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109-531: Westside Xtreme Wrestling was founded on December 24, 2000, by Peter Wiechers, a professional wrestler with the ring name Hate. Together with SigMasta Rappo, Tyrant, Mark Hammer, Blue Adonis, Barish, Thunder and Claudio Castagnoli , he held an event called "wXw Extreme Wrestling Party" in the disco "Roxy" in Essen. wXw has become one of the most notable professional wrestling promotions in Germany. In 2016, wXw became

218-533: A No Disqualification match . In July, ROH announced the return of Tag Wars, where 12 tag teams competed in three blocks to determine new challengers for the Kings of Wrestling in an Ultimate Endurance match . On 28 August the Kings of Wrestling defeated The Dark City Fight Club ( Jon Davis and Kory Chavis ), The All Night Express ( Kenny King and Rhett Titus ) and the Briscoes to retain their championship and win

327-458: A 1–1 draw, so Steamboat retained the title. A 20-minute rematch on the 8 April episode of FCW resulted in a similar 1–1 draw. A second 30-minute rematch for the title on 6 May FCW TV resulted in Steamboat winning 3–2. On the 13 May episode of FCW , Cesaro was then disqualified against Kassius Ohno (the former Chris Hero) and eliminated from a tournament to crown the number one contender to

436-498: A Cell on 27 October, they lost to Los Matadores ( Diego and Fernando ). The following night on Raw , The Real Americans defeated WWE Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Goldust in a non-title match. On 18 November Raw , a fan handed out a hundred simple black and white signs on standard printer paper with the words "Cesaro Section" printed on them. A group of fans held them up together in Cesaro's match and this made it to air and

545-593: A Cell on 28 October, Cesaro successfully retained the United States Championship against Justin Gabriel . Cesaro then began feuding with R-Truth after Truth saved Kofi Kingston from a post-match assault from Cesaro on 29 October Raw . At the same time as his feud with Truth, Cesaro was successfully defending his title against Tyson Kidd on the 31 October episode of NXT . On 18 November at Survivor Series , Cesaro defeated R-Truth to retain

654-767: A Helluva Kick on Cesaro. The following night on Raw Cesaro defeated Miz for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match. On the following episode of SmackDown , The Miz retained the title against Cesaro. At Money in the Bank on 19 June, Cesaro was unsuccessful as the match was won by Dean Ambrose. WWNLive The World Wrestling Network is an American professional wrestling organization known for and branded after its video streaming service , WWNLive . WWNLive hosts content both from WWN's "brands", including Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestling , as well as content from third-party organizations. World Wrestling Network

763-465: A challenge from Kevin Steen and ended up losing the title to him in the impromptu match, ending his reign at 287 days. On 20 August, after both Castagnoli and Hero were eliminated from the 2011 Battle of Los Angeles in the first round, they challenged PWG World Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson), to a match for the title. The match, which took place later that same evening, saw

872-522: A contract with WWE and began working in its developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the new ring name Antonio Cesaro. He made his FCW debut at a live event on 17 September, in a loss against Seth Rollins . He made his television debut on the 24 October episode of FCW , defeating Mike Dalton . On 6 January 2012, Cesaro made his WWE live event debut in Jackson, Mississippi , where he teamed with Michael McGillicutty in

981-513: A contract. In storyline, the multilingual Cesaro served in the Swiss militia , before embarking on a career in rugby , which ended with him being banned for "excessive aggression". The following week on SmackDown , Cesaro defeated Tyson Kidd in a tryout match. In May, Aksana revealed that she and Cesaro were lovers. On 3 July live episode of The Great American Bash SmackDown , Cesaro suffered his first loss when he and Aksana were defeated in

1090-661: A developmental deal with the World Wrestling Entertainment , having impressed them with an appearance on Raw (as a police officer in a backstage segment) and a successful tryout for Deep South Wrestling . Shortly after, Castagnoli was released from his WWE contract. Castagnoli returned to Chikara on 16 February 2007 as a masked character named "A Very Mysterious Ice Cream", part of Los Ice Creams. Afterward Castagnoli started feuding with his former partner Chris Hero. On 22 April 2007, at Rey de Voladores Hero defeated Castagnoli and as per stipulation of

1199-482: A fighting spirit, marking Cesaro's first ever face turn in WWE, while The New Day turned heel by using underhanded tactics during their matches. At Extreme Rules on 26 April, Cesaro and Kidd lost the titles to The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston). They failed to regain the championship at Payback in a 2-out-of-3 falls match on 17 May due to Xavier Woods' interference. At Elimination Chamber on 31 May, they failed to win

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1308-669: A long-term deal with Great-Wall International Sports Management for regular tours of Asia, starting in the spring of 2015. In 2015, WWNLive opened a training facility in Trinity, Florida named the "World Wrestling Network Academy". That year, Evolve began a partnership with WWE . Evolve's wrestlers were featured on WWE.com, while NXT wrestlers Sami Zayn , Chad Gable and Jason Jordan took part in Evolve events in non-wrestling roles. In January 2016, NXT General Manager William Regal and WWE COO Triple H attended Evolve 54. As part of

1417-476: A match for the ROH World Championship against Nigel McGuinness, but lost. On 2 August, Castagnoli failed a Championship rematch against McGuinness. Along with Bryan Danielson and ROH World Tag Team Champion Tyler Black , he competed in a four-man elimination match. He wound up being the first eliminated by Danielson and afterwards snapped and beat Danielson down setting him up to be eliminated by

1526-532: A match for the title and as a result Claudio could no longer challenge for the title as long as McGuinness was the champion. At the beginning of 2006 Castagnoli's partner from other promotions, Chris Hero, along with other Combat Zone Wrestling wrestlers invaded ROH and started a cross-promotional war. Castagnoli initially sided with ROH, but on 22 April 2006, at The 100th Show turned on the company and assisted Hero, Super Dragon and Necro Butcher in defeating Team ROH ( Samoa Joe , B. J. Whitmer and Adam Pearce ) in

1635-578: A mixed tag team match by The Great Khali and Layla . On 27 July and 3 August episodes of SmackDown , Cesaro scored back-to-back non-title wins over United States Champion Santino Marella . On the following SmackDown , Cesaro suffered his first loss in a singles match as he was pinned by Christian . On the SummerSlam pre-show on 19 August, Cesaro defeated Marella to win the title, his first singles title in WWE. Cesaro made his first televised title defense on 3 September Raw , defeating Marella in

1744-420: A mystery tag team partner match and sided with Tornado instead, Castagnoli came out and took Kingston's place as Hero's partner. However, when Hero went to tag Castagnoli, he nailed him with a European uppercut, turned heel and joined Tornado and Kingston. On 5 January 2008, at All Star Weekend 6: Night One Tornado, Castagnoli and Kingston defeated Hero, Necro Butcher and Hero's girlfriend/valet Candice LeRae in

1853-635: A new Champion. On 9 October's The Curse of Guerrilla Island , Castagnoli defeated Gatson, Hero and Ryan to win the PWG World Championship, his first major singles title in the United States. Castagnoli and Hero were scheduled to face PWG World Tag Team Champions, ¡Peligro Abejas! (El Generico and Paul London ), in a non–title match at the following event. Due to Castagnoli's title win, the Champions agreed to put their belts on

1962-405: A rematch. Cesaro retained the title against Zack Ryder on 16 September at Night of Champions . On 21 September SmackDown , Cesaro ended his relationship with Aksana after an inadvertent distraction from her cost him his non-title match with Santino Marella. This led to a title rematch between Cesaro and Marella the following week, where Cesaro was able to retain his title easily. At Hell in

2071-530: A six-man main event match. On 15 July 2006, at Death Before Dishonor 4 Team ROH defeated Castagnoli, Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb and Eddie Kingston in a Cage of Death match to end the feud. Due to having a contract with ROH prior to the invasion however, Castagnoli was allowed to stay in the company, while the rest of Team CZW were forced out. Hero returned to the company during the August tour of United Kingdom and on 16 September he revealed that he had stolen

2180-419: A six-person tag team match to earn Tornado a match with LeRae. On 21 March 2008, Hero defeated Castagnoli in a grudge match. On 6 July 2008, at PWG's fifth anniversary show Life During Wartime Castagnoli wrestled his last match at the time for the promotion, defeating Phoenix Star. Castagnoli returned to the company for the annual Battle of Los Angeles Tournament on 4 September 2010. Castagnoli made it to

2289-581: A spot at the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship . On 14 February SmackDown , while his ring name was shortened to Cesaro, he defeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton clean in a non-title match. At Elimination Chamber on 23 February, Cesaro was eliminated by Cena via submission. On 27 February at NXT Arrival , Cesaro defeated Zayn again, but embraced Zayn after

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2398-738: A stable known as The Artist Collective. Cesaro and Nakamura won the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship once in July 2020, making Cesaro a seven-time WWE tag team champion in total. He left WWE in February 2022, and made his debut for AEW in June of that year, returning to his Claudio Castagnoli name and persona. When playing a villainous character , particularly in the United States, Castagnoli has been known to emphasize his European origin as part of his gimmick , proclaiming

2507-554: A superior intellect and fashion sensibility while regularly using moves such as the European uppercut . He gained a reputation for impressive in-ring feats of strength, and was called one of WWE's best and most underrated performers for much of his time there. He was voted " Most Underrated Wrestler " for a record four years in a row (2013–2016), by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . Claudio Castagnoli

2616-533: A tag team loss to Alex Riley and Mason Ryan . On the 4 March episode of FCW , Cesaro and Alexander Rusev unsuccessfully challenged Bo Rotundo and Husky Harris for the Florida Tag Team Championship . Cesaro then started feuding with Richie Steamboat over the FCW 15 Championship , starting with a title match (15 minute Iron Man rules ) on the 18 March episode of FCW , which ended in

2725-606: A tag title shot by The Usos. At the Royal Rumble pre-show on 25 January, Cesaro and Kidd defeated The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods ). Later that night, Cesaro entered the Royal Rumble match at #28 but was eliminated by Dolph Ziggler. At Fastlane on 22 February, Cesaro and Kidd defeated The Usos to capture the WWE Tag Team Championship. They retained their titles in a rematch

2834-763: A team with Chris Hero known as the Kings of Wrestling . The Kings of Wrestling became two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions , with their 364-day reign as champions becoming the longest in ROH history up to that point. The team also held various independent tag team titles, such as the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas , the JCW Tag Team Championship , and the CZW World Tag Team Championship , with Castagnoli also winning

2943-414: A three-day tournament to win the 2010 King of Trios . On 23 October Castagnoli represented BDK in the torneo cibernetico match, where they faced a team composed of Chikara originals. He eliminated himself from the match by low blowing Eddie Kingston, but his plan did not work out as Kingston came back to eliminate Tursas and win the match. At the season nine finale on 12 December, Castagnoli and Ares lost

3052-567: A three-week-long tour. The team went undefeated in tag team matches, before being defeated on the final day of the tour, 5 December, by Takuma Sano and Yoshihiro Takayama in a match for the GHC Tag Team Championship . The Kings of Wrestling returned to Noah in April 2011 to take part in the 2011 Global Tag League , where they managed to win two out of their seven-round robin matches, finishing seventh out of eight teams in

3161-456: A title challenge to Sgt. Slaughter as part of the "Champion's Choice Night" and then defeated Slaughter in the match that followed to retain his championship. At the Royal Rumble pre-show on 27 January 2013, Cesaro defeated The Miz to retain the United States Championship. That same night, he entered his first Royal Rumble match at #22 but was eliminated by the eventual winner John Cena . On 17 February at Elimination Chamber , he retained

3270-567: A two-out-of-three falls match to conclude the feud. On 15 September at the Night of Champions pre-show, The Real Americans competed in a #1 contenders Tag Team Turmoil match for the WWE Tag Team Championship , in which they were the last team eliminated by The Prime Time Players ( Darren Young and Titus O'Neil ). On 6 October at Battleground , The Real Americans defeated Santino Marella and The Great Khali. At Hell in

3379-709: A working relationship with WWNLive , with wXw becoming an official partner of the WWN Training Center. Later that year on October 1, a relationship with WWE began. On April 4, 2019 wXw held its fourth event in the US, wXw Amerika Ist Wunderbar Live From New York City took place in La Boom in Queens, New York . As of November 28, 2024. The wXw Academy Championship is a professional wrestling championship owned and created by Westside Xtreme Wrestling. The title

Westside Xtreme Wrestling - Misplaced Pages Continue

3488-471: Is Marc Empire who is in his first reign. The wXw Hall of Fame is a German professional wrestling hall of fame maintained by the Oberhausen -based promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling ( wXw ). It was established in 2005 to honor wrestlers who have wrestled for the promotion. In 2016, wXw opened the first German wrestling academy with a seven-days course schedule in Essen. The wXw Academy training

3597-650: Is a Swiss professional wrestler . He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the Death Riders and one-third of the AEW World Trios Champions . He also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a two-time ROH World Champion . He is best known for his time in WWE , where he performed under the ring name Antonio Cesaro and later simply Cesaro from 2011 to 2022. Castagnoli began his career in

3706-409: Is contested for by rookie wrestlers trained at the wXw Wrestling Academy. From 2015 to 2023, the championship activated as the wXw Academy Trophy Championship. In 2023, the title was replaced and renamed as the wXw Academy Championship, with a new belt starting a new lineage. Cumulated, there have been a total of fourteen reigns shared between twelve different champions and a vacancy. The current champion

3815-523: Is open for members as well as guests that can also book a stay in an apartment adjoined to the academy. With "Scouting the next Generation", the wXw Academy introduced a series of monthly events in 2015 that provides trainees of the academy the opportunity to perform in front of a crowd. In August 2022, the wXw Wrestling Academy moved to Gelsenkirchen . Claudio Castagnoli Claudio Castagnoli ( / ˈ k æ s t æ n ˌ j oʊ l i / Italian: [kastanˈɲoli] ; born 27 December 1980)

3924-433: The 12 Large: Summit . In late 2004, Castagnoli made his way to Combat Zone Wrestling , where he teamed up with Chris Hero to once again form the Kings of Wrestling. Eventually, on 10 September 2005 they defeated The Tough Crazy Bastards of Necro Butcher and Toby Klein to win the CZW World Tag Team Championship . While feuding with BLKOUT , Castagnoli and Hero lost the titles to Eddie Kingston and Joker . In September

4033-517: The 2003 Tag World Grand Prix , from which they were eliminated after drawing with the SuperFriends (Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush). Castagnoli returned to Chikara in 2004 as a member of Larry Sweeney 's Sweet 'n' Sour International faction . The following year Castagnoli teamed up with Arik Cannon to form AC/CC. The team entered the 2005 Tag World Grand Prix and ended up winning the tournament after Hero turned on his partner Quackenbush in

4142-570: The 2009 King of Trios teaming with Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor as Team Uppercut. The team advanced to the finals of the tournament, where they were defeated by F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Akuma and Taylor). After the tournament Eddie Kingston , whose team The Roughnecks had been eliminated by Castagnoli and his team, claimed that he had been embarrassed and disrespected by Castagnoli. On 24 May 2009, Kingston, who had claimed technical superiority over Castagnoli, pinned him cleanly with an Oklahoma roll . After Castagnoli defeated Kingston via countout at

4251-718: The 2011 DDT 4 Tournament , defeating the Cutler Brothers (Brandon and Dustin Cutler) in their first-round match. However, in the semifinals of the tournament the Kings of Wrestling suffered an upset loss against the Nightmare Violence Connection ( Akira Tozawa and Kevin Steen ) when Tozawa rolled Hero up for the win. On 9 April Castagnoli defended the PWG World Championship against the Battle of Los Angeles winner, Joey Ryan, who had knocked him out of

4360-921: The CZW Ultraviolent Underground Championship , along with wXw's famous feud being between Thumbtack Jack and Drake Younger . On April 8, 9, and 10, 2011, wXw held its second and third events in the USA first with F1 vs. wXw on April 8 in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, USA at the Spontaneous Sports Complex and wXw Kreuzzug ZXI day 1 being in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the Asylum Arena and day 2 being in Union City, New Jersey in

4469-565: The FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship . Cesaro faced Steamboat again for the FCW 15 Championship on the 8 July episode of FCW in a 15-minute match that Steamboat won 1–0 in sudden death overtime . Cesaro made his WWE television debut on 20 April episode of SmackDown , appearing in a backstage segment with Aksana and Theodore Long , ending with him going to talk to General Manager John Laurinaitis about

Westside Xtreme Wrestling - Misplaced Pages Continue

4578-635: The NXT Championship on 3 July episode of NXT . At Money in the Bank on 14 July, Cesaro and Colter's fellow client Jack Swagger competed in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match , but were both unsuccessful as the match was won by Damien Sandow . The following night on Raw , Cesaro and Swagger, now billed as "The Real Americans", teamed together in a losing effort to The Usos . On 21 August episode of NXT , Cesaro defeated Zayn in

4687-616: The PWG World Championship once. The Kings of Wrestling were voted as Tag Team of the Year by readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 2010. Castagnoli was signed to WWE in 2011, and given the ring name of Antonio Cesaro. He was assigned to WWE's developmental territory , Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), before making his debut for WWE's main roster in April 2012. Cesaro would hold

4796-620: The ROH World Tag Team Championship belts from champions Austin Aries and Roderick Strong in order to get himself and Castagnoli a match for them. That match took place on 16 September 2006, at Glory By Honor V Night 2 , where the Kings of Wrestling defeated Aries and Strong to become the new Ring of Honor tag team champions. With the news of WWE showing interest in Castagnoli, the Kings of Wrestling dropped

4905-597: The Raw after WrestleMania 32 on 4 April 2016 episode of Raw , introducing a new James Bond style entrance and attire to his character, including a tear-away business suit. He replaced Sami Zayn as a surprise entrant in the main event, a fatal 4-way match between himself, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles and Chris Jericho to determine the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, with

5014-867: The WWE United States Championship once, and won the inaugural André the Giant Memorial Trophy at WrestleMania XXX . In December 2014, he began a team with Tyson Kidd , with the pair later winning the WWE Tag Team Championship . After that team split, Cesaro would later form an alliance with Sheamus known as The Bar ; The Bar won the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship four times, and the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship once. The Bar split up in April 2019, and Cesaro joined Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura to create

5123-666: The Wrestling Observer website in 2015. On 29 June episode of Raw , Cesaro answered John Cena's United States Championship open challenge and won by disqualification after Kevin Owens interfered and assaulted Cesaro. He unsuccessfully challenged Cena for the title again the next week on Raw . Both matches were critically praised, and the second one was awarded the Slammy Award for "Best John Cena U.S. Open Challenge". On 13 July episode of Raw , Cesaro confronted Kevin Owens and Rusev about who should face Cena for

5232-507: The "Clash of the Champions" NXT . On 15 April Raw , Cesaro lost the United States Championship to Kofi Kingston in an upset victory, ending his long-lived reign at 239 days. Cesaro received his rematch for the title on 1 May episode of Main Event , but was again defeated by Kingston. In May, Cesaro started a feud with Sami Zayn in NXT, where the two held some of what would later be considered

5341-400: The 2009 Young Lions Cup, the two of them were booked in a "Respect Match" on 22 November 2009, at the season eight finale Three-Fisted Tales , where the loser of the match had to show respect to the winner. Castagnoli won the match, but instead of showing respect, Kingston attacked him, claiming that both Castagnoli and his former partner (Chris Hero) were shady and did not deserve respect. At

5450-425: The 2010 Tag Wars. On 2 September it was announced that Castagnoli had signed a contract with ROH, which gave the company priority in his independent bookings. At the following pay–per–view, Glory By Honor IX on 11 September, the Kings of Wrestling picked up a major victory by defeating Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team ( Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin ) in a non–title match. On 18 December at Final Battle 2010

5559-707: The ACE Arena. On July 24, 2014, wXw started a partnership with Jeff Jarrett 's Global Force Wrestling promotion which ended in 2017 due to GFW ending. On July 18, 2015, New Japan Pro-Wrestling started a working relationship with wXw as part of New Japan's international expansion plans which ended in early 2016 due to wXw working with too many promotions, not having any collaborated events, not being in NJPW events in Europe, not having wXw titles being defended in NJPW events and no talent exchanges. On July 2, 2018, wXw started

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5668-560: The Briscoe Brothers. The two adopted Shane Hagadorn as their manager and Sara Del Rey as an associate. On 3 April 2010, at The Big Bang! Castagnoli and Hero defeated the Briscoes to win the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the second time. At the following pay-per-view, Death Before Dishonor VIII , on 19 June Castagnoli and Hero successfully defended their Championship against the Briscoes in

5777-677: The Campeonatos de Parejas in just one weekend, Castagnoli and Ares defeated The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant) on 20 March 2010, to win the championship, making Castagnoli the first two-time Campeon de Parejas in Chikara history. In April Castagnoli, Ares and Tursas defeated the teams of The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian ) and Sara Del Rey, Team Perros del Mal ( El Alebrije , Cuije and El Orientál), Team Big Japan Wrestling ( Daisuke Sekimoto , Kankuro Hoshino and Yuji Okabayashi ) and The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant) over

5886-497: The Campeonatos de Parejas to Jigsaw and Mike Quackenbush. On 13 March 2011, Castagnoli and Eddie Kingston finally faced each other in a grudge match fifteen months in the making, with Castagnoli emerging victorious after hitting Kingston with a chain. In May, Castagnoli entered the 12 Large: Summit to determine the first ever Chikara Grand Champion . During the Chikarasaurus Rex weekend on 30 and 31 July, Castagnoli

5995-628: The Champions Super Dragon and Davey Richards . They received another match for the Championship during the 2007 DDT4 tournament , but were defeated in the first round by the Briscoes. In August 2007, Castagnoli competed in his second Battle of Los Angeles . He defeated Doug Williams in the first round, but lost to Pac in the second. In late 2007, Chris Hero was involved in a feud with Human Tornado and when Hero's scheduled tag team partner Eddie Kingston turned on him in

6104-793: The Death Matches 2006 took place in the United Kingdom, a hardcore -focused event co-promoted with the English-based X-Sports: Wrestling. The second Gorefest , held in 2009, included a title match between Drake Younger and Devon Moore for Combat Zone Wrestling's Heavyweight Championship . The 2008 event Dead End VIII featured the Japanese-based Pro Wrestling Noah and its rosters such as KENTA , Go Shiozaki , Takashi Sugiura and Kenta Kobashi . The 2009 events, Open

6213-429: The European independent wrestling circuit in 2000, and wrestled for numerous independent promotions around the world, including Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), Pro Wrestling Noah (NOAH), and Westside Xtreme Wrestling (WxW). During his time on the independent circuit, Castagnoli won numerous championships, and became an accomplished tag team wrestler, most notably forming

6322-416: The Germany-based Westside Xtreme Wrestling under the name Double C, losing to SigMasta Rippo. He first used a Japanese gimmick before changing it to a Swiss banker, along with Ares , together known as Swiss Money Holding . While performing in England, Castagnoli received training from Dave Taylor . In Switzerland, he met Chris Hero and Mike Quackenbush , who invited Swiss Money Holding to perform in

6431-495: The Intercontinental Championship held by Dolph Ziggler , as Cesaro became #1 contender after winning a battle royal. From September to November, Cesaro faced Ziggler in a title match on five occasions, on Raw , SmackDown and on 26 October at Hell in a Cell , but lost every match, including three-way matches and a two-out-of-three falls match. In a December 2014 interview, Stone Cold Steve Austin asked Vince McMahon why Cesaro had not gotten over yet and asked whether Cesaro

6540-437: The Kings of Wrestling ended their feud with the Briscoe Brothers in a six-man tag team match, where Jay, Mark and their father Mike defeated Castagnoli, Hero and Shane Hagadorn. On 4 January 2011 Castagnoli and Hero became the longest reigning ROH World Tag Team Champions by breaking the previous record of 275 days, set by the Briscoe Brothers. On 26 February at the 9th Anniversary Show , Castagnoli and Hero successfully defended

6649-514: The Kings of Wrestling once again fail to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship. Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Noah on 15 February 2008, when he teamed up with Chris Hero in a losing effort against Jun Akiyama and Kentaro Shiga . He primarily wrestled in the promotion as Chris Hero's tag team partner and in January 2010 the Kings of Wrestling entered the Global Tag League , where they ended up losing all of their matches. Castagnoli and Hero returned to Noah on 19 November 2010, for

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6758-504: The Kings of Wrestling. Castagnoli wrestled on Ring of Honor's first pay-per-view Respect is Earned on 12 May 2007, teaming with Matt Sydal to challenge the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Despite losing the match, Castagnoli was granted a rematch with the partner of his choosing. He chose former partner Chris Hero, but the duo lost to the Briscoes on 9 June. Castagnoli gained success in ROH singles competition on 28 July 2007, by winning Ring of Honor's Race to

6867-444: The ROH World Tag Team Championship against The All Night Express. On 1 April at Honor Takes Center Stage , the Kings of Wrestling lost the ROH World Tag Team Championship to Haas and Benjamin, ending their reign at 363 days. Castagnoli and Hero received their rematch for the ROH World Tag Team Championship on 13 August at the first Ring of Honor Wrestling tapings under the Sinclair Broadcast Group banner, but were unable to regain

6976-543: The ROH World Tag Team Championship to Christopher Daniels and Matt Sydal on 25 November 2006, at Dethroned . On 23 December at Final Battle 2006 the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) defeated Castagnoli and Hero in what was scheduled to be their last match together. After the match, Castagnoli announced that he would not be leaving for WWE after all, and promised great things for the Kings of Wrestling in 2007. Hero shook Castagnoli's hand, but left with his manager Larry Sweeney who promised Hero big things in 2007, thus ending

7085-400: The Spanish Gate and Open The German Gate took place in Barcelona , Spain and Oberhausen, Germany, respectively, were co-promoted with the Japanese-based Dragon Gate. On March 13, 2010, wXw held its first event in the US, The Vision took place in front of an audience of over 450 at The Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . The event also featured a title match for one of CZW's titles,

7194-418: The Tag Team Championship was vacated when Joker left the company and on 14 October 2006, at Last Team Standing Castagnoli and Hero defeated Human Tornado and Justice Pain in the finals of a tournament to regain the championship. With their victory, Castagnoli and Hero held the tag team titles of three of the top American independent companies simultaneously (CZW, Chikara, and ROH). After news broke that WWE

7303-416: The Top Tournament , a 16-man, two-night event. He defeated Hallowicked, Mike Quackenbush and Jack Evans en route to the final, where he defeated El Generico . He faced Takeshi Morishima for the ROH World Championship at Death Before Dishonor V: Night One on 10 August, but lost. He received a second shot, this time a three-way match with Brent Albright , later that month, but was again unable to win

7412-405: The United States Championship against Miz via disqualification after Miz accidentally hit him in the groin. Cesaro and Miz faced off in a two-out-of-three falls match for the title on 1 March SmackDown , where Cesaro retained his title to end their feud. During 21 March NXT tapings (which aired on 24 April due to tape delay), Cesaro successfully retained his title against Adrian Neville during

7521-445: The United States Championship in a losing effort. At Money in the Bank on 29 June, he competed in a ladder match for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which was won by John Cena. On 21 July Raw , Cesaro ended his partnership with Paul Heyman. In July 2014, WWE.com noted that one of Cesaro's signature moves, the Cesaro Swing, was "now a rarely used attraction" after previously being "a daily maneuver"; also that month, it

7630-424: The United States Championship. The feud continued on the following SmackDown , with Truth defeating Cesaro in a non-title match. Cesaro then defeated Truth in two more matches, first in a four-way match, which also included Kofi Kingston and Wade Barrett on 3 December Raw and second on 16 December at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a singles match, to retain his title. On 31 December Raw , Cesaro issued

7739-505: The United States. They competed in IWA Mid-South and Chikara and received training from Hero before returning to Europe. In 2004, Castagnoli received permanent United States residency in his first try at the green card lottery and moved to the United States, where he began making regular appearances for Ring of Honor and Chikara, while Ares remained in Switzerland and formed the new Swiss Money Holding with Marc Roudin. Castagnoli and Ares made their Chikara debuts on 5 July 2003, at

7848-422: The annual torneo cibernetico match. The Kings won the match with Hero, Castagnoli and Mitch Ryder as the survivors, but since the match could only have one winner, they were forced to face each other. Castagnoli forced Hero to tap out and then pinned Ryder to win not only the match, but also his freedom from the Kings of Wrestling. On 9 December 2007, Castagnoli defeated Hero to finally end their long feud. After

7957-451: The best matches of 2013. On 22 May episode of NXT , Zayn scored an upset victory over Cesaro in his debut match. Cesaro later defeated Zayn in a rematch on the 13 June episode of NXT . On 17 June episode of Raw , Cesaro became an associate of Zeb Colter . Colter and Cesaro went on to justify their alliance by saying that Cesaro was the ultimate (legal) immigrant and thus a superior American. Cesaro unsuccessfully challenged Bo Dallas for

8066-526: The block. On 15 May, he traveled to Germany to challenge Takashi Sugiura 's GHC Heavyweight Championship on " Genesis in Germany ", co-promoted by local Westside Xtreme Wrestling and NOAH. However, he was unsuccessful in his challenge, losing after an Olympic Slam . In November 2006, he wrestled Antonio Thomas in one half of the main event at MXW Pro Wrestling's Capital Collision show in Albany, New York . In April 2007, Castagnoli represented Chikara in

8175-581: The championship from Haas and Benjamin. On 6 August 2005, Castagnoli made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla , losing to Joey Ryan . On 2 September 2006, Castagnoli entered his first Battle of Los Angeles tournament, but ended up being eliminated in the first round by Jack Evans. On 21 October, at Horror Business Castagnoli and Hero attempted to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship to hold four different sets of Tag Team titles simultaneously, but were unable to dethrone

8284-785: The championship. This resulted in a triple threat match, where the winner would face Cena immediately after, which Rusev won. On 16 July episode of SmackDown , Cesaro became only the second man (after John Cena) to pin Rusev in a singles match. At SummerSlam on 23 August, Cesaro lost to Owens. Around this time, with Cesaro now firmly established as a fan favorite, the Cesaro Section phenomenon that originated in early 2014 again found traction, and home-made printed "Cesaro Section" signs again became circulated widely for fans to hold up during events to show their support for Cesaro. Cesaro defeated Sheamus on 9 November episode of Raw to advance to

8393-498: The conclusion of the show Ares revealed himself as the man who had been stalking UltraMantis Black , at which point Castagnoli turned rudo by attacking Mike Quackenbush. After beating the entire tecnico roster Castagnoli aligned himself with Ares, Tursas, Pinkie Sanchez, Tim Donst , Sara Del Rey , and Daizee Haze to form the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes . After picking up the three points needed in order to challenge for

8502-399: The eventual winner McGuinness. After turning heel Castagnoli started referring to himself as "very European", joined Prince Nana 's heel stable The Embassy and feuded with Brent Albright. On 19 December 2009, at Final Battle 2009 , ROH's first live pay-per-view, Castagnoli reunited with his former Kings of Wrestling partner Chris Hero as they attacked the new ROH World Tag Team Champions,

8611-617: The final of the tournament. Together, Castagnoli, Cannon, and Hero formed the Kings of Wrestling faction. Cannon left the promotion at the end of 2005, leaving Hero and Castagnoli to form a regular tag team. They entered the 2006 Tag World Grand Prix , defeating Equinox and Hydra , Ranmaru and Sumie Sakai , the North Star Express (Ryan Cruz and Darin Corbin), Incoherence ( Hallowicked and Delirious ), and finally Team Dragondoor ( Skayde and Milano Collection A.T. ) to become

8720-417: The first German wrestling promotion with an on-demand service similar to WWE 's network , called wXwNOW. wXwNOW is a subscription-based video streaming service owned by German professional wrestling promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw). In 2016, wXw started "wXwNOW", a new worldwide streaming site for the promotion's events. All major wXw events air live on the service, which also features matches from

8829-607: The following night on Raw after their valet Natalya caused a disqualification. Cesaro and Kidd retained their titles at the WrestleMania 31 pre-show on 29 March in a fatal four-way tag team match. Cesaro also competed in the André the Giant memorial battle royal , but was eliminated by Big Show. Cesaro and Kidd reignited their feud against The New Day, where a double turn took place; Cesaro and Kidd turned face by displaying

8938-457: The inaugural Chikara Campeones de Parejas . On 17 November 2006 at the Chikara show Brick in Reading, Pennsylvania , Castagnoli and Hero lost the Chikara tag titles to Team F.I.S.T. ( Icarus and Gran Akuma ) in a two out of three falls match . Following the match, Hero and Team F.I.S.T. turned on Castagnoli and attacked him. In November 2006, it was revealed that Castagnoli had signed

9047-670: The inaugural King of Europe Cup , a sixteen-man tournament held in Liverpool, England . He lost in the opening match against CZW's representative and former partner, Chris Hero. During mid-2007, Castagnoli competed in the Reclaiming the Glory Tournament for the newly vacated NWA World Heavyweight Championship under the Terry Funk bracket. He defeated Pepper Parks in the first-round qualifiers and Sicodelico Jr. in

9156-620: The line as long as Castagnoli agreed to give the victor a shot at the PWG World Championship, should the Kings lose. After Castagnoli had agreed to the stipulation, ¡Peligro Abejas! defeated him and Hero to retain the World Tag Team Championship and earn El Generico a shot at the PWG World Championship. On 29 January 2011, during the WrestleReunion 5 weekend, Castagnoli made his first successful defense by defeating El Generico. On 4 March Castagnoli and Hero entered

9265-401: The match Castagnoli was forced to re-join the Kings of Wrestling. The following month Hero, Castagnoli and Larry Sweeney joined forces with Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Akuma and Chuck Taylor ) to form the Kings of Wrestling superstable, which was later joined by Mitch Ryder, Max Boyer and Shayne Hawke. On 22 September 2007, at Cibernetico & Robin the Kings of Wrestling faced Los Luchadores in

9374-648: The match being won by Styles. On 11 April edition of Raw , Cesaro defeated Kevin Owens to become the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship held by The Miz. At Payback on 1 May, Cesaro failed to win the title after a distraction by Zayn and Owens, allowing Miz to retain the title. A fatal 4-way match for the title between Cesaro, Miz, Owens, and Zayn was then made for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on 22 May. The Miz ultimately prevailed by pinning Cesaro after Zayn executed

9483-543: The match, Hero left the company and Castagnoli took over his training duties at the Chikara Wrestle Factory. In 2008, Castagnoli started a new feud, this time with Brodie Lee . On 7 September Castagnoli defeated Lee in the first steel cage match in Chikara history to win the feud. On 19 October 2008, Castagnoli won a seven-on-seven Global Gauntlet match where Chikara wrestlers faced off with wrestlers from Big Japan Pro Wrestling . Castagnoli entered

9592-535: The match. During the WrestleMania XXX pre-show on 6 April, The Real Americans were the final team eliminated during a fatal four-way tag team elimination match for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Jack Swagger blamed Cesaro for the loss and put Cesaro in the Patriot Lock before Colter demanded that the duo to shake hands. Cesaro instead retaliated with a Cesaro Swing on Swagger. Later during

9701-547: The pay-per-view Cesaro was a surprise entrant in the inaugural André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal , which he won by making the final elimination of the Big Show, body slamming him over the top rope and out of the ring in a manner reminiscent of Hulk Hogan 's body slam of André at WrestleMania III . In a 2015 interview, Cesaro would describe this victory as his "career highlight" to that point. On

9810-437: The post-WrestleMania Raw on 7 April, Hogan endorsed Cesaro's WrestleMania victory. Cesaro proceeded to dump Colter as his manager, instead revealing that he was a Paul Heyman guy. After Cesaro was eliminated by Rob Van Dam from a tournament for an Intercontinental Championship title shot, he defeated Van Dam and Swagger in an elimination match at Extreme Rules on 4 May. At Payback on 1 June, Cesaro faced Sheamus for

9919-425: The previous year's tournament. On 27 May, during the first night of All Star Weekend 8 , Castagnoli successfully defended the PWG World Championship against his longtime tag team partner Chris Hero. The following night, Castagnoli defeated Low Ki to retain the title. On 23 July at PWG's eighth anniversary show, Castagnoli defeated Hero in a rematch for the PWG World Championship. After the match Castagnoli accepted

10028-507: The promotion's archives, dating back to 2002. wXwNOW Network operates similarly to WWE Network . The service has a current monthly subscription price of €9.99. Since its creation, wXw has developed working relationships with several American promotions including Chikara , Pro Wrestling Guerrilla , Beyond Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and Evolve and several Japanese promotions including Dragon Gate , Pro Wrestling Noah , Dramatic Dream Team and Big Japan Pro Wrestling . Through

10137-559: The quarterfinals in a tournament to crown a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion at Survivor Series after previous champion Seth Rollins injured his knee at a house show in Dublin, but lost to Roman Reigns in the semi-finals on 16 November. On 23 November, WWE announced that Cesaro needed surgery for a torn rotator cuff muscle in his left shoulder that had been injured for at least two months, and that would leave him out of action for four to six months. Cesaro made his return from injury on

10246-454: The relationship, it was announced in March 2016 that Evolve would hold qualifying matches for WWE's Cruiserweight Classic . On October 24, 2016, WWNLive and FloSports announced a new streaming service to launch on November 4. Through the service, subscribers can access both live streaming events as well as events from WWNLive's on-demand library, dating back to 2003. On November 22, 2016, it

10355-715: The second before losing to Brent Albright in the semi-finals on 12 August in Charlotte, North Carolina . Later in September, Castagnoli competed in Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South's Ted Petty Invitational 2007 tournament. He defeated Nigel McGuinness in the first round, Davey Richards in the quarterfinals, and Brent Albright in the semifinals to compete in a three-way elimination match, with finalists Mike Quackenbush and IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion Chuck Taylor. He

10464-411: The semifinals of the tournament, defeating Ricochet and Roderick Strong, before losing to the eventual winner Joey Ryan. Ryan should then have earned a match for the PWG World Championship , but as Davey Richards was stripped of the championship, Castagnoli and the three other Battle of Los Angeles semifinalists – Brandon Gatson , Chris Hero and Joey Ryan – were placed in a four-way match to determine

10573-737: The title. On 29 December 2007, one year after Hero had abandoned Castagnoli, the two of them faced each other at the second ROH pay-per-view Rising Above . If Castagnoli won the match, he would get five minutes with Larry Sweeney, but if he lost, would have had to join Sweet 'n' Sour Inc . He won, but was defeated by Sweeney the following night at Final Battle 2007 , when Sweet & Sour, Inc. member Daniel Puder interfered. On 28 June 2008, Castagnoli scored one of his biggest victories in Ring of Honor by pinning Bryan Danielson in their first meeting in ROH. The following month, on 26 July, Castagnoli received

10682-450: The titles in the inaugural tag team Elimination Chamber match. On 7 June, it was announced that Kidd had suffered a legitimate spinal injury and would be out of action for over a year. "... Cesaro's one main undesirable attribute: being a super talented wrestler whom the fans clearly want to see succeed, but is never given any serious push because of the decision of one man based on vague, shaky reasons." Zach Dominello writing for

10791-490: The working relationship with wXw, Big Japan's World Strong Heavyweight Championship features both the CZW and wXw logos. wXw has also maintained relationship withs several European-based promotions, including British promotions International Pro Wrestling: United Kingdom , Preston City Wrestling , All Star Wrestling , and Progress Wrestling . wXw has held several interpromotional events, including Gorefest – European King of

10900-538: Was announced that WWNLive would be debuting a new promotion named Style Battle on January 7, 2017. Also announced was the creation of the WWN Championship on April 1, 2017. On September 21, 2017, it was reported that FloSports had filed a $ 1 million lawsuit against WWNLive for breach of contract and alleged misrepresentation of iPPV and VOD buyrates. WWNLive, meanwhile, claimed that FloSports had failed to live up to their contractual obligations. Because of

11009-612: Was born in Lucerne on 27 December 1980. He played basketball, football, and tennis in his youth, and supported his hometown football club FC Luzern . He became a fan of professional wrestling after discovering it on a German TV station, then found an advertisement on an online forum that encouraged him to train to become a wrestler. Castagnoli received his initial training in his homeland from fellow Swiss wrestler SigMasta Rappo, and made his debut on Christmas Eve 2000 in Essen for

11118-521: Was first eliminated by the eventual winner, Quackenbush, being pinned following a Quackendriver II. Castagnoli replaced Fergal Devitt in the eight-man NWA Australian Championship Tournament which was held in November 2007. On 13 March 2010, Castagnoli made his debut for Evolve Wrestling , at the promotion's second event, defeating Bobby Fish . At the following show on 1 May Castagnoli was defeated by Chuck Taylor. In September 2011, Castagnoli signed

11227-456: Was founded by Sal Hamaoui and Tony Valamontes in 2001 as a DVD company before it later evolved into an internet streaming and video on demand business. In 2003, WWNLive began producing FIP DVDs. In November 2014, Evolve Wrestling , Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), Full Impact Pro (FIP) and Shine Wrestling held a tour of China under the WWNLive banner. The following month, WWNLive announced

11336-475: Was getting a proper push . McMahon replied that Cesaro was lacking in charisma, verbal skills, and the "it" factor, "might be because he's Swiss ... and the European style". McMahon concluded that he was not certain what could be done to restore Cesaro's momentum, but McMahon was not giving up. Cesaro began teaming with Tyson Kidd on the 1 December episode of Raw and were eliminated from a gauntlet match for

11445-568: Was interested in Castagnoli, he and Hero dropped the CZW World Tag Team Titles to the BLKOUT of Sabian and Robbie Mireno on 11 November 2006. Castagnoli has not returned to the company since the loss. Castagnoli made his Ring of Honor debut on 16 July 2005, at Fate of an Angel . For the rest of the year, he feuded with Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness . On 17 December at Final Battle 2005 McGuinness defeated Castagnoli in

11554-457: Was involved in two main event matches, both of which were also a part of the 12 Large: Summit . After losing to Mike Quackenbush on Night 1, Castagnoli suffered an upset loss against his BDK stablemate Sara Del Rey on Night 2, after which he turned on not only Del Rey, but also Daizee Haze as she was standing up for her regular tag team partner. At the following event on 27 August, Castagnoli was defeated by Icarus, eliminating him from contention in

11663-424: Was remarked on by the commentators, as well as by Cesaro himself after the show; this was picked up by other fans, and the Cesaro Section phenomenon quickly spread from there to other arenas and events." Cesaro competed in the 30-man Royal Rumble match at Royal Rumble on 26 January, entering at #21 but was eliminated by Roman Reigns . On 31 January episode of SmackDown , Cesaro defeated Dolph Ziggler to earn

11772-495: Was reported that WWE officials had told Cesaro to stop using the Cesaro Swing because it was making him too popular, and they did not want him being cheered as a heel. Cesaro "was on the verge of big things with fans getting behind what they expected would be a babyface turn... Then it fell apart. They did a heel turn to put him with Paul Heyman, and apparently figured that enabled them to not give him wins at all since Heyman

11881-534: Was with him... but he'd stay over [... this was] before his big babyface turn fell completely apart and the turn was forgotten about". Dave Meltzer on Cesaro winning the 2014 Wrestling Observer Newsletter award for Most Underrated . Cesaro lost to Rob Van Dam at the SummerSlam pre-show on 17 August. By defeating Van Dam in a rematch on Raw , Cesaro earned a United States title match against Sheamus, but lost again at Night of Champions on 21 September. Instead, Cesaro switched his sights to another title,

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