So What? Cesaro Edition

[Jdulemba1001]

Ok, so I was thinking about a new thread idea, and suddenly, it happened. Antonio Cesaro showed up on my TV. That got me to thinking....if this thread is successful, ill do more but I have to ask a question about Cesaro....So what? I understand he can wrestle....but I cant seem to care at all about his character, I dont hate him, I dont love him, hes just meh. Can anyone out there tell me something to change my mind....keep in mind im not talking about Claudio, im talking about Cesaro....why should I care about him in WWE?

 

[smizzy]

Why should you care about Cesaro?

Because even without his character being fully developed, he's still one of the strongest heels in the company, is in the midst of a fantastic title reign, week in, week out puts on one of the strongest matches on television and is still developing his character.

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

Great question

I am intriqued by him yet I find him bland. He has great matches yet I can't sit through them. He sounds awesome on the mic, yet he bores me to tears. You should care about him because he is the US Champ, I guess that's a reason

 

[Jdulemba1001]

Jake Smizzy, I guess I dont get what his character is. Yeah he speaks 5 languages, and he hates America, but the foreigner who hates Americans has been done so many times. As for strong matches, its still early in his career, and I may change my mind someday, but I dont see it. Squirrelbaby, Im glad im not the only one.

 

[thekooljt]

Antonio Cesaro is not boring he just needs the right opponent. I said this in an earlier thread but the WWE has a major fued in the palm of their hands if they introduce it right. The fued I'm talking about is Antonio Cesaro vs Jack Swagger. The man who despises america vs the all american american for the US title. This is a fued that will really put Cesaro overat the same time it would revive Swagger status in WWE. Believe me IT CAN WORK.

 

[Dice]

Jake Smizzy, I guess I dont get what his character is. Yeah he speaks 5 languages, and he hates America, but the foreigner who hates Americans has been done so many times. As for strong matches, its still early in his career, and I may change my mind someday, but I dont see it. Squirrelbaby, Im glad im not the only one.

I really enjoy Cesaro and his gimmick isn't that he hates America, he loves it but he hates the people of America for how "lazy and worthless" they are now. I personally really enjoy his matches and actually look forward to them. I'm with the guy above me and feel that he needs a REAL feud because he hasn't had one yet. Nice thread though, and you should do more if this is successful.

 

[duckbutter]

I've been watching wrestling for nearly 30 years now and I enjoy Cesaro as much as any wrestling heel I've enjoyed during that time. The dude has unreal strength for a guy his size and he's so easy to hate because he is so smart in and out of the ring. He doesn't have to resort to cheap heel tactics to make you hate him, which is the thing I love most about him. His arrogance is backed up by his skill, which makes people hate him more.

The guy is never going to be Roddy Piper or Adrian Adonis, both who were in-your-face guys that got under your skin. He's the calm, smug, tough guy who has a tremendous amount of ability in the ring. Just look for the little things like facial expressions and some of the moves he makes, like tonight when he rolled out of the ring to prevent the "hero" from performing his finisher. It's things like that which seem small, but really set him apart from guys like Drew McIntyre, who have to drum up the cheap heat just to get a reaction.

To me, he's an artist who is really great at painting the overall picture. Nothing flashy, just good solid work.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

You're not supposed to care all that much for him. He is low to mid card filler for the show. He takes up time and space, he doesn't sell t-shirts or get put Access Hollywood. If someone loves him than that is just a bonus but right now is not his time to shine. That time may or may not come (I don't expect it) but it is certainly not now.

Personally I feel like ever since he dropped Aksana he's been pretty good at what he is supposed to do. I like the displays of power and he does some cool things in the ring. The gimmick may be tired and old but wrestling isn't written for people with long memories.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Like George said, he's not a character you're supposed to invest a lot in. He's supposed to be a "booo you don't like 'merica" or "HEY THAT'S CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI!" (about a 95/5 ratio I'd say) and that's it.

He gets the crowd interested in his matches because he's good in the ring. If he gets featured in a more prominent role, you'll see more of his range. Also, his character does have a good wrinkle to the age old villain foreigner character. He loves america, hates americans. I'd like to see him go a more political route and say some controversial/true things.

 

[Dirk]

I get that Ziggler and Swagger get ragged on for their mic work, but Cesaro is worse than both of them. YET THAT'S OKAY! Let me tell you why.

To be fair, I don't know if English is his first language (I'm assuming it's not) and because he plays the evil foreigner, his English doesn't have to be that good.

He has a unique look, he does enough to stand out. He doesn't hide his baldness or his chest hair and that goes well with this "throwback" thing he has going.

Then he is great in the ring as well. I'd have him do even more power moves, because he is amazingly strong, but he's good technically too.

What the WWE shouldn't do, is to put him on commentary like they did with him and Sheamus. Also, JBL has to stop referring to him as a throwback every single time he mentions him.

 

[BigGreen73]

Cesaro is great, love his in ring skills and his hard hitting style. But for me, Cesaro is starting to loose some steam and momentum. Regardless of his mic or in ring skills, he has noone of value to fued with. His last "real" fued was with R-truth and now he's sort of fueding with the Miz. I don't really think that fued is anything special because the Miz won't be winning the US title.

Lately, he has been having matches against top guys and losing all the time. He needs a rub from one of the top guys to help get him over as a threat, a real contender. He's had great matches w/ Sheamus, Orton, Ryback etc but he hasn't pulled out a win. The power displays in matches against Kali and Brodus for example means nothing. He can't get the job done against the top guys. Even if he's in a match against Sheamus and Sheamus was distracted by X and Cesaro picks up a win that would do wonders.

Oh, and how many Ryback vs Cesaro matches do we need really. No matter how good Cesaro looks, he always gets intentional counted out or pinned. Ugh....

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As a few others have pointed out, you're not really supposed to "care" about Cesaro. Cesaro is an anti-American heel who frequently puts down Americans to generate heat all while hyping the fact that he, an anti-American, is the WWE United States Champion.

As far as being a mid-card wrestler right now, I think Cesaro is doing just great. Right now, Cesaro is a mid-carder and he's doing what mid-carders are supposed to do: generate some degree of interest among the fans while showing that, maybe, this is someone that could be a top guy at some point down the line. He's not supposed to be on a level of CM Punk or John Cena right now.

I do agree that his character is somewhat bland in a basic sort of way. At the same time, Cesaro is doing his best with what has always been a limited character in wrestling history. Cesaro is getting pretty decent heat and shines inside the ring. I think that GSB said it best when he said that now isn't supposed to be Cesaro's time to shine in the same light as the top guys in the company.

I'm not all that thrilled as a fan that he's lost cleanly to Ryback and Randy Orton. However, as much as this simple fact of wrestling life absolutely kills people, somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Someone is going to have to come out of things at the end of the day ultimately looking better than someone else. If they'd fed Cesaro to Ryback & Orton in the ways that they've fed Barrett to Orton the past few weeks, then I'd be downright pissed.

I think Cesaro has done a great job with what he's been given. He's a mid-carder right now. Mid-carders aren't supposed to be at the top of the show. They're not meant to generate as much buzz as the top guys. They're meant to put on wrestling matches and, if they can, to generate interest among fans & to impress the brass so they can be moved further up the card sometime.

 

[Mustang Sally]

He has improved. At first, I was writing about his awkwardness and flat-out mistakes made in the ring, which seemed out of place because the guy isn't a rookie.... but as he's gained experience in WWE rings, he's gotten better.

Cesaro's pro/anti American rants remind me of the Rougeau Brothers, a couple of Canadians who claimed to love America even as we were made to understand they were being facetious about it. (remember their song: "We're All American Boys")? From Ludvig Borga to Mr. Fuji, this theme has always given a boost to the careers of some heels.

Now, Antonio Cesaro does it with his flag-bearing ways. Of course, he'll eventually have to move beyond it, yet I must admit he's picked up steam these past months, even as he's losing non-title matches to higher ranked opponents.

I'm still not bowled over by him and am kind of surprised he's been given as much ring time as he has, but he's acquitting himself better than I believed he would.

 

[HorsemenNo4]

Being strong and a good technical wrestler, he's good at carrying the middle of the match. We all now the formula for a wrestling match, 1) face starts strong, 2) heel turns it around, 3) face has 5 moves of doom, 4) one of them get the victory. To me, the 2nd part is very important. If a heel isn't a good wrestler, the 2nd part suffers a lot. It's where big guys or green guys show their weakness. Cesaro isn't either. He's very strong and tosses guys around the ring like ragdolls but he does it using classic wrestling moves we rarely see. It's sad to say that last part but how many guys use them now?
I didn't like Cesaro at first. The gimmick was meh and the teaming with Aksana was pointless. However, when he broke away and started performing on his own, I really started to enjoy his work.
I'm not on here to try and force my opinion on others but look at Cesaros wrestling performance compared to the other guys at his level. You'll see a lot of great wrestling and a lot less punching, stomping and slow submissions.

He's the classic technical heel and that's why I care about Cesaro.