Welcome to Last Word on Mania month at Last Word on Sports! All month long we will be doing articles to build up for Wrestlemania 31 on March 29, 2015. Be sure to read everything this month by clicking this link. Enjoy!
What a difference a year makes. It’s a common expression but in the world of professional wrestling, it’s also an appropriate one, especially in this day and age. No longer will you see champions reign for years or rivalries last for long stretches of time. Change is constant in a world fueled by social media and instant gratification media, and World Wrestling Entertainment is no different. Because of this, a superstar can easily go from the outhouse to the doghouse in one year’s time, which brings us to the case of WWE superstar Cesaro. Many fans have been vocal regarding the use of Cesaro in WWE throughout his entire tenure with the company, but especially in the last 12 months. Why? Let’s take a look and try to break down where Cesaro stands one years after Wrestlemania XXX
Before Wrestlemania XXX
In the months leading up to Wrestlemania XXX, Cesaro was one half of the tag team known as the Real Americans with Jack Swagger. Under the tutelage of Zeb Colter, Cesaro and Swagger were impressing fans with their in ring work, but failing to reach the top of WWE’s Tag Team Division. This failure was likely the reason both men agreed to focus on singles achievements in the early months of 2014. Jack Swagger went after Big E and the Intercontinental Championship, while Cesaro had a bigger goal in mind.
Cesaro qualified for the Elimination Chamber match and had what was arguably the best month of his career, scoring a huge victory over WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton and putting on spectacular matches with John Cena and his other Chamber opponents. The crowd’s positive reaction and the quality of these contests demonstrated that it was time to give Cesaro a shot at the next level in WWE.
After Elimination Chamber, Cesaro chased Big E’s Intercontinental Championship in what became a race with his Real Americans partner Jack Swagger to see who would dethrone the champion first. There was even rumors of a triple threat match scheduled for the three men going into Wrestlemania. Surprisingly, that would not come to pass, as Big E entered the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, and the Real Americans were delegated to the Wrestlemania XXX pre-show, taking on Los Matadores, Rybaxel, and the WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos in a four corners contest.
Wrestlemania XXX
The evening started off well for the Real Americans, with the team eliminating both Los Matadores and Rybaxel in a matter of minutes. However, things quickly fell apart as The Usos managed to pin Cesaro after a double top rope splash. Swagger and Cesaro blamed each other for the loss and disintegrated any resemblance of team work by performing their signature moves on each other. In the end, Cesaro would have the last laugh, giving Swagger his Big Swing maneuver and walking out. Most assumed that after a frustrating loss and a falling out with his partner, Cesaro’s night was over. Well, you know what they say about people who assume.
Later on during the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, there was an unexpected and unexplained extra entrant. Cesaro had decided to enter himself in the battle royal, with shocking results. Once fans realized that Cesaro was in the match and thriving, they began to rally behind the Swiss Superman, and when it came down to him and odds on favorite the Big Show, they unanimously cheered his every move. The table had been set to create a Wrestlemania moment, and Cesaro delivered by ending the match with an insane act of strength. The Swiss Superman lived up to his moniker by body slamming the 400 plus pound Big Show over the top rope. The crowd roared with approval as the Big Show shook his hand and he was presented the trophy. For fans of Cesaro this was to mark the beginning of his rise into the main event picture.
Extreme Rules
After the conclusion of the four way tag team match, and the reaction he received in the battle royal, many assumed Cesaro was headed for a change in attitude. Instead, he joined forces with Paul Heyman, the biggest heel manager in the company. Many fans were confused by the choice, but still saw it as a step forward for Cesaro, so they were accepting of it. Hindsight being 20/20, its now easy to see that pairing Cesaro with Heyman was WWE saying they didn’t have confidence that Cesaro could reach main event status on his own.
If that didn’t make things clear to Cesaro fans, than perhaps they should have gotten the message when he was passed over in the tournament to name the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. It ended up coming to pass that Bad News Barrett would face Big E at Extreme Rules, while Cesaro faced his former partner Jack Swagger and Rob Van Dam in a triple threat match stemming from the break up of the Real Americans and issues involved with #1 Contenders Tournament. Although Cesaro won the match, it wasn’t the kind of follow up fans were hoping for.
Payback
Cesaro did eventually get the opportunity to wrestle for an undercard championship following Extreme Rules, when he defeated United States Champion Sheamus in a non title contest on Main Event. The victory was the foundation of Cesaro challenging his Irish counterpart at Payback, which had high expectations from purist fans, and did not disappoint. What did disappoint some fans was the victory for Sheamus, when he won with a small package pin fall. At this point, fans began to question is Cesaro’s big push was ever going to happen.
Money In The Bank
The vacated WWE World Heavyweight Championship left open a huge opportunity for someone to step up and break through as the face of WWE. One of the men who had that chance was Cesaro when he defeated Rob Van Dam to qualify for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match at Money In The Bank. While Cesaro was considered an underdog, this was still a spot in the main event, and it was WWE once again saying that were not giving up on him. His performance was good, if not forgettable, but in the end, it was John Cena selected to be the sacrificial lamb to Brock Lesnar a month later at Summer Slam. In hindsight, Cesaro almost dodged a bullet by not winning, as being decimated by Brock Lesnar would have likely hurt him more than the title win would have helped him.
Battleground
It was back to chasing secondary championship for Cesaro, who was given a spot in the 20 man battle royal to determine the new Intercontinental Championship, a title that had been vacated by Bad News Barrett after suffering an injury. On paper, this would seem like an easy win for Cesaro, considering that he had won a 30 man battle royal only a few months earlier. Alas, it was not to be as The Miz had recently returned with a new Hollywood gimmick and was given a boost, along with the Intercontinental Championship. With no new developments in his character since the night after Wrestlemania, Cesaro was beginning to grow stale.
Summer Slam
Around this time, Cesaro began losing a lot of matches. It was clear that in WWE’s mind, the Cesaro experiment had failed, and that was never more apparent than at Summer Slam. Cesaro had been relegated to the pre-show, and although there were many at WWE who would have loved that opportunity, it was still a step down for the Swiss Superman, and a spot he hadn’t found himself in since before the year started. Worse yet, there was build up for his match against aging star Rob Van Dam, who handily defeated Cesaro in a quick and forgettable match with the Five Star Frog Splash.
Night Of Champions
It seemed as though Cesaro’s days were numbered, but he would be given another chance to impress with a match against an old rival in Sheamus. After avenging his loss to Rob Van Dam in a #1 Contender’s match, Cesaro was scheduled to face off against the angry Irishman once again on pay per view and once again for the United States Championship. There was much less confidence that Cesaro would walk away the title this time, and that proved to be a smart assumption as Sheamus turned back his challenge with his signature Brogue Kick, retaining his championship in the process. Although the match meant little, it still showed that WWE recognized Cesaro’s abilities as a good hand. Some would see that as a kiss of death, but it actually would end up leading to one of Cesaro’s best showings of the year and another chance at gold.
Hell In A Cell
Cesaro was not done trying to capture a secondary championship, but instead of continuing to pursue Sheamus, the Swiss Superman turned his attention to then Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler. Dolph and Cesaro could be seen as two sides of the same coin. Both men are considered tremendous athletes with cult followings who pride themselves on their in ring abilities. The idea of these two squaring off was a purist’s dream match, and after trading victories back and forth on television, the added stipulation of a best of three contest only made the anticipation more palpable.
The match lived up to expectations and both Ziggler and Cesaro put on a performance that was worthy of their followings. In the end, Dolph Ziggler was victorious in two straight falls, a decision that surprised some, perhaps most of all, Cesaro.
Survivor Series
With so much focus on the Authority versus Team Cena main event at Survivor Series, there wasn’t a lot of time given to the mid card ranks, meaning that outside of a small interaction with John Cena in which they made a joke about his country of origin making him “neutral” to the main event conflict, Cesaro once again found himself a part of the pre-show, this time losing a throw away match to his former Real Americans partner Jack Swagger. At least his pre-show match with RVD at Summer Slam got announced on WWE.com. This one wasn’t even advertised.
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs, and Stairs
By this point, an unannounced pre-show match was looking pretty good as Cesaro didn’t even appear at this event, not even on the pre-show. He wasn’t even invited to sit on the pre-show panel! It took a while to get there, but this would mark the end of Cesaro’s run attempt at a single’s push. Of course, when you hit bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.
Royal Rumble
Leading up to the Royal Rumble, Cesaro began teaming up with Tyson Kidd, a man who also had the title of good hand that was languishing in the singles ranks. A feud with the New Day was sparked after Kidd and Cesaro decided to attack the trio, allowing their new friend Adam Rose to score a victory over Big E. This lead to a tag team match on the Royal Rumble pre-show that showcased what Cesaro and Kidd could do as a unit. The results were impressive and the unanimous opinion was that Cesaro and Kidd had great chemistry together. The new Swiss Canadian combo walked away with both a victory and something even more important, momentum.
Fastlane
With the WWE Tag Team Division in a state of staleness, the team of Kidd and Cesaro was a breath of fresh air. Although the Usos had done a tremendous job representing the division as champions, they needed a new challenge to keep them from getting stale. Kidd and Cesaro were still in the honeymoon stage with fans, and had plenty of both momentum and fan support heading into the contest.
Heading into the contest it was unclear if Kidd and Cesaro had made enough of an impression with their dual chemistry and charisma to be given the chance to run with the ball, or if they were simply being set up as fodder for the Usos. At Fastlane it took one Fisherman’s Neckbreaker to know the answer was the former.
Finally, Cesaro had captured WWE Championship gold; just not in the way most expected.
Cesaro: One Year Later
So, is Cesaro better off today than he was a year ago? Well, that depends on how you look at it. After Wrestlemania, some fans were certain that his victory as the first winner of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal would sky rocket him into the main event picture and maybe even a run as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, or a Money In The Bank contract. If that was your projected career path for Cesaro this year, than no, he is not better off than he was a year ago. If that was your measure of success for the King of Swing than this past year was a complete disaster marked by the bungling of him and his character by WWE.
Of course, there is always more than one point of view, and looking at it from another angle, an argument could certainly be made that not only did Cesaro have a successful year, but he is definitely better off than he was a year ago. From April until February, WWE has held 11 pay per view events. Of those 11, Cesaro wrestled on 10 of them, eight of which were on the main card, and six of those were for a major WWE Championship. Although he was only victorious in three pay per view contests, one of those was for a major WWE Championship, and of the losses he did suffer, three of them were in multi man matches where he was never pinned or submitted.
By comparison of the same time frame a year prior, WWE held 11 pay per view contests, and of those 11 Cesaro only appeared on 8, 6 of which were losses (The two victories? One against the team of Santino Marella and the Great Khali, and a technical victory for their Survivor Series team, which they only won due to Roman Reigns destroying their entire opposition) making his loss percentage much higher. In those 8 appearances he competed for a major WWE Championship on only 3 occasions, meaning he challenged for half as many as in the past year, and was victorious in none of those attempts, compared to his championship victory at Fastlane. There are those that will say his defeat at Elminiation Chamber in 2014 was bigger than his WWE Tag Team Championship victory at Fastlane, but remember, that’s the power of perspective. And if you do believe that then you can still say he had an equally high profile match in the last year with his WWE World Heavyweight Championship ladder match at Money In The Bank. Did Cesaro become a main event talent like we hoped? No, but he went from losing meaningless tag team matches to competing for singles championships on nearly every major WWE event, and heading into Wrestlemania, he is a champion, just not the champion we expected.
Perhaps that is where the real blame lies in looking at Cesaro’s past year. Not on WWE for seemingly ruining Cesaro’s character (which they didn’t) but on our own expectations being a little too high (which they were). Not everyone can be a main event talent, and in the past year, there was already little room at the top for the talent that already had those “new main eventer” spots reserved (Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Rusev, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose) and Cesaro did nothing to separate himself from the pack. There are those that will argue that WWE never gave him a chance to do so, but looking at those numbers above, that argument holds little water. Cesaro is fantastic wrestler, but as a sports entertainer, he still has some work to do, at least as a single’s star.
While his single’s push was a failure, Cesaro’s new team with Tyson Kidd (The Brass Ring Club, the Uppercats, whatever you want to call it), has shown immediate positive results, and carrying an entire division on your back with a great partner is nothing to be ashamed of. Even in Ring of Honor, Cesaro found his greatest success as part of a tag team. Maybe as fans it’s time we stopped trying to push Cesaro as a single’s star and get behind him as a tag team specialist. It seems to be where he excels, and who knows, if we stop thinking of tag teams as a demotion, maybe WWE will too. That would make 2015 a great year for everyone, including Cesaro.
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Photo courtesy of wwe.com
