It’s safe to say Claudio Castagnoli was in a good mood after successfully defending the CMLL World Heavyweight Championship against Roderick Strong on “AEW Collision.” Just one day later, CMLL released a video of the Death Riders enforcer announcing that he would be back in Arena Mexico this Friday, and was willing to put the CMLL World Heavyweight Title on the line against “a young luchador who thinks they have what it takes to take this away from me.”
One day later, CMLL found a luchador that’s up for the challenge. On X early Monday afternoon, CMLL star Xelhua officially answered Castagnoli’s challenge, with CMLL confirming the match would take place this Friday. After cutting a promo mostly in Spanish, Xelhua had one final statement for Claudio in English.
“Claudio, I’m ready,” Xelhua said. “And this championship stays in Mexico.”
⌛🌎🇨🇠🇲🇽
🔥 ¡Ya hay retador!El Gigante Cholulteca, Xelhua, levanta la mano y responde al reto abierto de Claudio Castagnoli para enfrentarse en un duelo por el Campeonato Mundial de Peso Completo del CMLL, este viernes 30 de enero en la Arena México.#CMLL #AEW pic.twitter.com/FTPnGzYWXg
— Lucha Libre CMLL (@CMLL_OFICIAL) January 26, 2026
Considered one of the most technically sound luchadors in the world despite being only 21 years old, Xelhua is very familiar to AEW and Ring of Honor fans thanks to his battles against ROH Pure Champion Lee Moriarty. The two have wrestled three times since the end of July, with Xelhua, wrestling to a time limit draw in their first match before Moriarty defeated Xelhua at ROH Death Before Dishonor and last Saturday’s CMLL event in Arena Coliseo, retaining the title on both occasions.
Xelhua vs. Castagnoli will be the latter’s third defense of his CMLL World Heavyweight Championship reign, and will also serve as Xelhua’s first ever challenge for said championship, though he has previously challenged Atlantis Jr. and Guerrero Maya Jr. for the World Historic Light Heavyweight and Mexican National Middleweight Championships. Having come up short in those two matches, a win over Castagnoli would give Xelhua his first ever CMLL championship.
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