Claudio Castagnoli comments on the fan reaction to his hug with Tony Khan

NBC Sports Boston's Steve Fall recently spoke with AEW star Claudio Castagnoli on his debut at Forbidden Door, his match with Jake Hager, and more.

Claudio on why he signed with AEW:

“As you know, I was obviously following AEW for a while. When it came time for me to take a step back and look, I felt that I was a better fit at AEW. There was a lot more for me to do with AEW when it came to challenges and when it came to people that I wanted to work with. There’s so many people that I haven't wrestled either at all, or in a very, very long time. So that’s what I wanted to do. That’s what I will have fun doing.”

On people reacting both positively and negatively to Tony Khan hugging him at the Forbidden Door press conference:

“It's so strange because that was after the Forbidden Door. It was literally like, it was like a quick hug. It was just like I was done, and it was just like, it lasts. It was like, you know when you see your friend and then you give like a high five and then like a pat on the back kind of hug and like it was screen captured, and I guess people ran with it. It’s just a few pros hugging.”

On if the face-to-face he had with Jack Hager on a recent edition of Dynamite was by design:

"So that was another fantastic thing when I wanted to join AEW. I have history with pretty much everybody. If there's not, that’s something that we can do. There's something that we can create here. It was one of those Blood and Guts where me and Hagar ended up in the ring, and why not right there? There's history there. Why ignore it? That's the beauty about it. I feel like a lot of times stuff gets ignored because like, people don't remember, but no, people remember, especially wrestling fans. They have such good memories. They come up to me with stuff that I've forgotten. It's just one of those Easter eggs."

Click below to watch the entire interview.

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Steve Fall at NBC Sports Boston with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.