Antonio Cesaro: On S'en Fout?

Uncle Sam

Rear Naked Bloke
For the less cultured among us, "On s'en fout?" means "Who cares?" in French. I tried to find "Who gives a fuck?" but it would appear my Google Translate skills are limited.

Antonio Cesaro - formerly Claudio Castagnoli, his real name, in various promotions - has been on WWE television for just over six months now. He's held the United States Championship since August. He's actually been pushed pretty consistently, and not flushed down the toilet as abruptly as, say, Lord Tensai. But the reaction from the crowd is, not to put too fine a point on it, scheisse.

Last night at Hell in a Cell you'd have thought Cesaro was performing to an audience of mimes. Alright, so they were hardly the loudest crowd, but you would have still expected some reaction from them rather than, well, blank stares. Big Show punching Sheamus in the face made them shit their pants, yet Cesaro ragdolling Justin Gabriel got farts.

To take an unusual detour, I'm going to say some nice things about Cesaro. Number one, he looks good - i.e. he's got a good look and you might wanna fuck him (if you were that way inclined). Here's a picture of him:

7QErF.jpg

That's the first time I've ever had to stop and think, "Will I get banned for posting a picture of a statue's dick?" Decided to play it safe in the end. PM me if you want gratuitous pictures of David's johnson.

Second, he's got quite a good offense. It's unusual, unorthodox and unique. He's very strong and very aggressive. William Regal or Bret Hart might tell you that wrestling is the art of making it look like you're destroying someone when you're not actually touching them. Except for his shitty finisher (seriously) Cesaro seems to be aspiring to that.

He's at least competent on the microphone. That is to say, he doesn't put the microphone to his mouth, panic and start screaming as if he's just been stabbed. He talks and words come out and everything. That's a plus.

And yet: nada, nothing, zero. He's as over as Jeremy Hunt in a children's ward. Why is that?
 
I don’t know all what you were saying except that you may have a man crush on him and you are willing to have sex with him. I don’t think there should be a thread on that.
Anyway, I just don’t like his character or gimmick. It’s boring not very entertaining. I really don’t care how many languages he knows either. He is great in the ring and probably really good at talking but I don’t really pay attention to him when he talks.
 
Who gives a fuck in french is "Qui donne un baiser", or so I'm lead to beleive by Google.

The more I see of Cesaro the more I like him. I think he would get a much better reaction from the crowd if he spoke a language they understand, you insult a bunch of rednecks in the south in French, & they're likely not gonna know what the think, so they do what they did last night, just sit there dumbfounded, with some stupid look on their face. I think if Cesaro drops the foreign language schtick & just started insulting fans in English that he'd draw a bit more of a reaction.
 
I don’t know all what you were saying except that you may have a man crush on him and you are willing to have sex with him. I don’t think there should be a thread on that.
Anyway, I just don’t like his character or gimmick. It’s boring not very entertaining. I really don’t care how many languages he knows either. He is great in the ring and probably really good at talking but I don’t really pay attention to him when he talks.

Thats the best opening line I've ever read.

That could easily be the problem, people just simply tune out because they dont kow what he's saying. He can talk, but five words (one in five languages I should say) is a little weak, I much preferred the Hell In A Cell approach.

Didnt he used to end his promo's with "and if you didnt understand me, that was the point." Much better.

He done some stuff making fun of cheese burgers or something, but I guess people figured out that he must have eaten SOME American food to still be alive, and then figured he must be ok. No heat there!

He just needs to do something bad. Like the pin via one foot method or something. He's just European right now, and wining matches strongly. There's not enough to hate. And when Americans are sooooo easy to wind up he really shouldn't have a problem! JR needs some reason to shout "DAMN YOU CESARO, DAMN YOU TO HELL!!!" rather than "This is just another impressive young man".

Bring the heat.

And yeah, he's quite the sexy man. He's got pecks where I wish I had pecks.

I think if Cesaro drops the foreign language schtick & just started insulting fans in English that he'd draw a bit more of a reaction.

Thats the one. He could even point out that the people are too stupid to know he's been insulting them! Let their stupidity infuriate him!
 
The hell is Chris Hero? Get out of FCW or NXT or whatever we are calling it and come say your dull and boring partner. Oh Yes!

Cesaro is good, yes. He has the skills to be a great superstar. He is tens times better than some, but not on the levels of others. I would rate him a strong 6 on a scale from Khali to Bryan in terms of in ring skill. Its just his character that sucks. Oh, you can speak five languages? Thats cool. I could learn one work a week in five languages too. He has continued to develop and thankfully dropped Aksana. I have high hopes for him wether he stays a singles star or reforms Kings Of Wrestling.
 
Cesaro is still very early on in his wrestling career and for me he has the potential to be a big star, at the very least a high end mid-card heel.

I think is offence is fantastic, as JBL pointed out at Hell in a Cell he's always coming at his competitors and as was pointed out earlier in this thread he legit looks like hes hurting his opponents even though we all know he isn't.

I don't think these skills should be underestimated. I think if you lookat Ryback and see how many people where complaining at how quickly he was thrust into the title picture... people should be happy that the Cessaro build has been slower. He is one major feud away from getting extremely over as a heel in my opinion. a Kofi Kingston feud could do it. Even getting in a program against Syn Cara and Rey Mysterio would seriously have the fans taking notice.

I know it's hard in this day and age but patience is a virtue even in the pro wrestling world.

For me I take more interest in Cesaro than many other wrestlers plying there trade further down the card.
 
The more I see Antonio Cesaro, the more I like watching him wrestle. The whole foreign language thing, in all honesty, it doesn't bother me. Cesaro as a foreign wrestler that dislikes America while being United States Champion is something that I think can easily get over. Lots of other wrestlers playing anti-American characters have gotten over doing much the same thing.

Part of the problem is that Cesaro has yet to have a meaningful feud. I thought he & Gabriel put on a fun match last night. The problem is that Gabriel is someone that doesn't get a lot of exposure on WWE television and hasn't for quite a while. When he does, he usually jobs out to someone. So that's part of the reason for the poor reaction last night. However, to be fair, the Atlanta crowd just flat out sucked last night. Even Ryback & Punk got generally piss poor reactions.

Give Cesaro a real feud against someone that fans have a legit reason to get behind and I think the reaction for Cesaro will improve. If they wanna drop the whole foreign accent thing, that's ok too, but I don't think that's what the real problem ultimately is.
 
I think the problem is that they aren't pushing him against established guys. He hold's their #6 title. The problem the 'E' is having, is that they aren't creating contenders. They treat all their titles except the world titles like springboards to other things, so they never treat them like things guys want. I remember when the TV title meant something, the intercontinental title was a sough after piece of gold, etc. Nowadays the wrestlers are made not to give a fuck so why should we? I remember when 'TOP GUYS' could chase secondary titles because at the end of the day, they were still titles. I think Cesaro is one of the best guys they have on the roster, but they have done nothing to get fans to really hate him or want to see him dethroned. The WWE has proven they can make stars... but that was the past... they need to think about the HERE and NOW or.. they will just be a Nostalgia kind of entertainment. People will still buy the DVDs, but they won't care whats going on in the present. They will just long for the rock'n'roll connection days or the new generation (har har) or ugh... the attitude era.

If someone in the 'E' read this... please develop guys.
 
Love watching him perform, always loved Claudio outside WWE as both a tag team wrestler and a singles wrestler, he was the sole reason I watched a couple CHIKARA events, a promotion I'm not too fond of. But since coming to the WWE, they seem to be having difficulty finding a way to actually build his character. Thus far hes been promoted as an intellectual of sorts with his various languages, a ladies man or "seductive" as his video package suggests, a dangerous wrestler who can take anybody out at any given time and now an anti-American.

From an in-ring standpoint he's fine. From a speaking standpoint he's fine. He has the look, he has the charisma, sadly his character plain out sucks; speaking of sucks and Antonio Cesaro, somebody find the person who produced his entrance theme and shoot them, thank you. I think they need to re-evaluate his character once again and find out exactly how they wish to promote him. Either way, I have no issue watching him, whether the crowd is into it or not.
 
I don’t know all what you were saying except that you may have a man crush on him and you are willing to have sex with him. I don’t think there should be a thread on that.

Au contraire.

Who gives a fuck in french is "Qui donne un baiser", or so I'm lead to beleive by Google.

I'll keep that one in my back pocket.

The more I see Antonio Cesaro, the more I like watching him wrestle.

This gave me pause for thought. When I was watching Hell In A Cell, I was also really enjoying watching Cesaro wrestle. He was beating the shit out of Gabriel, stomping on him, smacking him in the face, picking him up and throwing him around with ease. That was great. But then I thought, "Am I supposed to be watching this guy, who's trying to get over as a heel, and really enjoying how bad he's kicking the shit out of the guy who's the babyface?"

If he's getting no heat - as opposed to the "wrong kind" of heat - then we can't really say that's the problem.

The whole foreign language thing, in all honesty, it doesn't bother me. Cesaro as a foreign wrestler that dislikes America while being United States Champion is something that I think can easily get over. Lots of other wrestlers playing anti-American characters have gotten over doing much the same thing.

This just reminds me of Sheamus as United States Champion; during what I'd argue is easily his most boring phase in WWE. Maybe "I'm not from here and I have different customs to you!" is no longer a surefire way to get over as a heel.

Give Cesaro a real feud against someone that fans have a legit reason to get behind and I think the reaction for Cesaro will improve. If they wanna drop the whole foreign accent thing, that's ok too, but I don't think that's what the real problem ultimately is.

Santino might have been a good candidate. They had what, a title match and a rematch?
 
I think that everything about Cesaro is bad, he reminds me a lot one guy.. Drew McIntyre. Obviously I'm not talking about their looks, but their build and their way to get a reaction. He has an awful theme, in fact I believe that his first theme suited him well, it had presence, this one just plains suck so when he comes out I don't even know it's him.

The other thing was the fact that he was pushed out of nowhere, he wasn't even on TV when he won against Santino. Simple as that, he had a shot from nowhere and won it, just stupid booking. The title has to mean something and right now it does not mean anything. Cesaro is NOW being built, with the title and he isn't even doing anything relevant, because his contenders are for the most part jobbers like Zack Ryder or Justin Gabriel. Why not make him feud with a guy like R-Truth that was a tag team champion last month?

He isn't living up to the hype he had from his indy work in CHIKARA and Ring of Honor.
 
Out of all current wrestlers, I mean superstars, Claudio is absolutely my #1 favorite. Personally, I believe the lack of reaction he gets is based off two things.

1. No memorable feud.. or any feud for that matter. Which isn't too big of a deal considering the short time he's been in the company. I believe his first appearance was in April? He's being pushed semi-quickly compared to some people in the mid card that've been around quite a bit longer whom are also talented. It COULD be a bigger push ie Ryback but it's a pretty good start. I imagine creative/Vince/whomever matters are high on Cesaro considering the lack of story he's had.

2. His gimmick isn't really the best in the world but it's good enough for a mid-card title (that no one cares about) champ. People probably don't care to react to someone insulting them in a language they don't A) don't understand and/or B) don't realize they're even being insulted.. although given he's a heel it should be obvious what's going on but still, bit hard to have any reaction when you don't really know what he's saying. The little comment he used to make in the end about it being the point if they didn't understand him crossed that part out though.
 
If he's getting no heat - as opposed to the "wrong kind" of heat - then we can't really say that's the problem.



This just reminds me of Sheamus as United States Champion; during what I'd argue is easily his most boring phase in WWE. Maybe "I'm not from here and I have different customs to you!" is no longer a surefire way to get over as a heel.

That has been his direction for approximately, oh, eleven days. He has cut that promo in front of a live crowd....twice. How about a little time and consistent development before you condemn the gimmick? PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM SAM

Antonio Cesaro fucking ROCKS. The WWE has done barely just above Mason Ryan levels of character development and mic time to get anyone to give half of a fuck about him. This is the issue. He began cutting promos that were longer than one word, uh, fucking two weeks ago. Of course no one cares about him. He has been given little to nothing since his debut, and hasnt been put against anyone who can help him get over. Let us not pretend that silence at HIAC was not JUST as much about Justin Gabriel as it was Cesaro. It takes two.

I could see him putting on phenominal matches with guys who can really bump, Mysterio, Christian, Bryan, etc, but they seemed determined to find the least over guys on the roster possible for him to run feuds with. Hey, lets go with an anti american gimmick, then put him against a guy from south africa that no one gives a fuck about! Yea!

To think those people get paid to book this fucking shit.

Badly mishandled to be anything but what he is at this point. Damn shameful.
 
It was a mistake giving him the US title. When he won some people were saying he would bring credibility back to the title. That was never going to happen. You cant bring any crediblity to a title when the majority of the WWE universe dont care about you. It makes the US title look bad. Atleast when Santino was champ fans reacted to him.

His in ring work is solid, but his character sucks. Right now he reminds me of Jinder Mahal...Has a lame gimmick and cant get over with fans. The anti-American gimmick feels a little dated to me.
 
That has been his direction for approximately, oh, eleven days. He has cut that promo in front of a live crowd....twice. How about a little time and consistent development before you condemn the gimmick? PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM SAM

NorCal, I was thinking about arguing with you. The balls on me, eh? Unfortunately, you're right - much to my chagrin.

I will say the fact that Cesaro got no reaction still troubles me; he's had enough exposure and opportunity that he should probably be getting something. But it was one crowd and against a guy whose only major selling point is that he does a sick flip. It wasn't really a fair test.

Something I was going to ask was who Cesaro should go up against, but it's actually quite obvious. Santino is perpetually over, though revisiting that particular well so soon might be rather odd. Despite WWE's best efforts, Zack Ryder - the other half of... "Cobro"? - still has some heat. Does Sin Cara really need a tag team partner? Rey Mysterio's the answer to any question. Is Christian dead? Did he die while I wasn't looking, or is he just injured again? Orton - if they're not putting him in the world title scene - would be a more than worthy distraction.

I also want to point out that I remembered who Cesaro's valet was all by myself. Aksana. Get me.
 
The translation for "Who gives a fuck ?" is "Qui en a quelque-chose à foutre ?". Believe me I'm french^^

Like many of us, I appreciate Cesaro but his gimmick and the fact he has no feud makes him boring. I think that he not lacks many things to make him connect with the crowd.

And sorry for my english :)
 
He gets no reaction because Switzerland is like the neutral zone therefore he gets a neutral reaction.

I like Cesaro, there's really nothing wrong with him at all, he's got a good yet different moveset, a good look and he's decent on the mic although a lot of times I don't know what he's saying (is he saying I'm pretty?) but then again that never stopped the Ultimate Warrior. It could be as simple as nothing is wrong with him but something is missing so people don't really know how to react to him. He's supposed to be a heel but there isn't much reason to hate him, but then again there isn't much reason to like him either.
 
I think Cesaro is great. He has in-ring skill, he can talk on the mic, he has a great gimmick, and he has the United States Championship. The only thing I think that should change with him would be he needs to have a solid feud. Like maybe he comes out to the ring and challenges any American wrestler in the back to a shot at his title. This will get him more over with the crowd. And it could work in favor for a returning Jack Swaggar, whenever that will be...
 
I have been liking Cesaro. He is something different. I thought he was the perfect guy to carry the US title for a while. He hasn't been talking for more than a few weeks, and while I agree he didn't get much of a reaction, I think we should give it some more time. I like his move set a lot, and I really think he will get over on the mic after some more time. As long as he keeps defending the title, and actually mentioning it as something important I will be happy for the time being.
 
This post is a hard one to write because I want to like Cesaro, I really do. I've heard nothing but good things about him from his time in the Kings of Wrestling and when I first read that he was finally getting called up to WWE television I was really looking forward to seeing what he could do but I have to say I've been sorely disappointed!

To focus on the positives I kind of feel the same way as OP. Cesaro has got a great physique, a hard hitting, innovative and unique moveset and from his matches against Christian and Ryder at NOC it seems like he can put on a good match but for some reason I just can't connect to him and last night to me was a sure fire sign that a good portion of the WWE Universe can't connect to him either and that's sad to see because he does have a good upside. We could say that it was just one crowd but to me he hasn't been particularly over at all since he debuted and even a played up foreign heel gimmick doesn't seem to be working well. Remember that when it comes to fan reactions the thing Vince hears the most is silence and I believe without a shadow of a doubt that he heard that silence all too clearly last night.

I don't believe that Cesaro's failure to get over is all his own fault though and hopefully he will connect with the crowd eventually (sooner rather than later preferably), WWE hasn't given us much of a reason to care about him. Gabriel went from months of months of jobbing to getting a random title shot on PPV unannounced so surely creative couldn't have been expecting the crowd to be too hot for the match.

Even as I wrote this post I found myself changing my opinion back and forth on Cesaro and that definitely sums up how I feel about him in general. He could make it due to his skill and potential while he mightn't make it due to bad booking and a failure to connect with the crowd, it's a hard one to call, I do hope he does make it however.
 
I think if they had of gone a different route after he won the US title, it could have been better, pull a Lance Storm in WCW, get rid of the US Title, replace it with a Swiss/European title, would get him more over in Europe for the overseas tours and would probably piss people off, as from a European, anything done to the Star Spangled Banner seems to really piss Americans off.

The five language thing does make sense as it is the four languages of Switzerland (Francais Suisse, Schweizer Deutsch, Svizzera Italiana and Romansh), so it does make sense in that way
 

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