AEW's Claudio Castagnoli sheds light on how it feels to be the new ROH World Champion (Exclusive)

AEW star Claudio Castagnoli feels surreal about being the Ring of Honor World Champion. He won the belt at the recent ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view.

The man formerly known as Cesaro in WWE has won a whole host of championships on the independent scene, as well as numerous titles in WWE. However, he never won the big one.

All that changed at Death Before Dishonor when he defeated Jonathan Gresham. making him the 36th champion in the title's history. It was Claudio's first major world title win.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Kevin Kellam, Claudio Castagnoli stated that while he's excited for what the future has in store, the title win is still very surreal to him.

“It’s very surreal, it’s still kind of surreal. It’s just-for me and all the fans that wanted this for a long time, I feel like it’s very fulfilling and I’m very excited to see what the future holds.” [0:52-1:03]

As for what's next for Castagnoli in AEW, the "Swiss Superman" kept his cards close to his chest.

“We’ll have to wait and see, AEW’s always good delivering awesome matches and amazing pay-per-views so stay tuned.” [1:13-1:22]

You can watch the full interview with the current ROH World Champion here:

Claudio Castagnoli will make his first defense of the ROH World Championship at AEW Battle of the Belts 3

He may have kept his cards close to his chest in regards to his future direction in AEW. In ROH Claudio Castagnoli already knows about his first challenger for the ROH World Championship.

On August 6th at the third "Battle of the Belts" event of the year, Claudio will make his first defense of the title against rising star Konosuke Takeshita, who has impressed massively so far in AEW.

Takeshita has pushed the likes of Jon Moxley and Hangman Page to their limits in AEW thus far. He has yet to earn a win on a major stage in All Elite Wrestling. Claudio hasn't wrestled since defeating Jonathan Gresham, so he will be coming into this hotly anticipated contest as fresh as can be.

Do you think Claudio will retain his crown? Or will Takeshita walk away the new champion? Let us know what you think in the comments section down below!

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