Claudio Castagnoli Reveals Plans For Second ROH World Title Reign

Claudio Castagnoli will have the opportunity to regain the ROH World Championship at the Final Battle pay-per-view on Saturday, December 10 when he goes one-on-one with Chris Jericho. Should Castagnoli lose, though, he will be forced to join the Jericho Appreciation Society.

If Castagnoli does manage to defeat Jericho, he plans to move away from major ROH World Title matches and use the belt to elevate talents that have been grinding on All Elite Wrestling's YouTube shows. 

"I would be a fool to say that Chris Jericho didn't defend the title a lot, and in some tremendous matches and brought a lot of eyes to the Ring of Honor World Championship just by defending against all comers in AEW. So, I would love to win the title back - A. So I don't have to join the Jericho Appreciation Society, and B. So I can bring honour back to the ROH Championship," Castagnoli told Dallas Morning News.

"And then I would like to defend it in a similar way that he did, but not against former champions. I feel like I would like to defend it against young talent that has been grinding their teeth, for example, on AEW Dark, and hasn't had that chance yet to showcase that talent on television. Give them a shot at the Ring of Honor Title because I feel like that's what it's always been and meant was to showcase new talent and give talent the chance [who may not have] another outlet. That's what Ring of Honor always was. It was kind of the proving ground for people to prove how good they really were before mainstream saw it."

Claudio Castagnoli first reigned as ROH World Champion from Death Before Dishonor in July until he dropped the belt to Chris Jericho at Dynamite: Grand Slam 60 days later. Castagnoli successfully defended the title against Dustin Rhodes, Dax Harwood, Ari Daivari, and Konosuke Takeshita.