Claudio Castagnoli: I Didn’t Meet Nicholas Until Three Hours Before Our WrestleMania 34 Match

Claudio Castagnoli talks about his WrestleMania 34 match against Braun Strowman and Nicholas.

Claudio Castagnoli talks about his WrestleMania 34 match against Braun Strowman and Nicholas.
pulls back the curtain on his WWE Raw Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 34.

The fans amongst the WWE universe were split whenever Braun Strowman and a mystery partner, which turned out to be a ten-year old child named Nicholas, defeated The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus) to win the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 34. Strowman had teased having a mystery partner at the event for weeks, but ended up pulling a child from the crowd to team with.

In a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Castagnoli talked about the controversial match and revealed that he looks back on it as a fond memory.

“I didn’t even realize…I met Nicholas earlier in the day and didn’t realize he was going to be the mystery opponent because nobody told us until the last minute. It was like three hours later and I asked Sheamus, ‘Who is it?’ ‘You met him three hours ago.’ ‘Ohhh.’ I thought it was really cool. What I love about wrestling is all the kinds of different matches. The roller coaster ride it takes you on. That WrestleMania needed a match like that where it’s just fun. Every show needs fun matches. WrestleMania, everybody is nervous, hyped, it’s WrestleMania. Once everything was figured out, that match was so much fun and we were able to go out there and enjoy it. We had the float with all the guys with big heads, it was a crazy and awesome entrance. The match was fun. It’s all about moments. If you’re a kid and watching WrestleMania, that could be you. It was cool to be in that match and the fact that people still talk about it because there were banger matches. People still ask about it today. I’m very proud to be part of that match. To me, it was a special moment because I doubt we’ll be seeing another 10 year old wrestling at WrestleMania in the near future.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Castagnoli talked about working with Paul Heyman within WWE. To learn more, click here.

Recently, Claudio defended his ROH World Title at the Battle Of The Belts special that was aired last Saturday. To see results from that event, click here.

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