fightful

Update On Cesaro/Claudio Castagnoli

Added 2022-05-11 17:30:00 +0000 UTC

The wrestling world hasn't heard much out of the former Cesaro, Claudio Castagnoli.

Cesaro left WWE a few months ago, with no non-compete applied to his deal. Since then, we haven't seen him pop up in any wrestling companies, but that's not for lack of interest. Fightful has been told by several promoters that they've made efforts to reach out to him and book him for both wrestling appearances and signings, but as of yet he's not accepted, and many others say they just outright haven't heard back as of yet.

Many promoters that we've spoken to say that Cesaro's was priced out of some potential bookings, and they'd not be able to land him until the asks came back down to earth. Cesaro has been repped by an agent who also manages several other wrestlers. However, we're told that some wrestlers had been intentionally utilizing a high asking price because they're content staying home until the right deal or offer comes along after being on the road for so long. We haven't heard if that's specifically the case with him.

We spoke to one promoter that hoped to book Claudio for a signing in July that seemed to believe they would be able to land the deal, and had been in regular contact with the wrestler.

Those we spoke to in WWE said they wanted to retain Cesaro, but the two sides couldn't come to terms, and over the last 16 months he'd shown that he knew his value and wasn't going to get into an unfavorable position. One source indicated that Cesaro and/or his team was very savvy in speaking with WWE in 2021 and 2022.