9 Former PWG Champions Who Now Wrestle In WWE

6. Cesaro

Cesaro US Title
wwe.com

The Swiss Superman wrestled in PWG for six years under his real name of Claudio Castagnoli, and was every bit as consistent in California as he has been in WWE. Castagnoli won more than he lost in the company, defeating men such as Chris Hero, Low Ki and El Generico along the way. Castagnoli never made it further than the semis of BOLA, however, doing so in 2010 before being eliminated by Joey Ryan.

Castagnoli was a one-time PWG World Champion, winning the title at The Curse of Guerrilla Island in October 2010. The championship was vacant going into the match, vacated by Davey Richards who was unable to defend it, and Castagnoli had to defeat Brandon Gatson, Chris Hero and Joey Ryan in a four-way match to climb to the top of the mountain.

Castagnoli held the title for 287 days, which at that point was the third-longest reign in championship history. After six successful defences against opponents such as Ryan and Hero Claudio's confidence got the better of him, losing the belt to Kevin Steen at PWG Eight just moments after defeating Hero in a gruelling 36-minute battle.

Steen was the hottest wrestler outside of WWE at this time (July 2011), and the crowd went absolutely wild for his championship win. Two months later, Claudio Castagnoli signed a developmental contract with WWE.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.