Antonio Cesaro is a special Superstar in my eyes. He has the prototypical look that Vince dies for, but also has top-rated in-ring ability, which is hard to find these days. He has a problem in cutting promos, as, although his English are not terrible, they are not outstanding either, as he is Swiss.
When he first started in the WWE, I hadn't heard anything about him, so he came off to me as another random guy, who has a great build and will be found in 2-3 months jobbing to Cena after he fails to connect with the fans, destroys his push and gets demoted to jobbing status.
For the first couple of months, he hadn't shown anything impressive to get my attention, which is the case for most "newbies" anyway. He was inserted in some stupid multilingual gimmick with Aksana, which was so irrelevant and no one cared, then he went on to win the US Championship. His first days were still irrelevant, as I still didn't see much from him, mostly because he wasn't given time to show his skills. Then, during late in 2012, I started seeing him as a legit guy, because he was consistent in his matches ( nothing special but consistent, solid performances). He made me not being irrelevant towards him, but not high either. As time progressed though, he always came off to me as a really great performer, who is really strong and can do a lot of technical moves and work any type of match. Eventually, he lost the title and was inserted to random feuds/ jobbing tag teams which made no sense.
And we come to his infamous match with Bryan, which was at least SummerSlam main-event worthy. Great connection with the crowd by both sides, partly because of the YES/NO thing by Bryan, but they both showed how amazing they are in the ring and how well they can work any match.
With all the above being said, I'd like to answer to your opinion. The guy can easily split off the Real Americans and follow a solo career again. To me, at first, it doesn't matter if he is a face or a heel, as much as he is inserted in a high profile feud, like the Heyman-Punk thing, or the corporate storyline. He needs to be given attention, because we know that he can go in the ring, now he needs to get that attention by everyone (yes, even the kids) which is only attained by working into a high profile situation.
With that out of the way, I will point out that the easier way to get that attention is obviously by being a face. You want to make noise everytime you get into the ring, and what better way than having people cheer for you.
We know that the grown-up fans for the most part will support a guy, no matter his face/heel status, as long as it entertains them, so this brings us to the kids. The kids will cheer the face and boo the heel. So if you want to create noise, you go face so that you get the kids involved too.
I don't know the exact booking required, because there are already many faces and heels and Superstars in general involved in the Corporate storyline, and the Punk-Heyman feud seems to be filled with Superstars right now, since Punk is the loner and Heyman already has 2 guys and 1 part-timer to his arsenal. He could chase Del Rio and the WHC though, which would make a decent case for the typical by-the-book face vs heel. If he is the one who manages to take the title off Del Rio, which lately he seems to be kinda untouchable, as he has held the title for some time now, the place will show support and probably will get him over.
Him turning face seems to be the best option at the moment. Give him something big and I believe he won't disappointed (as long as he isn't overshadowed too much by other angles going on).
