title: Foramen magnum

text: Although not fully proven, there are many studies that show the possibility that where the foramen magnum is positioned in the cranium is significant in fossils. By being able to locate where the foramen magnum is positioned, anthropologists and other researchers are able to determine whether or not the species were bipedal (among other factors). The positioning of the foramen magnum changing over time can be seen in different fossils. Analyzing the foramen magnum in fossils like Ardipithecus ramidus, links the fossil to other earlier and later hominid who share similar anterior foramen magnum and other bipedalism features. Although not proven, there are correlations with the foramen magnum being more anterior positioned to the ability of mammals to walk on two limbs. Comparing this to other animals, such as some primates, the foramen magnum are located more of a posterior position in the cranium. With the foramen magnum being position anterior in the cranium, the body of bipedal mammals is given a different center of gravity compared to quadrupedal mammals. The anterior foramen magnum shifts the weight of the body more to the mammals' pelvis and femur, present in some primates, like great apes. With a posterior foramen magnum, the alignment and weight of the body falls more lateral under the head This allows for humans and other bipedal mammals to be able to walk on two limbs. Even with a posterior foramen magnum, some primates are still able to use their lower two limbs to walk.


title: Foramen magnum

text: With a common anterior foramen magnum in fossils, the fossils can be studied and researched to link mammals to others who are potentially bipedal. With more correlations and similarities of fossils who have an anterior foramen magnum; it links to the idea that these species might be bipedal. The shift in the foramen magnum moving towards a more anterior position in the cranium, gives rise to the idea of possible bipedalism.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Real Canadian Superstore is a chain of supermarkets owned by Canadian food retailing giant Loblaw Companies. Its name is often shortened to Superstore, or, less commonly, RCSS.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Originating in Western Canada in the late 1970s/early 1980s, the banner expanded into Ontario in the early 2000s as Loblaw attempts to fend off competition from department stores including U.S.-based Walmart.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Loblaw has tested alternative banners at some locations in Ontario, with some labelled as "Loblaw Superstore", and a few others as simply "Superstore"; for a time this was reflected in the chain's marketing which used a separate logo to advertise all of these banners. The company has since reverted to marketing the entire chain as Real Canadian Superstore, although some locations might retain other signage.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: The stores carry a variety of goods, but the vast majority of space is devoted to groceries and about a third of each store is set aside for electronics, housewares, and clothing. Items in the latter two categories are mainly from Loblaw's private labels, such as President's Choice, Life at Home, or Joe Fresh. As with many Loblaw stores, they offer corporate-branded services such as PhotoLab photo finishing and DrugStore pharmacies. Many outlets also boast a GoodLife Fitness club, drive-through pharmacies, Mobil gas bars, photo studios, community rooms, as well as walk-in medical clinics managed by Primacy Medical.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Loblaws is working to cut costs and compete effectively with this multi-format store. Each store has a similar layout, useful for both cost efficiency and shopper ease. Also, in an effort to cater to individual customer segments, Superstore buys specific products for different regions. Superstore locations now top .


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: In the west, Superstores are operated by Loblaw subsidiary Westfair Foods Ltd. Ontario stores are operated as part of Loblaw's other banners, including Loblaws and Zehrs, although Superstore is considered a separate chain, and prices at one chain may not apply at the other. Loblaw is centralizing its head office operations, which includes the relocation of the General Merchandise personnel from Calgary, Alberta to Brampton, Ontario to consolidate operations.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: In Alberta, where private liquor retailing is permitted, a chain of 30 Real Canadian Liquorstores operate, mostly in proximity to Real Canadian Superstore locations in the province.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Employees of Loblaws and the Real Canadian Superstore are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: The first Real Canadian Superstore location opened in March 1979 in a former Loblaws location in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan under the name SuperValu. Numerous other SuperValu locations opened across Western Canada before most gradually expanded into Superstore sites; the SuperValu name is still in use in British Columbia and the Maritimes, the latter branded as Atlantic SuperValu.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: The similarly named "The Real Superstore" was used in the United States from the 1970s up until the mid-1990s by the Loblaws-owned National Supermarkets chain until the chain was purchased by competitor Schnucks.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: Superstore marks the return of Loblaw's superstore format in the Greater Toronto Area after the unsuccessful launch of the SuperCentre format in the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 21st century, Loblaw brought the Superstore banner to Ontario as a response to the introduction of large grocery sections in most Canadian Wal-Mart stores and other department stores, and as a pre-emptive strike against any plans by Wal-Mart to bring its "Supercenter" format to Canada. Originally, Ontario stores were co-branded with the local Loblaw banner (i.e., "Loblaws - The Real Canadian Superstore"), but most shortened their name to reduce confusion and allow separate weekly specials for each chain.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: New Ontario locations began to open under the name Loblaw Superstore in late 2007. Since December 2008, Ontario stores have used common flyers displaying a combined "Superstore: Loblaw/Real Canadian" logo. However, Loblaw has not yet said whether one banner will eventually replace the other.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: There are no Superstore locations as such in Atlantic Canada or Quebec. However, in recent years, and particularly since 2008, Atlantic Superstore in the Maritimes and Dominion in Newfoundland and Labrador, both also owned by Loblaw, have adopted similar store formats and a similar marketing approach to RCSS. In Quebec, Maxi and Co. and some larger Provigo (previously Loblaws) locations fill the void. It is not clear whether Loblaw intends to eventually rebrand these stores to create a national "Superstore" chain.


title: Real Canadian Superstore

text: As well, there are a handful of large-format Loblaws and Zehrs stores in Ontario – including certain locations in Markham and Kitchener – which closely replicate the selection of food and general merchandise available at Superstores. Most of these locations were built around the same time as the first Ontario Superstores, but nevertheless chose to use older brand names.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: In the law of the United States of America, an objection is a formal protest raised in court during a trial to disallow a witness's testimony or other evidence in violation of the rules of evidence or other procedural law. An objection is typically raised after the opposing party asks a question of the witness, but before the witness can answer, or when the opposing party is about to enter something into evidence. The judge then makes a ruling on whether the objection is ""sustained"" (the judge agrees with the objection and disallows the question, testimony, or evidence) or ""overruled"" (the judge disagrees with the objection and allows the question, testimony, or evidence). An attorney may choose to "rephrase" a question that has been objected to, so long as the judge permits it. Lawyers should make an objection before there is an answer to the question.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: An attorney may also raise an objection against a judge's ruling, to preserve the right to appeal that ruling. Under certain circumstances, a court may need to hold some kind of pretrial hearing and make evidentiary rulings to resolve important issues like personal jurisdiction, or whether to impose sanctions for extreme misconduct by parties or counsel. As with trials, a party or their counsel normally raises objections to evidence presented at the hearing in order to ask the court to disregard impermissible evidence or argument, as well as to preserve such objections as a basis for interlocutory or final appeals from such rulings.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: Objections are also commonly used in depositions during the discovery process to preserve the right to exclude testimony from being considered as evidence in support of, or in opposition to, a later motion, such as a motion for summary judgment.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: Historically, at trial, an attorney had to promptly take an "exception" (by saying "I except" followed by a reason) immediately after an objection was overruled in order to preserve it for appeal, or else the objection was permanently waived. In addition, at the end of the trial, the attorney had to submit a written "bill of exceptions" that listed all exceptions he intended to appeal on—which the judge then signed and sealed, making it part of the record to be reviewed on appeal.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: The bill of exceptions was a relic of the early English practice in which parties submitted their pleadings orally (by reciting their allegations and pleas orally in open court) and the court ruled on those pleadings orally, and the court clerk recorded what had transpired in summary form in the written minutes of the court. Early on, English trial courts developed the habit of evading appellate review of their rulings by having their clerks not record certain rulings which overruled or disallowed various issues raised by the parties. Parliament solved that problem with the 31st chapter of the Statute of Westminster 1285, which forced trial court judges to apply their court's seal to a party's written bill of exceptions and in turn allowed the bill to become part of the appellate record.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: After modern American courts began to use court reporters to create accurate, comprehensive, and verbatim written transcripts of their proceedings, lawyers and judges came to recognize that exceptions were unnecessary because the objection itself and the context of the surrounding record are all the appellate court really needs to resolve a disputed issue. Starting in the 1930s, exceptions were abolished in the federal courts and in many state courts as well. For example, California technically did not abolish exceptions, but merely rendered them superfluous by simply treating just about every ruling of the trial court as automatically excepted to. Thus, in nearly all U.S. courts, it is now sufficient that the objection was clearly made on the record.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: A continuing objection is an objection an attorney makes to a series of questions about a related point. A continuing objection may be made, in the discretion of the court, to preserve an issue for appeal without distracting the factfinder (whether jury or judge) with an objection to every question. A continuing objection is made where the objection itself is overruled, but the trial judge permits a silent continuing objection to that point so that there are fewer interruptions. An example of this is when a lawyer could be held negligent for not objecting to a particular line of questioning, yet has had previous objections overruled.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: A few of the foregoing objections may also apply to the witness's response, particularly hearsay, privilege, and relevance. An objection to form—to the wording of a question rather than its subject matter—is not itself a distinct objection reason, but a category that includes ambiguity, leading, compounding and others. Court rules vary as to whether an "objection to form," by itself, preserves the objection on the record or requires further specification.


title: Objection (United States law)

text: An objection that goes beyond stating a proper objection reason, as listed above, is known as a "speaking objection". Courts normally discourage speaking objections and may sanction them when they impede legal process, whether by delaying the proceedings or by adding non-evidentiary material to the record. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require objections during a deposition to be stated "concisely in a nonargumentative and nonsuggestive manner." Speaking objections nonetheless occur in practice and are sometimes used, with caution, to communicate the nature of the objection to a party without a legal background.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: Pope Tawadros II or Theodore II ( ; ; born on 4 November 1952 ) is the 118th and current pope of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark the evangelist and apostle, succeeding the late Pope Shenouda III as leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. He took office on 18 November 2012 (9 Hathor 1729), two weeks after being selected.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: Tawadros II was born as Waǧīh Ṣubḥī Bāqī Sulaymān (, ) on 4 November 1952 (25 Paopi 1668) in the city of Mansoura, Arab republic of Egypt. He studied at the University of Alexandria, where he received a degree in pharmacy in 1975. After a few years of managing a state-owned pharmaceutical factory, he joined the Monastery of Saint Pishoy in Wadi Natrun to study theology for two years. In 1988, he was formally tonsured a monk by Pope Shenouda III and given the name “Theodore Anba-Bishoy." He was ordained a priest in 1989 (1705–1706).


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On 15 June 1997 (8 Paoni 1713), he was consecrated as a general bishop by his predecessor pope Shenouda III, with the Greek name of Theodoros, which translates to Tawadros in Egyptian or Theodore in English. Arabic spelling: ْتَوَاضْرُوس. He was assigned to serve in the Eparchy of Behira in the northwestern Delta as an auxiliary to Metropolitan Pachomius.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: The papal selection process began several weeks before the 18 November/9 Hathor selection. About 2,400 clergymen and others shortlisted three candidates: Bishop Tawadros, former aide to Metropolitan Pachomios; Bishop Raphael, General Bishop in Downtown Cairo; and Father Raphael Ava Mina, a monk in a monastery near Alexandria and disciple of the 116th pope, Cyril VI.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: The ceremony to choose the pope from the three consensus candidates was held at Cairo's St. Mark's Cathedral at about noon, with a marked police presence. Metropolitan Pachomios, locum tenens of the Church, put slips bearing the candidates' names in a sealed chalice which was set upon the altar, then led the Divine Liturgy. He told the congregation to "pray that God will choose the good shepherd", and a blindfolded boy took a slip—Tawadros—from the chalice.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: Metropolitan Pachomius formally announced that the sixty-year-old Bishop Tawadros was to be the 118th Pope, and would be Pope Tawadros II, after Pope Tawadros I (r. 730–742), who was consecrated 45th Coptic Patriarch and Pope during Egypt's Umayyad Period (658–750). Tawadros II said, from the monastery at Wadi Natrun, "[We] will start by organising the house from within. It is a responsibility. Most important is ... that the church, as an institution, serves the community". Bishop Raphael, who came first in the election stage of papal selection, was appointed general secretary of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: Pope Tawadros II started his papacy amid multiple changes in Egypt, saying that the Orthodox Church is committed to keeping Article 2 of Egypt's draft constitution intact, as it was in the old constitution.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On Palm Sunday in 2017, Pope Tawadros II celebrated the Divine Liturgy mass at the Cathedral of St. Mark in Alexandria just before the cathedral was bombed, killing at least 13 people and injuring at least 21. The pope escaped unharmed. ISIS took responsibility for the attack.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: Pope Tawadros II has stated that the 2011 Egyptian revolution was a turning point in the Coptic Church's relations with its youth. Amongst his first tasks is the issue of Egypt's changing political landscape, given the new constitution and more independent-minded congregants who seek their demands outside the church in dealing with the state.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: In a short televised speech in July 2013 (Paoni 1729), Pope Tawadros II supported the removal of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and institution of a transitional government dominated by the president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, Adly Mansour who acted as a temporary president at the time.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On 8 May 2013 (30 Parmouti 1729), Pope Tawadros II met with Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, in Vatican City. This was the first meeting of the two recently elected church leaders and only the second gathering of popes in Italy in 1,500 years. The last visit of a Coptic pope to the Vatican occurred on 10 May 1973 (2 Pashons 1689) when then-Pope Shenouda III met with then-Pope Paul VI where they signed an important Christological declaration with the ambition to initiate ecumenical dialogue between the two ancient churches. On 10 May/2 Pashons, Pope Tawadros II and Pope Francis held a shared prayer followed by a reception with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and other dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Pope Tawadros II also visited the tombs of the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul. Additionally, Pope Tawadros II visited Copts in Rome.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On 27 November 2015 (17 Hathor 1732), Pope Tawadros II made the first Coptic papal visit to Jerusalem since 1832 (1548–1549), especially controversial as Pope Shenouda III had boycotted Jerusalem for four decades over the Arab–Israeli conflict. The purpose of the visit was the funeral of Archbishop Anba Abraham, rather than to formally end the boycott.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On 4 September 2016 (29 Mesori 1732), Pope Tawadros II visited King Abdullah of Jordan at the Royal Palace in Amman, his first visit to Jordan, before attending the general assembly of the Middle East Council of Churches on 6–8 September (1–3 Pi Kogi Enavot). The pope also visited Mount Nebo and the baptism site of John the Baptist, and praised King Abdullah and Jordan for encouraging religious tolerance and protecting holy sites.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: In September 2017, Pope Tawadros II visited Sydney, Australia for the first time as Pope. On 10 September 2017 (8 Mesori 1733), Pope Tawadros II visited Melbourne to officially open Eporo Tower in the diocese of Melbourne and Affiliated Regions.


title: Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

text: On 21 February 2015 (Meshir 14, 1731), Pope Tawadros II announced that 20 Copts and one Ghanaian murdered by the Islamic State in Libya would be commemorated as martyr saints on the 8th of Meshir of the Coptic calendar (15 February of the Gregorian calendar). The commemoration falls on the feast day of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine (sold under the trade name Exelon among others) is a cholinesterase inhibitor used for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The drug can be administered orally or via a transdermal patch; the latter form reduces the prevalence of side effects, which typically include nausea and vomiting.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine capsules, liquid solution and patches are used for the treatment of mild to moderate dementia of the Alzheimer's type.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine has demonstrated treatment effects on the cognitive (thinking and memory), functional (activities of daily living) and behavioural problems commonly associated with Alzheimer's.


title: Rivastigmine

text: In people with either type of dementia, rivastigmine has been shown to provide meaningful symptomatic effects that may allow patients to remain independent and ‘be themselves’ for longer. In particular, it appears to show marked treatment effects in patients showing a more aggressive course of disease, such as those with younger onset ages, poor nutritional status, or those experiencing symptoms such as delusions or hallucinations. For example, the presence of hallucinations appears to be a predictor of especially strong responses to rivastigmine, both in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients. These effects might reflect the additional inhibition of butyrylcholinesterase, which is implicated in symptom progression and might provide added benefits over acetylcholinesterase-selective drugs in some patients. Multiple-infarct dementia patients may show slight improvement in executive functions and behaviour. No firm evidence supports usage in schizophrenia patients.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Its efficacy is similar to donepezil and tacrine. Doses below 6 mg/d may be ineffective. The effects of this kind of drug in different kinds of dementia (including Alzheimer's dementia) are modest, and it is still unclear which AChE (BChE) esterase inhibitor is better in Parkinson's dementia, though rivastigmine is well-studied.


title: Rivastigmine

text: The strong potency of rivastigmine, provided by its dual inhibitory mechanism, has been postulated to lead to more nausea and vomiting during the titration phase of oral rivastigmine treatment.


title: Rivastigmine

text: In a large clinical trial of the rivastigmine patch in 1,195 patients with Alzheimer's disease, the target dose of 9.5 mg/24-hour patch provided similar clinical effects (e.g. memory and thinking, activities of daily living, concentration) as the highest doses of rivastigmine capsules, but with one-third fewer reports of nausea and vomiting.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Usage of rivastigmine was associated with a higher frequency of reports of death as an adverse event in the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System database compared to the other acetylcholinesterase inhibiting drugs donepezil and galantamine.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine tartrate is a white to off-white, fine crystalline powder that is both lipophilic (soluble in fats) and hydrophilic (soluble in water). It comes in a variety of administrations including a capsule, solution and a transdermal patch. Like other cholinesterase inhibitors, it requires doses to be increased gradually over several weeks; this is usually referred to as the titration phase.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine, a cholinesterase inhibitor, inhibits both butyrylcholinesterase and acetylcholinesterase (unlike donepezil, which selectively inhibits acetylcholinesterase). It is thought to work by inhibiting these cholinesterase enzymes, which would otherwise break down the brain neurotransmitter acetylcholine.


title: Rivastigmine

text: When given orally, rivastigmine is well absorbed, with a bioavailability of about 40% in the 3-mg dose. Pharmacokinetics are linear up to 3 mg , but nonlinear at higher doses. Elimination is through the urine. Peak plasma concentrations are seen in about one hour, with peak cerebrospinal fluid concentrations at 1.4–3.8 hours. When given by once-daily transdermal patch, the pharmacokinetic profile of rivastigmine is much smoother, compared with capsules, with lower peak plasma concentrations and reduced fluctuations. The 9.5 mg/24 h rivastigmine patch provides comparable exposure to 12 mg/day capsules (the highest recommended oral dose).


title: Rivastigmine

text: The compound does cross the blood–brain barrier. Plasma protein binding is 40%. The major route of metabolism is by its target enzymes via cholinesterase-mediated hydrolysis. Elimination bypasses the hepatic system, so hepatic cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes are not involved. The low potential for drug-drug interactions (which could lead to adverse effects) has been suggested as due to this pathway compared to the many common drugs that use the cytochrome P450 metabolic pathway.


title: Rivastigmine

text: Rivastigmine was developed by Marta Weinstock-Rosin of the Department of Pharmacology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and sold to Novartis by Yissum for commercial development. It is a semi-synthetic derivative of physostigmine.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Claudio Castagnoli ( ; born 27 December 1980) is a Swiss professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club stable. Castagnoli also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is the current ROH World Champion in his second reign. Castagnoli is best known for his 11-year tenure in WWE from 2011 to 2022, where he performed under the ring names Antonio Cesaro and Cesaro.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli began his career in the European independent wrestling circuit in the year 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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".


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Claudio Castagnoli was born in Lucerne on 27 December 1980. As a youth, Castagnoli was a teen participant in tennis, football, and basketball, and became a fan of professional wrestling after discovering it on television on a German TV station. He found an advertisement on an online forum, which encouraged him to train to become a wrestler.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli and Ares made their Chikara debuts on 5 July 2003, at 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 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 the inaugural Chikara Campeones de Parejas.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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 the match, Hero left the company and Castagnoli took over his training duties at the Chikara Wrestle Factory.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli entered 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: After picking up the three points needed in order to challenge for 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 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 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 "" to determine the first ever Chikara Grand Champion. During the "Chikarasaurus Rex" weekend on 30 and 31 July, Castagnoli 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 the "12 Large: Summit".


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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).


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: After news broke that WWE 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: With the news of WWE showing interest in Castagnoli, the Kings of Wrestling dropped 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 the Kings of Wrestling.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli gained success in ROH singles competition on 28 July 2007, by winning Ring of Honor's "Race to 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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, 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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 the championship from Haas and Benjamin.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli returned to the company for the annual Battle of Los Angeles Tournament on 4 September 2010. Castagnoli made it to 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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 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 a challenge from Kevin Steen and ended up losing the title to him in the impromptu match, ending his reign at 287 days.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 the Kings of Wrestling once again fail to win the PWG World Tag Team Championship.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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".


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 the second before losing to Brent Albright in the semi-finals on 12 August in Charlotte, North Carolina.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In September 2011, Castagnoli signed 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 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At Hell in 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 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 in a singles match, to retain his title. On 31 December "Raw", Cesaro issued 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In May, Cesaro started a feud with Sami Zayn in NXT, where the two held some of what would later be considered 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".<ref name="NXT6/13/13"></ref> 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 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 a two-out-of-three falls match to conclude the feud.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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."


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 the match.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: On 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 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";


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: also that month, it 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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, 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In a December 2014 interview, Stone Cold Steve Austin asked Vince McMahon why Cesaro had not gotten over yet and asked whether Cesaro 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Cesaro began teaming with Tyson Kidd on the 1 December episode of "Raw" and were eliminated from a gauntlet match for 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 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Cesaro made his return from injury on 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 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 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.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: On 19 July at the 2016 WWE draft, Cesaro was drafted to Raw. Afterwards, while being interviewed live on the WWE Network by JoJo, Cesaro legitimately complained about how he should have been drafted "at least top 10" and thought he would be a better fit on the more wrestling-oriented SmackDown brand, as well as criticizing the decision to have the storyline focus on the potential drama between Stephanie McMahon and Raw General Manager Mick Foley as opposed to the wrestlers themselves. While WWE would eventually continue this as part of an angle, Dave Meltzer confirmed on Twitter that the interview was a shoot and that Cesaro had unexpectedly gone off-script. After the draft, Cesaro would then begin a rivalry with Sheamus, and Mick Foley announced that the pair would face each other in a Best of Seven Series, with the first match taking place on 21 August on the SummerSlam kick-off show, which Sheamus won. Sheamus would defeat Cesaro in the second and third matches, but Cesaro defeated Sheamus in the fourth, fifth and sixth match, tying the series 3–3. The two faced in the seventh and deciding match at Clash of Champions, which ended in a no contest, leaving the result of their series unclear. The next night on "Raw", Mick Foley decided to make the two men partners. In spite of the two not getting along, Cesaro and Sheamus received a match for the Raw Tag Team Championship against The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) at Hell in a Cell on 30 October, winning the match by disqualification but not the tiles since championships cannot change hands by disqualification.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At Survivor Series on 20 November, Cesaro and Sheamus made up part of Team Raw as they defeated Team SmackDown in a 10-on-10 Survivor Series elimination tag team match. The next night on "Raw", Cesaro and Sheamus again failed to capture Raw Tag Team Championship from The New Day. Following this, Cesaro and Sheamus finally began to co-operate with each other, and the two defeated the New Day on 18 December at to win the tag team championship. Going into 2017, Cesaro and Sheamus began a feud with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. At the Royal Rumble on 29 January, Cesaro and Sheamus lost the championship to Anderson and Gallows. The pair also competed in the Royal Rumble match later that night, but both were eliminated by Chris Jericho after getting into an argument. At WrestleMania 33 on 2 April, Cesaro and Sheamus competed in a four-team ladder match for the Raw Tag Team Championship, which was won by The Hardy Boyz (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At Payback on 30 April, Cesaro and Sheamus unsuccessfully challenged The Hardy Boyz for the championship, and attacked them after the match, turning into villainous characters. The duo then christened themselves as "The Bar", and again challenged The Hardy Boyz for the championship in a steel cage match at Extreme Rules on 4 June, which The Bar won. They then successfully defended the championship against The Hardy Boyz on "Raw", and again on 9 July at Great Balls of Fire. However, at SummerSlam on 20 August, The Bar lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. On 24 September at No Mercy, The Bar were again defeated by Ambrose and Rollins in a rematch for the championship, during which Cesaro suffered an injury to his two front teeth. WWE released a statement on Cesaro's medical condition stating that his teeth had been pushed up into his upper jaw by about 3 to 4 mm and that he would next go to see a maxillofacial surgeon.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: After this, The Bar teamed up with The Miz, Braun Strowman and Kane against Ambrose, Rollins and Kurt Angle in a five-on-three TLC match at on 23 October in a losing effort. On 6 November episode of "Raw", the duo regained their titles from Rollins and Ambrose, winning the title for the third time as a team. At Survivor Series on 19 November, as SmackDown Tag Team Champions they were defeated by The Usos in an inter-brand Champion vs Champion match. The Bar later lost the tag team titles to the team of Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan on the 25 December episode of "Raw".


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: On 28 January 2018, The Bar won back the title at the Royal Rumble, becoming record four-time champions as a team, and a record fifth reign for Cesaro individually. Following consecutive losses to Titus Worldwide (Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil) on "Raw", they defended their title against the two on 25 February at Elimination Chamber, retaining successfully. On 12 March episode of "Raw", Braun Strowman won a tag team battle royal to determine the number one contenders for their tag titles at WrestleMania 34, although he lacked a partner. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle still allowed Strowman to wrestle for the titles, under the provision that he reveal his mystery partner at the event. At the event on 8 April, Strowman revealed his partner to be a 10-year-old fan called Nicholas (in reality the son of referee John Cone). The Bar were defeated by Strowman and Nicholas, therefore losing the tag team title and in turn making Nicholas the youngest champion of any kind in WWE history.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: On 17 April, as part of the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up, Cesaro and Sheamus were both drafted to SmackDown. Despite the trade, they still had an opportunity to challenge for the Raw Tag Team Championship as they faced Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt at Greatest Royal Rumble event on 27 April, but they were defeated. At Super Show-Down on 6 October, The Bar challenged The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but were defeated. However, on the 1000th episode of "SmackDown", The Bar won the titles from The New Day with the help of Big Show. The Bar lost to Raw Tag Team Champions AOP in an inter-brand Champion vs. Champion match at Survivor Series on 18 November. On 27 November episode of "SmackDown", they had a backstage argument with Big Show, causing him to break away from the team. At on 16 December, they successfully defended the championship against The Usos and The New Day in a triple threat tag team match. At Royal Rumble pay-per-view on 27 January 2019, The Bar lost the championship to The Miz and Shane McMahon. On the following episode of "SmackDown", they lost a #1 contenders match to The Usos.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At WrestleMania 35 on 7 April, The Bar lost to The Usos in a fatal-four-way tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, which also included the teams of Aleister Black and Ricochet and Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. On 9 April "SmackDown", Sheamus reportedly suffered a concussion in a six-man tag team match with The New Day. Cesaro was drafted to Raw a few weeks later, while Sheamus remained on SmackDown, bringing an end to the team.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: On 20 May episode of "Raw", Cesaro debuted a new entrance theme and titantron separate from The Bar as he defeated Ricochet. He also adopted a new part of his gimmick where he would only allow backstage interviewers to ask him only one question before walking away. Over the following weeks, Cesaro and Ricochet traded wins with each other. Their series of matches received praise from critics. At Extreme Rules on 14 July, Cesaro lost to Aleister Black. Cesaro would go on to issue an open challenge at on 31 August, which would be answered by Ilja Dragunov and Cesaro would go on to win the match. Cesaro would enter the 2019 King of the Ring tournament but was eliminated by Samoa Joe in the first round.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: As part of the draft in October, Cesaro was drafted back to the SmackDown brand. He lost to Mansoor on 31 October at Crown Jewel. In the following weeks, Cesaro would align himself with Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura, teaming with Nakamura on several occasions, including challenging for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, where they were unsuccessful. On 26 January 2020, at Royal Rumble, Cesaro entered at #9 but was eliminated by Brock Lesnar.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At Elimination Chamber on 8 March, Sami Zayn, along with Nakamura and Cesaro, defeated Braun Strowman in 3-on-1 handicap match for the Intercontinental Championship. Zayn became the new champion pinning Strowman. On the first night of WrestleMania 36 on 4 April, Cesaro defeated Drew Gulak on the kickoff show. At Money in the Bank on 10 May, Cesaro was defeated by Jeff Hardy on the kickoff show.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Following this, Cesaro began teaming with Nakamura more frequently as they feuded with The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles. On 10 July episode of "SmackDown", Cesaro and Nakamura challenged New Day for the titles but the match ended in a no contest after Cesaro and Nakamura put Kofi Kingston and Big E through a table. On 19 July at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, Cesaro and Nakamura defeated Kingston and Big E in a tables match to capture the titles, marking Cesaro's second reign. On 9 October episode of "SmackDown", they lost the titles to Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In early 2021, Cesaro and Nakamura quietly disbanded after Nakamura turned face. At Royal Rumble on 31 January, he entered at #28, but was eliminated by Braun Strowman. On 5 February episode of "SmackDown" Cesaro gave Daniel Bryan a fist bump as a show of respect after their match, turning face for the first time since 2017.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: The following week on "SmackDown", Cesaro began a feud with Seth Rollins, after Rollins attacked him from behind following a walkout by the SmackDown roster. At Elimination Chamber on 21 February, Cesaro competed in the Elimination Chamber match where the winner would receive an immediate Universal Championship match, eliminating King Corbin but was the second to last man eliminated by Jey Uso. On 26 March episode of "SmackDown", he was challenged by Rollins to a match at WrestleMania 37, which Cesaro accepted. On the first night of WrestleMania on 10 April, Cesaro defeated Rollins. Cesaro faced Universal Champion Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash on 16 May, but was defeated. After the match, Rollins attacked Cesaro and would continue to ambush him on subsequent episodes of "SmackDown", culminating in Cesaro being taken out on a stretcher on 21 May episode. Cesaro would make his return on 11 June episode of "SmackDown", attacking Rollins. A rematch would be scheduled for Hell in a Cell on 20 June the following week in which Rollins defeated Cesaro. He once again lost to Rollins on 9 July episode of "SmackDown", failing to qualify for that year's Money in the Bank ladder match and ending the feud.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In October, he entered the King of the Ring tournament, where he lost to Finn Bálor in the first round. At Survivor Series on 21 November, Cesaro participated in a 25-man dual-branded battle royal to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Rock's debut at the 1996 Survivor Series, which was won by Omos. On the following episode of "SmackDown", he failed to win a Black Friday Invitational battle royal where the winner would become the #1 contender for the Universal Championship. On 24 December (taped 17 December) episode of "SmackDown", Cesaro competed in a gauntlet match for #1 contendership to the Intercontinental Championship, but was eliminated by Sheamus.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At the Day 1 pre-show on 1 January 2022, Cesaro and Ricochet lost to Sheamus and Ridge Holland. On the 11 February episode of "SmackDown", Cesaro was defeated by Happy Corbin in what would be his last televised match in WWE. He quietly left WWE when his contract expired on 24 February, thus ending his 11-year tenure in the company. Reports stated that he was not actively looking to leave WWE, but did not like the contract extension offer he received.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: At the All Elite Wrestling event on 26 June 2022, Blackpool Combat Club member Bryan Danielson arranged a surprise replacement for his scheduled match against Zack Sabre Jr. after Danielson could not compete due to injury. Castagnoli then made his AEW debut, defeating Sabre and revealing himself to be the newest member of the Blackpool Combat Club. He would also compete in a Blood and Guts match at the eponymous event alongside Blackpool Combat Club members Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta when the group teamed up with Eddie Kingston and the duo of Santana and Ortiz. They would defeat the Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, and Jake Hager) after Castagnoli made Menard tap out.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: In July, Castagnoli would make his return to Ring of Honor (ROH) for the first time since 2011 as the company had recently been taken over by AEW president Tony Khan. At the ROH Death Before Dishonor event on 23 July, he defeated Jonathan Gresham to win the ROH World Championship, capturing the first major world title of his career. At AEW's Battle of the Belts III event on 5 August, he successfully defended the championship against Konosuke Takeshita in a critically acclaimed match. At AEW Grand Slam on 21 September, Castagnoli lost the ROH World Championship to Jericho, ending his reign at 60 days. On December 10, 2022 Castagnoli regained the ROH World Championship during ROH Final Battle.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli's wrestling ability has been praised by fellow wrestlers and wrestling icons such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, and William Regal. In 2019, "Bleacher Report" called him one of the best "pure wrestlers" in WWE. Criticism was levied at WWE for underutilizing Castagnoli creatively on their shows. Later in his career, he became known as a "tag team specialist" due to his successful partnerships with Jack Swagger, Tyson Kidd, Sheamus, and Shinsuke Nakamura.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli uses a "no-nonsense", European style as the basis for his move set. He uses the "Gotch Neutralizer" (a belly-to-back inverted mat slam) and "Very European Uppercut" (a pop-up European uppercut) as finishing moves. He also uses the giant swing, albeit less frequently. A big part of his wrestling style comes from his strength, which he has showcased by lifting heavier wrestlers such as The Great Khali, Brodus Clay, and Big Show, all of whom outweigh him by at least 100 lb (45.3 kg). He has been credited as one of the strongest wrestlers in WWE. His technical ability is also notable, and he has utilized the sharpshooter (adopted from his former tag team partner Kidd) as a signature move since 2015.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli has been usually labeled as an underrated wrestler. From 2013 to 2016, he won the "Most Underrated Wrestler" award by "Wrestling Observer Newsletter". In December 2020, Drew McIntyre called him the most underrated superstar in WWE.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Around the time of Castagnoli's shoulder injury in 2015, a number of prominent wrestling legends had increasingly been calling for WWE to move him into a more significant role in the company. In the months prior, former champion Mick Foley voiced strong support, declaring the day after Castagnoli's second United States Championship match with John Cena that "[Castagnoli] would make a great world champion". Foley later added that he was baffled by WWE's treatment of Castagnoli, stating that if he could make one change to WWE, it would simply be to "push [Castagnoli]". Just days before the injury was announced, Ric Flair answered a question on which current wrestler he thought should have already been WWE World Heavyweight Champion by discussing how he thought Castagnoli was "phenomenal" and that "nobody [brought] more to the table as a performer". Flair further stated that he thought Castagnoli could be built up for a major storyline with Brock Lesnar within two months, even suggesting for himself to become Castagnoli's manager to help with his work on the microphone. Meanwhile, long-time Castagnoli supporter Stone Cold Steve Austin reiterated that he believed Castagnoli had what was needed "to go up on top of the card" and blamed WWE for not helping him more.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli resides in Orlando, Florida. In addition to his native Swiss German, he is fluent in English, French, German, and Italian. He is known for his love of coffee, having maintained a blog and YouTube channel called Claudio's Café before joining WWE. Claudio's Café is now the name of his secondary Instagram page, on which he documents his visits to coffee shops worldwide.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli is in a long-term relationship with former wrestler and current wrestling trainer Sara Del Rey. Despite being paired up by WWE without their input, Castagnoli became close friends with his one-time tag team partner Tyson Kidd. He is also close friends with his former tag team partner Ares and Ares' wife Allison Danger.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli is a fan of franchises such as "James Bond", which he incorporated into his WWE gimmick from 2016 to 2018, and "Star Wars". He is also a fan of the Austrian band Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung. He has said that he prides himself on being a consummate professional in every aspect: "Older values of older times, that are not as much around anymore, are still very important to me. [...] You have to be a professional in every single thing you do."


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Noted for his exceptional strength and stating that he is completely steroid-free, Castagnoli has performed a one-arm snatch with 145 lbs (66 kg), a one-arm clean and jerk with 135 lbs (61 kg), and a two-arm clean and jerk with 286 lbs (130 kg). He described his training regime in 2015 as a mix of different approaches, with particular focus on CrossFit and variations of Olympic weightlifting. He has said that he continually tries to learn new ways to work out in order to keep improving.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli made a brief appearance in the 2008 drama film "The Wrestler". He regularly appeared on the WWE web series "The JBL and Cole Show" until its cancellation in June 2015. He has also made brief appearances on the E! show "Total Divas".


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli became a fan of "League of Legends" after practicing the game prior to the WWE vs NXT "League of Legends" match, and has been a guest analyst during the North American "League of Legends" Championship series.


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: As "Cesaro", Castagnoli is a playable character in "WWE '13" (as downloadable content), "WWE 2K14", "WWE 2K15", "WWE 2K16", "WWE 2K17", "WWE 2K18", "WWE 2K19", "WWE 2K20", and "WWE 2K22"


title: Claudio Castagnoli

text: Castagnoli was a recurring guest on Xavier Woods' YouTube channel "UpUpDownDown". In November 2019, he defeated Becky Lynch in a game of "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" to win Lynch's UpUpDownDown Championship. He lost the title to Alexa Bliss in the finals of a "Brawlhalla" tournament that also included Rusev and The Miz. He appears on the YouTube channel "Da Party" with Xavier Woods, Adam Cole, and Tyler Breeze as they play Uno.


title: Montparnasse

text: Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has been part of Paris


title: Montparnasse

text: The Pasteur Institute is located in the area. Beneath the ground are tunnels of the Catacombs of Paris.


title: Montparnasse

text: Students in the 17th century who came to recite poetry in the hilly neighbourhood nicknamed it after "Mount Parnassus", home to the nine Muses of arts and sciences in Greek mythology.


title: Montparnasse

text: The hill was levelled to construct the Boulevard Montparnasse in the 18th century. During the French Revolution many dance halls and cabarets opened their doors.


title: Montparnasse

text: The area is also known for cafés and bars, such as the Breton restaurants specialising in crêpes (thin pancakes) located a few blocks from the Gare Montparnasse.


title: Montparnasse

text: In the 18th century, students recited poems at the foot of an artificial hillock of rock rubble from the catacombs, a near-by network of underground galleries. Ironically, they decided to baptise this mound "Mount Parnassus", named after the one celebrated by Greek poets. In the early 20th century, many Bretons driven out of their region by poverty arrived by train at Montparnasse station, the heart of the district, and settled nearby. Montparnasse became famous in the 1920s, referred to as "les Années Folles" (the Crazy Years), and the 1930s as the heart of intellectual and artistic life in Paris. From 1910 to the start of World War II, Paris' artistic circles migrated to Montparnasse as the alternative to the Montmartre district which had been the intellectual breeding ground for the previous generation of artists. The Paris of Zola, Manet, France, Degas, Fauré, a group that had assembled more on the basis of status affinity than actual artistic tastes, indulging in the refinements of Dandyism, was at the opposite end of the economic, social, and political spectrum from the emigrant artists who inhabited Montparnasse.


title: Montparnasse

text: Virtually penniless painters, sculptors, writers, poets and composers came from around the world to thrive in the creative atmosphere and for the cheap rent at artist communes such as La Ruche. Living without running water, in damp, unheated "studios", many sold their works for a few francs just to buy food. Jean Cocteau once said that poverty was a luxury in Montparnasse. First promoted by art dealers such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, today works by those artists sell for millions of euros.


title: Montparnasse

text: In post-World War I Paris, Montparnasse was a euphoric meeting place for the artistic world. Fernand Léger wrote of that period: "man...relaxes and recaptures his taste for life, his frenzy to dance, to "spend money"...an explosion of "life-force fills the world"." They came to Montparnasse from all over the globe - from Europe, including Russia, Hungary and Ukraine, from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, and from as far away as Japan. Manuel Ortiz de Zárate, Camilo Mori and others made their way from Chile where the profound innovations in art spawned the formation of the Grupo Montparnasse in Santiago. A few of the other artists who gathered in Montparnasse were Jacob Macznik, Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Ossip Zadkine, Julio Gonzalez, Moise Kisling, Jean Cocteau, Erik Satie, Marios Varvoglis, Marc Chagall, Nina Hamnett, Jean Rhys, Fernand Léger, Jacques Lipchitz, Max Jacob, Blaise Cendrars, Chaïm Soutine, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Michel Kikoine, Pinchus Kremegne, Amedeo Modigliani, Ford Madox Ford, Toño Salazar, Ezra Pound, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti, Henri Rousseau, Constantin Brâncuși, Eva Kotchever, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Paul Fort, Juan Gris, Diego Rivera, Federico Cantú, Angel Zarraga, Marevna, Tsuguharu Foujita, Marie Vassilieff, Léon-Paul Fargue, Alberto Giacometti, René Iché, André Breton, Alfonso Reyes, Pascin, Nils Dardel, Salvador Dalí, Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, Emil Cioran, Reginald Gray, Endre Ady poet and journalist, Joan Miró, Hilaire Hiler and, in his declining years, Edgar Degas.


title: Montparnasse

text: Montparnasse was a community where creativity was embraced with all its oddities, each new arrival welcomed unreservedly by its existing members. When Tsuguharu Foujita arrived from Japan in 1913 not knowing a soul, he met Soutine, Modigliani, Pascin and Léger virtually the same night and within a week became friends with Juan Gris, Picasso and Matisse. In 1914, when the English painter Nina Hamnett arrived in Montparnasse, on her first evening the smiling man at the next table at "La Rotonde" graciously introduced himself as "Modigliani, painter and Jew". They became good friends, Hamnett later recounting how she once borrowed a jersey and corduroy trousers from Modigliani, then went to "La Rotonde" and danced in the street all night.


title: Montparnasse

text: Between 1921 and 1924, the number of Americans in Paris swelled from 6,000 to 30,000. While most of the artistic community gathered here were struggling to eke out an existence, well-heeled American socialites such as Peggy Guggenheim, and Edith Wharton from New York City, Harry Crosby from Boston and Beatrice Wood from San Francisco were caught in the fever of creativity. Robert McAlmon, and Maria and Eugene Jolas came to Paris and published their literary magazine "Transition". Harry Crosby and his wife Caresse would establish the Black Sun Press in Paris in 1927, publishing works by such future luminaries as D. H. Lawrence, Archibald MacLeish, James Joyce, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker and others. As well, Bill Bird published through his "Three Mountains Press" until British heiress Nancy Cunard took it over.


title: Montparnasse

text: The cafés and bars of Montparnasse were a meeting place where ideas were hatched and mulled over. The cafés at the centre of Montparnasse's night-life were in the Carrefour Vavin, now renamed Place Pablo-Picasso. In Montparnasse's heyday (from 1910 to 1920), the cafés "Le Dôme", "La Closerie des Lilas", "La Rotonde", "Le Select", and "La Coupole"—all of which are still in business— were the places where starving artists could occupy a table all evening for a few "centimes". If they fell asleep, the waiters were instructed not to wake them. Arguments were common, some fuelled by intellect, others by alcohol, and if there were fights, and there often were, the police were never summoned. If you couldn't pay your bill, people such as La Rotonde's proprietor, Victor Libion, would often accept a drawing, holding it until the artist could pay. As such, there were times when the café's walls were littered with a collection of artworks.


title: Montparnasse

text: There were many areas where the artists congregated, one of them being near Le Dôme at no. 10 rue Delambre called the Dingo Bar. It was the hang-out of artists and ex-patriate Americans and the place where Canadian writer Morley Callaghan came with his friend Ernest Hemingway, both still unpublished writers, and met the already-established F. Scott Fitzgerald. When Man Ray's friend and Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp, left for New York City, Man Ray set up his first studio at l'Hôtel des Ecoles at no. 15 rue Delambre. This is where his career as a photographer began, and where James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau and the others filed in and posed in black and white.


title: Montparnasse

text: The "rue de la Gaité" in Montparnasse was the site of many of the great music-hall theatres, in particular the famous "Bobino".


title: Montparnasse

text: On their stages, using then-popular single name pseudonyms or one birth name only, Damia, Kiki, Mayol and Georgius, sang and performed to packed houses. And here too, Les Six was formed, creating music based on the ideas of Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau.


title: Montparnasse

text: The poet Max Jacob said he came to Montparnasse to "sin disgracefully", but Marc Chagall summed it up differently when he explained why he had gone to Montparnasse: "I aspired to see with my own eyes what I had heard of from so far away: this revolution of the eye, this rotation of colours, which spontaneously and astutely merge with one another in a flow of conceived lines. That could not be seen in my town. The sun of Art then shone only on Paris."


title: Montparnasse

text: While the area attracted people who came to live and work in the creative, bohemian environment, it also became home for political exiles such as Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Porfirio Diaz, and Simon Petlyura. But, World War II forced the dispersal of the artistic society, and after the war Montparnasse never regained its splendour. Wealthy socialites like Peggy Guggenheim, an art collector who married artist Max Ernst, lived in the elegant section of Paris but frequented the studios of Montparnasse, acquiring pieces that would come to be recognised as masterpieces that now hang in the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy.


title: Montparnasse

text: The Musée du Montparnasse opened in 1998 at 21 Avenue du Maine and closed in 2015. Although operating with a tiny city grant, the museum was a non-profit operation. The Gallery of Montparnasse was one of the first to introduce abstract expressionism in France in the 1940s, and still holds contemporary art exhibitions today.


title: Montparnasse

text: Prior to the completion of the current Air France head office in Tremblay-en-France in December 1995, Air France had its headquarters in a tower located next to the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Montparnasse and in the 15th arrondissement; Air France had its headquarters in the tower for about 30 years.


title: Battle of Fontenoy

text: The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by the Duke of Cumberland.


title: Battle of Fontenoy

text: At the beginning of 1745, the French were struggling to finance the war but held the initiative in the Austrian Netherlands, which offered the best opportunity for a decisive victory. In late April 1745, Saxe besieged Tournai, whose position on the upper Scheldt made it a vital link in the North European trading network, and thus meant the Allies would have to fight for it. Leaving 22,000 men in front of Tournai, Saxe placed his main force about away in the villages of Antoing, Vezon and Fontenoy, along a naturally strong feature strengthened with defensive works.


title: Battle of Fontenoy

text: After a number of unsuccessful flank assaults, the Allies made a frontal attack on the French centre with an infantry column of 15,000 men, before French cavalry charges and counterattacks inflicted heavy casualties, and forced them to withdraw toward Brussels. Tournai fell shortly afterwards, then Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges, and Dendermonde, followed by Ostend and Nieuwpoort when British troops were withdrawn in October to deal with the Jacobite rising of 1745. This left France in control of much of the Austrian Netherlands, cementing Saxe's reputation as one of the most talented generals of the era and restoring French battlefield superiority in Europe.


title: Battle of Fontenoy

text: However, by December 1745, Louis XV's Finance Minister warned him France faced bankruptcy, leading to peace talks in May 1746 at the Congress of Breda. Despite victories at Rocoux in 1746, Lauffeld in 1747, and Maastricht in 1748, the cost of the war and the British naval blockade meant the French economic position continued to deteriorate. As a result, their gains in the Austrian Netherlands were returned after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in November 1748.


title: Battle of Fontenoy

text: The immediate cause of the War of the Austrian Succession was the death in 1740 of Emperor Charles VI, the last male Habsburg in the direct line. Since the Habsburg monarchy was governed by Salic law, Maria Theresa, his eldest daughter and heir, was technically excluded from the throne, a condition waived by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.