Is Heath Slater getting a push or does Cesaro have backstage heat?

[MartialHorror]

The biggest surprise in the Battleground PPV for me wasn't the Uso's retaining, the Miz winning the IC Belt or the lack of a Rollins Vs Ambrose match...it was how well Heath Slater did in the battle Royale, even making it to the...was it final four?

Heath Slater has been used only as a jobber since I started watching wrestling again, even losing his return match. Even Damian Sandow has it better as at least he sometimes looks strong in his losing efforts. So when Heath Slater not only lasted so long in the battle royale, but actually eliminated Cesaro of all people...it made me wonder.

Is Heath Slater finally getting a legit push?
Or did Cesaro piss someone off backstage?

I kind of hope it's the former, as I don't like how WWE has become so blatant with who is the jobber, with guys like Sin Cara, Heath Slater and Zack Ryder seemingly never scoring meaningful wins (Ryder's recent victory on RAW was treated as a huge shock). However, RAW also had Heath getting out-pushed by the guest musical performer, so...I guess not? Also, while I did not see the match, apparently he and Titus lost a match against Big E and Kofi on Main Event.

So perhaps Cesaro did piss someone off, as he has been on a losing streak lately. I never thought I'd see Swagger eat up all the momentum Cesaro acquired after their breakup? I think turning Cesaro heel was a huge mistake, even though he did a good job with it. As RAW had Cesaro inquire about being Triple H's man, maybe his role will increase once more.

What do you guys think? Is Slater getting a push of any kind? Do you even want him to? I want WWE to not be so obvious as to who the jobbers are, but that would require potentially stunting the growth of rising stars. Being eliminated by Heath Slater could only hurt Cesaro, especially if Heath doesn't get the push.

 

[The Brain]

I don't think it matters who eliminates who in a battle royal. All that matters is who wins. I wouldn't look at this arbitrary elimination as any kind of sign for either man. I doubt Slater is getting much of a push since he was made to look like a bitch by Flo Rida again last night.

 

[LBGetBack]

It's mindboggling that WWE finds it necessary to let a gueststar rapper punk one of their wrestlers like that.

It's one thing if an elite athlete giant like Shaq does it. It's quite another when it's a musical guest. Dumb.

Not turning Cesaro face when he was incredibly over after the breakup with Swagger, and giving him a decent push was dumb enough.....putting him with Heyman and yet making him lose all the time was even dumber......now separating from Heyman and making him lose even more is dumbest of all. Serously, why the hell are they doing this with Cesaro? What a waste of a talented guy who was very credible and very over.

 

[BeeHive]

The Cesaro elimination was just meant to be a bit of a suprise.

WWE thinks their booking is making Slater into a comedy loser who everyone is laughing at and wants to see getting beat up.

In reality all his booking does is make nobody care about him. When the team with him and Titus was announced they were greeted with silence.

Could they not at the very least give Slater the credibility to make others look good instead of having him get beat by pop stars and retired wrestlers?

 

[ABMorales787]

Nah, my friend. WWE creative is just that uncreative. They go through beaten down tropes and cliche's by the episode. The surprise upset. The distraction win. Just look at The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. Miz wins the title, next day he's pinned. To them loses just don't matter.

 

[Pedigree1]

It was weird seeing Slater in the Final Four.. Figuring he would have been the first three eliminated to have him last that long,probably says next to nothing.. Its a BR,anything can happen and orders of elimination really dont matter..

What happened on MNR does matter though.. The WWE made slater look like a punk,because that no-talent ass clown Flo-Rida pushed him yet again.. Its one thing to have someone like Rey Lewis or Shaq punk Slater,but to have Flo-Rida do it,that wasn't cool..

Im not sure if Slater is turning a corner or not,I will probably have to lean towards the ladder.. I Hope im wrong,i see potential in Slater as a solid Mid-carder

 

[Reflection]

Cesaro's momentum is dead. He is at Kofi's level now. Only way to potentially bring something back to him would be to turn him face and give him the Swing.

Paul Heyman FAILED with Cesaro. Its as simple as that.
As opposed to the cases of Axel and Ryback who were already towards the end of the rope before he picked them, Cesaro was red-hot and he is now ice-cold.

It'd be fantastic if someone could bump that old thread where everyone was ejaculating in their pants about how Paul Heyman would take Cesaro to the next level and make him a "True main event star".
When that was failing before everyone's eyes, the consensus was "Oh, Heyman is praising Brock so that Cesaro gets fed up at one point and asks for a match against Brock." I too thought that could be true, but that wasn't to be.
Then there was this terrible, terrible entrance theme for him (which some people surprisingly thought "fits his character"), but that earsore only brought him further down.
He stopped using the Swing- the move that got him over. There was no "We The People!" - the chant that contributed equally to his success...
It was a doomed direction. Only a matter of time till everyone figured it out.
No fault of his own though. But he will get the blame for everything.

Here we have Heath Slater. Funny guy (we need someone to replace Santino too), good in interviews and on the mic, looks good as well, and crowd reacts to him... His push was a long time coming.

 

[J.J.]

Nah, my friend. WWE creative is just that uncreative. They go through beaten down tropes and cliche's by the episode. The surprise upset. The distraction win. Just look at The Miz and Dolph Ziggler. Miz wins the title, next day he's pinned. To them loses just don't matter.

Loses to a some degree really don't matter. WWE aren't working off a ranking system. It's entertainment, not UFC.

Damien Sandow is on TV weekly and is entertaining I might add, despite his losing streak. People argue he is being buried. To me being buried is if he was limited to Mainevent but he's getting time in the ring and on the mic weekly. I'd argue he's more entertaining than Rusev who is undefeated.

It's easy to be on the other side and try to be critical. Ask yourself if creative has made you lose interest in the product.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

According to reports I've read, Cesaro is expected to get a babyface push at some point, but it's been pushed back for a couple of reasons. Right now, WWE is pushing Roman Reigns and, obviously, WWE doesn't want another new babyface rising through the ranks as Reigns is right now. Also, according to those reports, WWE ultimately wants to keep John Cena and Daniel Bryan at their levels as well. So if this information is legit and accurate, Cesaro is in line for face turn and a push, but I'm thinking that it probably won't come about until WrestleMania season next year.

I doubt very much that Cesaro has heat, otherwise I think there's a strong possibility he'd have been buried on Raw against Dean Ambrose instead of them having a strong, competitive match in which both men were protected by the ending. Ambrose throwing caution to the wind by using the chair fits with his impulsive, lunatic fringe character. I doubt the match would've been remotely as competitive if Cesaro had heat backstage.

As far as Heath Slater goes, I don't think he's getting pushed. In order for people to take him seriously, he'd have to be heavily repackaged and WWE doesn't seem to be doing that.

 

[Wrestlingfan100]

Cesaro having heat backstage is impossible, he's a great worker, has the perfect attitude. You know why Heath Slater eliminated him, for a crowd reaction, they did it to actually hype him up for Flo Rida which was and is the equivalent of taking the most perfect chocolate cake and smearing on your dog's asshole

 

[Mustang Sally]

I think the only reason a jobber like Heath Slater was given the "honor" of eliminating Cesaro was to illustrate that the guy is lost without Paul Heyman in his corner.

Still, given that there are no long-term consequences to being eliminated in a battle royal (did Undertaker's career suffer after being tossed by Maven?) it was surprisingly nice to see something unexpected like this. Just before he threw Cesaro out, I was wondering why in the world Heath was still in the ring; it seemed he would have been one of the first ones eliminated.

It was soon explained....and I can even see Paul Heyman soon doing a promo in which he criticizes Cesaro ("He was eliminated by Heath Slater, for crying out loud!")

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Even Santino got the odd mini push from time to time like the Elimination Chamber or the US title... Slater has now taken that role over and unlike Santino hasn't had that initial IC win to build on... So they threw him a bone, and I notice they also threw Zack Ryder one this week...

It's entirely possible that part of these cuts is they are giving some of these guys a "chance" to impress... Both seem to have done well with it... I hope it's not a case of one of them is cut, there is room for both of them and in Slater's case, he has the work on the JBL and Cole show to fall back on... they can repackage him as Clem Layfield as he portrays there if they want to push him... as JBL's "nephew" there is scope for John to get out from the desk and perhaps "mentor" Clem to the IC or US titles he once held for example perhaps even a team up or match... Vince loves those kind of stories where the odd couple have to work together... JBL is capable of some great comedy too and I am sure he'd love to lace up the boots again, even if he ended up "losing".

It's a GOOD thing that Khali, Slater, Zack and Emma are getting some TV time and doing well... As for the Flo Rida argument... it's again a very GOOD thing to be trusted in a segment with a celeb, even if they knock you out cos it shows they trust you... Ziggler benefitted hugely from that rub with the Jackman incident for example...

 

[CalciferBoheme]

I think it was just for the shock of a bigger star getting eliminated by someone who had no chance of winning.

Really, Battle Royals should do that sort of thing more often. It adds a lot to it.