Matt Hardy believes he knows why Claudio Castagnoli never reached the main event scene in WWE.
Castagnoli signed with WWE in 2011 after establishing himself as one of the best wrestlers in the world. However, despite fans and fellow Superstars routinely singing his praises, the star known as Cesaro never managed to win World Championship gold.
Although Castanoli’s WWE run wasn’t without success, he won the first-ever Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal and was a seven-time Tag Team Champion while also capturing the United States Title. However, the company’s top prize eluded him.
Speaking on a recent episode of his Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Hardy suggested that Castagnoli’s rise was halted by Vince McMahon who saw him as a wrestler, rather than a larger-than-life personality.
“I don’t think I was [surprised] because Vince once again, Vince looks for the entertainment aspect more than anything else.
As I’ve said before, and when Vince [says] there’s just too much wrestling on the show. I mean, that’s just not his priority. I mean, he really is more focused on the characters and the journeys that these characters are on. You know more than anything else, and I feel like in Vince’s mind, you know, and there’s a lot of times people don’t even get the opportunity to really show them everything they can do.
But if Vince get something locked in his mind like, Well, this guy isn’t the kind of character he’s not this larger than life personality I’m looking for, then you’re just kind of like, you’re kind of in that box when it comes to Vince. And I feel like that’s probably what happened with Claudio.”
Matt Hardy Blames Vince McMahon For Failure Of WWE Cruiserweight Division
In the same episode, Hardy also laid WWE’s failed attempts at creating a cruiserweight division at the feet of the Executive Chairman. The tag team legend said that McMahon never saw the smaller cruiserweight stars as people who could become huge names, so less and less attention was given to them.
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