You visual make the CW flinch (you can “flinch” him 3-4 time in a raw without interuption and i mean by that that the CW is unable to do anything) but your damage are always the same. It seems that the CW recover really fast from stagger while beeing staggered.
CW seem to randomly exit stagger status regardless of the stagger, how cann he possible exit stager while i m smashing him with 2h hammer heavies with 50% speed and some crit here and there !
Edit: It seems to happens when you get realy close to him, he start his special attack (undercut attack, kick and punch/elbow attack). I observed the same paterne on SV and Raiders, if you face hug them while staggering them, they migh do a push and an attack afterward.