix.

In 2004 I got lucky. Well not in the way you think, get your mind out of the gutter! I won the green card lottery! I decided that if I want to make my dream come true and make pro-wrestling my full time job, I'd have to move to the USA. The land of opportunities.

After I won my green card I didn't hesitate one second, I quit my job (which was an awesome job), said goodbye to my friends and family and moved to the US!

And I'm so happy I did. Now days I'm living my dream if not to say the American dream!

 Me and Chris Hero at the Dragongate Gym '06

I am a pro-wrestler. I competed all over the world! I wrestled all over the US, Europe, in Japan, Australia, Mexico and I hope many many more! I love to travel and I've got to see places that I never though I would. I do what I love!

Joey Ryan, Bryan Danielson and myself (left to right)
Striking a pose in Perth, Australia

Now days I wrestle for Ring of Honor, which is the third biggest wrestling promotion in the US, and can be seen on HDNet every Saturday night at 8PM EST.

On top of that Ring of Honor runs live shows all over the east coast and mid west of the US and also ran shows in England and Japan before!

I also wrestle for CHIKARA PRO wrestling out of Philadelphia which has the best and most popular video podcast in wrestling!

In Japan I toured for Pro Wrestling NOAH which is the biggest company in Japan.

Tokyo, Japan

But that's not all! I wrestle all over the place for various independent federations too!




Something else I thought never would happen? Me being in a mayor Hollywood success movie! And even if it's only for a couple of seconds, I can be seen in Darren Aronofsky's “The Wrestler” with Mickey Rourke!

Yes, that’s really him in the background.

Thanks to that I was featured in many Swiss newspapers and was on Swiss radio as well!



Another thing I'm very proud of, is that I'm an NRG-X Labs Athlete! As pro-wrestler I have to be in the best shape I can be all the time. NRG-X Labs supplements help me with that.

I'm also a hobby cook, trying to find new and exiting recipes and I'm going to share them with you here!

Being away from home so long makes me miss the Swiss kitchen. And what better way to remember it than to cook Swiss stuff yourself?

I hope you know a little bit more about me! If you wanna know even more about me, just stop by here, my myspace or facebook!

That's it for now!
Salü,
Claudio