Belts Wrestling Explained Clearly

Hi, I'm Clauddio Castanoli, professional wrestler for AEW Wrestling, former world champion, and this is Wrestling Unpacked. Do wrestlers get to keep the championship belts? That depends. When I was in WWE, there were two different sets. There was the ones that you see on TV. They're like polished and everything, and they would go back into locker, if you will, in a carrying case after. and they were the ones that you carry yourself to all the different uh live events and um you take those home and in uh AW there is one set of titles.

You can either take it home with you if you have other shows or media or promotional stuff to do or uh you can put it in a secure trolley at TV and it will be brought to the next one. What are the championship belts made out of? I mean, the base is leather and then the rest is metal. Or is it gold? It's not gold, but it's metal. Um, I mean, maybe gold. Who knows? They're very heavy. They're um I wouldn't say very heavy, but they're heavier than you would expect. Like, you can clearly tell um when one is in your bag. And I think they're also heavier than the replica belts. Way heavier because it's thick metal. or gold. How do you get your championship belt on the plane?

Well, you can wear it or you can put it like a normal human in your bag and then uh just put it in the overhead compartment. You do not want to check your uh championship belt because um you're kind of responsible for it if you lose it and uh yeah, you want to keep that close at hand. So, you never check your championship belt and you never check your gear. If you have it in your carry-on, uh quite a few times your bag will get searched and checked and then you'll get asked about it. Do wrestlers design their own ring gear? Some do. Yes. And uh some people have other people make the designs for them. They like graphic designers or whatever. They give them an idea and then they design

the gear. For most people, it's kind of a collaboration. Um or they can do it themselves. I've done it myself. I've had other people design it for me. I kind of like the design I have right now. It's very simple and very classic. Um, but to be fair, I liked all the gear designs that I had over the years for different reasons. I also made my own gear. Fun fact, do wrestlers get to pick their own entrance music? Yes and no. I think nowadays wrestlers have a lot more say in what they would like their entrance music to be. And then again, it's kind of a collaboration between um the person that makes the music and then he just kind of does his

thing and then you listen to it and you're like this is awesome or kind of like can we tweak this a little bit to kind of make it your own. But um I mean in the past it was just this is your music and that was it. How often do wrestlers work out in the gym? Well, I guess that depends on the wrestler. There's some that probably work out every day and there's some that don't work out at all. For me, it's uh at least 4 days a week in the gym. Um I kind of compete against other guys sometimes. Uh we do like CrossFit workouts and stuff like that. So then it becomes a competition. Uh but before when we were on the road 200 plus days a year. Uh you are I worked out with other people all the time. Mark Henry is

probably the strongest man who ever walked planet Earth. Uh I saw him work out. Um Biggie is another one. I was warming up and uh in the span it took my 10-minute elliptical warm-up. He like was up to sporting 500 pounds like it was nothing and I was like ah I'll stay on elliptical for a little bit longer. There's a lot of incredible athletes. I think Will Osprey went through a body transformation recently and I think he looks incredible. Same goes for uh John Moxley, all of my death riders. Park. Wait, I think Park you could just take from how he looks into like a just put him in like a he looks like a 1950s strong man. Just like you could just put him in a magazine, his thighs, something else. What does a show day look like for a wrestler? On TV days,

it's a little more um structured as in uh you show up way before uh it's really between around two o'clock when the show starts at 8 and then you kind of start getting ready trying to find uh figure out what you're doing that night. Uh if it's a match, if it's a interview segment or something like that, you prepare obviously differently. The longer you've been doing it, the kind of more relaxed you are, but also some days are just absolute chaos. So no matter of preparation or um tenure in the business will help you with that. Do wrestlers all travel together between shows? If you leave from the same city, you kind of travel together, but you don't really travel together.

Everybody just kind of travels by themselves. When we did a lot of live events and everything, uh I traveled with Rollins for 10 years pretty much. Um, but I also traveled with like uh the likes of Sheamus when I was tearing with him and now uh between shows I obviously uh when we have multiple ones I usually drive or uh travel with um either Marx or Park or uh the other death riders. What does the resting ring smell like? I was going to say antiseptic. Uh, but like the smells like the disinfecting stuff because before the show they put a nuke brand new canvas on and when it's used or after the show I think you can imagine smells like sweat

or whatever else was used. That's why I try to not be in the ring after uh hardcore matches. Good piece of advice I feel. What do wrestlers do while waiting for the match? I guess that's kind of um individual between different people. Uh some listen to music, uh some warm up. We as in the death riders, we started throwing a tennis ball around because it is fun and uh keeps your reflexes um on point before a match. I've seen people just sit and then get up and go up for the match. I've seen people do push-ups for hours. So, it kind of all kind of depends what your routine is. What moves do wrestlers always try to avoid? Ones that hurt? I think it depends on the wrestler and the situation and the opponent. Um,

all tied to the same thing and that is you don't want to get hurt. If you get hurt, uh, you know, it's obviously not good. Nobody wants to get hurt. How much can wrestlers hear from the crowd when you're in the ring? Everything. For me, it's the most important thing. I don't say we can hear everybody, but we can hear everything. as in like the noise level and especially the longer you've been doing it, you can just kind of tell the eb and flow of the audience. To me, that's the most important thing in wrestling. So, it's extremely important to listen to the audience and that's what makes it fun for the audience because uh you can kind of influence wrestling that way and

make yourself heard. Do wrestlers ever get scared by the pyro? Yes. I mean, if it's your pyro on your engines, uh, you shouldn't get scared. I mean, if you're in the back and not expecting pyro and then all of a sudden it goes off, it's Yeah, you get scared. How do you decide on your stage name as a wrestler? I guess it's different for everybody. It's either a nickname or something they've been given by a company or their trainer or whatever or something that they liked when they grew up. I think that's different for everyone. for me. I mean, it was just it's just my name is. It's not that um crazy. When I had a uh stage name, it was essentially just I picked like four first names and four last names and I kind of

told them whatever combination you guys want. What is the route to get into professional wrestling? I think there's many different ways to become one. There's like high level athletes that will like get brought in to try pro wrestling and then they stick with it. And there's people that has been their dream since they were a kid and they work the indies or you know their way up uh to get to one of the big promotions. This is not a brand new thing. There was always maybe celebrities or maybe football like in the past was more like football players for example because or bodybuilders or stuff like that. Now

it's influences us because of how everything evolved. As much as that is part of the business because it brings a new audience in and it keeps things I guess interesting. Uh I feel the core of the wrestling business is still wrestling and you shouldn't lose that. How do you decide on your signature move? I don't know if you decide on a signature move. I think it comes from experience, finding what works for you and what the crowd will respond to. Um, it can also just be the move that you do best. So, I think it's kind of a mix. Um, if somebody just does a move really well, that kind of becomes the signature move. If somebody does a move that the crowd really enjoys, that becomes

the signature move. So, I think it's kind of a combination. What does a day of training look like? Well, I don't know if you can train a whole day wrestling, but it's usually um a couple of hours. First, you warm up with some like calisthenics or rolls, that kind of stuff. And then um do some strengthening exercises, learn some techniques, repeat those, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat them again. Um but I feel if you never try new things and you never fall on your face, you never learn. So for me it's very important to always do something new or try to learn something new. Even for me now when I go back to ring and train um I always warm up I always do some something that I think is fun and

then just try to find new things to do. What is under a wrestling ring? It's a really good question actually. I don't think I've ever heard that one. Um under a wrestling ring. Well um there's tools to fix the ring. There's um usually tables and chairs. Yes, a lot of them. Um and then uh there's usually a cooler with water and medical supplies and whatever is necessary for the match. Do you have a restless WhatsApp chat? I have group chats. We have different wrestlers. There's obviously a deathright group chat. Uh I have a coffee group chat. I mean, you keep in touch with your friends and if you

wrestle and have been wrestling for a long time, um you obviously have a bunch of wrestler friends. So, there's bunch of group chats in the Death Righters group chat. There's always a lot of um uh like moves and holds and stuff like that. Um like video clips and stuff or training techniques or whatever. And it's very um keeps you on your toes because every time I want to be lazy, I'm like, "Okay, got to go work out." So, um which is the good part. Thank you very much for watching. Thanks for your questions. Uh, keep watching AW and uh, get ready for AEW all in Wembley August 30th.