Know Your Indie Wrestlers: Claudio Castagnoli

Very European

Who: Claudio Castagnoli
Also Known As: Very European, the Swiss Stalwart
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 222 lbs.
Hometown: The United Banks of Switzerland

Promotions: ROH, PWG, Chikara, NWA Hollywood (alumnus), EVOLVE (alumnus), CZW (alumnus), Pro Wrestling NOAH, IWA-MS (alumnus), JCW

Affiliations: His most famous and classic affiliation is with Chris Hero. As the Kings of Wrestling, they've made the indie tag team scene their bitches on two separate occasions. They're often seconded by Sara del Rey, and in ROH, regrettably by Shane Hagadorn. In Chikara, Claudio is one of the most prominent figures in the BDK.

Twitter: @ccastagnoli
Youtube: Claudio's Cafe Found Here

Signature Moves:
Ricola Bomb


Giant Swing


Swiss Death


Bicycle Kick


Les Artess Driver


KRS-ONE (with Chris Hero)


Ragnarok (with Ares and Tursas)


Accolades:
PWG World Heavyweight Championship (current)
Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas (2x, Chris Hero 1x and Ares 1x)
2010 Chikara King of Trios Champions (with Ares and Tursas)
Chikara Tag World Gran Prix Champions (2x, 2005 with Arik Cannon, 2006 with Chris Hero)
2007 Chikara Torneo Cibernetico winner
ROH World Tag Team Championships (2x, with Chris Hero)
CZW World Tag Team Championships (2x, with Chris Hero)
JCW World Tag Team Championships (with Chris Hero)
2010 Wrestling Observer Tag Team of the Year (with Chris Hero)

Promos:

CZW Promo


Promo on Chuck Taylor
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Responding to Chris Hero's challenge


Clutch of Doom promo on The Colony


Dead Men Don't Laugh promo on Team Frightning


All About Claudio Castagnoli:

His Matches - In the indies, Claudio is a giant among men. Yes, there are other guys, including Hero, who have the height, but Claudio actually looks like he shouldn't be there. This isn't a bad thing, as it totally creates some unique style contrasts the smaller guys around the independent scene. Wrestling Claudio is almost like a litmus test. See, many of the smaller guys in the indies do good flips or have an impressive workrate or they look good against each other. But when they wrestle Claudio, if they can't bump huge for his offense, then they're not worthy of your praise.

But Claudio is not to be a man defined by other people. No, the reason why he's more than just a canvas for guys to bump off is because he looks so natural in the ring. He can do the big power stuff and look really aggressive, but he has a sense of fun, almost whimsical nature to his offense at times. I love his "no hands" approach to his UFO, and the giant spin, especially done on guys like Grizzly Redwood, is an amazing, crowd-involving move. He makes everything look easy and fun.

His Character - It's funny, he's such a mild-mannered-seeming guy from his Tweets or when he's a face, but he can turn the menace on and it works. He's extremely versatile, and honestly, despite his size, you don't expect that from him because he's so charismatic and personable that it can be hard to picture him terrorizing small children and being evil. That's why he needs to be seen to be believed.

And for a guy whose third language might be English, let alone first or second, his promos are surprisingly smooth. He's definitely the immigrant wrestler success story, and over the last decade, he's become one of the most well-rounded character wrestlers in the indies right now.

Why You Should Know Him - It's not a secret. Claudio is one of my favorite wrestlers on any level right now. A lot of people agree with me here. HE always gets a reaction, no matter what side of the alignment chart he's on. He's also made people in higher places notice. Once before, he had a WWE contract. If you believe the scuttlebutt, he and Hero have one on the table now. Again, it's a rumor. Believe me, the only people who know whether there is one there or not are the Kings and the HR people in WWE. I'm fine with that. But, if those rumors are true, I can say that there aren't two guys in the indies right now who aren't signed to a major company (especially since Austin Aries just won an Impact contract as we speak) who deserve to get paid more.

But if they don't have a contract offer or if they choose ROH over WWE? Well, it might be selfish of us, but at the same time, we'll get to see more of Claudio in the indies. That's a good thing for us indie devotees. No matter where he's at though, he's definitely a guy to seek out. He's very much one of the most well-rounded, best wrestlers going today.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

The Summit Hits the Heartland: Chikara Weekend Preview (and AIW too)

Haters gon' hate... but will they if Icarus gets bullied by SDR?

Last year, Chikara made its debut in the Detroit area and returned to Cleveland for the first time in a few years. There will be no such wait for either area, and they even threw in a Chicago date for a rare tripleshot of shows that will surely take the Midwest by storm

The tour kicks off tomorrow night in Chicago with The Case of the Bulletproof Waldo. Doors at the Logan Square Auditorium will open at 7 PM CDT, and you can still get tickets. Trust me, if you haven't already, you definitely want to get them. There will be three big matches in the 12 Large Summit taking place at this event. There are two matches taking place in Taylor the next night as well. What is this 12 Large Summit? Well, if you don't know, it's the original 12-person round robin tournament to be announced this year. The winner will be crowned the first ever Chikara Campeon del Mundo. There are two blocks (A - Claudio Castagnoli, Hallowicked, Icarus, Ophidian, Mike Quackenbush, Sara del Rey; B - Brodie Lee, Eddie Kingston, Fire Ant, Jigsaw, UltraMantis Black, Vin Gerard), and I assume that the winners of said blocks will face off for the right to be the Champion

Only two matches have been contested so far, both of them being upsets with Gerard going over Brodie and Hallowicked defeating Quackenbush. This weekend's slate of matches for the tourney should be good. In Chicago, we have Claudio battling Hallowicked, del Rey locking up with Icarus and Fire Ant taking on Mantis. At the Taylor show, which takes place Saturday at the Taylortown Trade Center with doors opening at 7 PM EDT, Mantis will battle Kingston, while Quack tackles Ophidian. OF all these matches, the most interesting to me is the Icarus/SDR tilt. They're both rudos, well-entrenched rudos to be even more specific. Icarus' smarmy demeanor and heat-garnering back tattoo have made him the target of hatred to almost every crowd he's performed in front of. Conversely, del Rey, despite being a female wrestling in a man's ring, has become one of the biggest bullies in Chikara, really beating up on the smaller males at will. Of course, the crowd will gang up on Icarus early, but I have to wonder if he'll remain the de facto heel during the match if del Rey starts abusing him. If that happens, then Chicago would truly become one of the most special Chikara crowds instantly.

Aside from the tournament action, there are some really cool matches going on this weekend. Tomorrow night's main event in Chicago features native sons, Da Soul Touchaz, looking to exact some revenge for the heinous crimes perpetrated against them by the BDK since last year's The Germans in a six-man tag match against Ares, Tursas and Tim Donst. After dominating the BDK for the first part of last year, the Chicagoland trio has not been able to defeat them ever since the evil German stable decimated their manager, C-Red, in a sneak attack. This should be a pretty hot match. Another Chicago native, Colt Cabana, will take to the ring to battle Eddie Kingston in a special attraction match. I wonder how Cabana's comedic antics will match up with the War King? That one should be interesting to say the least.

Rounding out the Chicago card will be a trios match between the Throwbacks (featuring Matt Classic) and the Batiri, a tag match featuring Soldier and Green Ants from the Colony against Johnny Gargano and Chuck Taylor from FIST and a special attraction tag between Ophidian and Hieracon of the Osirian Portal and two standouts from Chicago's GALLI promotion, Emperador and Ripper. I'm not familiar with GALLI, but I've heard it's another American lucha libre fed, so I'm looking forward to seeing this one on DVD.

The non-tournament matches on the Taylor card are headlined by a rematch from last year's King of Trios final. The 2010 Champions of Claudio, Ares and Tursas will take on the 2011 Champions from the Colony in a match that's being billed as the war to settle who the ultimate Kings are. Both these teams are no strangers to each other, and I feel like this could be your match of the weekend.

Also on the card will be some guest stars from CLASH Wrestling. Greg Iron will tangle with Icarus in one match. Iron fell victim to Icarus earlier this year in Reading, and he's looking for some revenge. If he can beat the tattoo off Icarus' back, he'll be a fan favorite in no time. Also on the card will be a trios match featuring six of CLASH's best and brightest. Cameron Skyy, who participated in last year's Young Lions Cup, will team with the tag team Too Sweet to take on CLASH Champion Gavin Quinn and the H3RD. TWB superfan Dorian Jackson will probably be able to tell you more about this match than I can.

Rounding out the card, Hieracon will take on Gerard in singles action, Hallowicked and Frightmare will wrestle Taylor and Gargano in one tag match, and the Throwbacks will battle the BDK's team of Donst and Jakob Hammermeir in another.

Sunday's card in Cleveland doesn't have any 12 Large Summit matches, but it's still pretty loaded. The show, titled The Evil That Lies Within, Pt. 4, will emanate from St. Gregory's Byzantine Hall in Lakewood, OH, and doors will open at 3:30 PM. The top two matches on the card should be dazzlers. The assumed main event is an atomico match featuring Quackenbush teaming with the Colony against Team FIST and Gerard. That one should be standard operating procedure for a Chikara multi-man match. Good for the crowd in Cleveland, that usually means fireworks. The other big match is a Young Lions Cup defense by Frightmare against the devious Kodama. This is an extension of the greater feud between the Spectral Envoy and Sinn Bodhi's Batiri, and I fear that Frightmare's title reign could be in jeopardy here. Whatever it is, it'll have a lot of heat behind it.

As for the other two members of the Envoy, Mantis and Hallowicked will have other old scores to settle as they gun for Ares and Donst of the BDK. Wow, it seems like there are a lot of old BDK-related feuds and arcs coming to the forefront this weekend. Could we be seeing a lot of closure to some of the issues between Chikara and the marauding Germans? It's possible, but at the same time, while the Brotherhood has been somewhat castrated, they're still very much a threat. The other two Batiri are in action too with them participating in a four-corner elimination tag match. In the other three corners will be Aeroform (Louis Lyndon and Flip Kendrick), the Olsen Twins (Colin and Jimmy) and Los Ice Creams. It'll be interesting to see if any one team will garner three points so they can challenge the Campeonatos de Parejas of Quack and Jigsaw.

Rounding out the card in singles competition, Dasher Hatfield battles Tursas, Hieracon battles Kingston, Hammermeir takes on Cheech Hernandez and Dunkerton will meet Ophidian. As an added bonus, following Chikara's show will be Absolute Intense Wrestling's Absolution 6, which is their biggest card of the year. Their show will be headlined by Gargano, who is their Absolute Champion, trying to fend off a challenge by Donst, whose stock has risen in the Cleveland indie promotion in the last year. Also on the card, Facade will battle Sabu and Kingston will take on former ROH standout BJ Whitmer among other matches.

All three Chikara shows, and the AIW show even, look really cool. There may not be a whole lot in the way of guest stars, but I feel like if you want a real feel for Chikara, you need to see them when it's mainly their regulars in tow. They have a very talented roster, and that will be on display this weekend, whether it's deciding matches in the 12 Large Summit or just other business-as-usual action. If you're in Chicago, Detroit or Cleveland or if you're willing to road-trip, you gotta go and see at least one of these shows. It'll be worth it.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

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