Looking at Cesaro's Lack of Direction

Look at Cesaro's direction in the WWE

(Also at 411mania.com)

When Cesaro slammed The Big Show over the top rope at Wrestlemania 30 to win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, it was supposed to be the start of something special. It was one of four major moments to happen at this years Wrestlemania and a chance for the company to create a new star following the biggest show of the year. 

Seven months later, Cesaro is without a match heading into the second longest running PPV in history. 

Everyone talks about Cesaro like he is the next top superstar in the company but always mention say, “he’s just missing that one thing to put him over the top.” It’s pretty obvious what that thing is: direction. 

Following Wrestlemania, everyone wanted to cheer Cesaro. He was already getting babyface reactions as part of The Real Americans and had turned on his partner Jack Swagger earlier in the night. When he hoisted up The Big Show, fans had no choice but to cheer. Even if he were the biggest heel in the company at the time, you couldn’t help but clap for the man after pulling off such an impressive feat. Then Hulk Hogan endorsed him, giving fans even more reason to cheer him. 

Instead, WWE aligned him with Paul Heyman the night after Wrestlemania. A lot of people thought that this was brilliant as Heyman is one of the best promos in the business and would certainly elevate Cesaro to that next level. However, those some people forgot that it would essentially keep Cesaro heel as no one wanted to cheer Heyman following his trumpeting of Brock Lesnar’s streak ending victory. They also forgot that Heyman’s track record of elevating talent isn’t all the great outside of Lesnar. 

Cesaro eventually became another failed Paul Heyman Guy, getting dropped by Heyman when Lesnar returned prior to SummerSlam. At least that made sense considering that every time Heyman was on screen with Cesaro, all he talked about was Lesnar. 

Instead of Cesaro getting upset that he was just dropped like a nothing, he just moved on like it was nothing. I guess that made sense as Heyman dragged Cesaro down and certainly didn’t help his career, but shouldn’t that have pissed off Cesaro? Nope. He just acted like nothing happened and wasn’t even mad at Heyman for never paying attention to him and always focusing on Lesnar’s career. In fact, the first time they were face-to-face with each other after the split, Cesar gave Heyman a big hug. 

Since splitting with Heyman, Cesaro has become the ultimate mid-card loser. After losing matches to guys like Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger, he won a match to get a shot at the United State Title. He of course lost. Then he won a battle royal to get a shot at the Intercontinental Title. He lost that match as well and then lost two straight falls in a two out of three falls rematch. 

On Monday, Cesaro officially became what he’s been for months now: a joke. 

He came out and teased by on Team Cena, like that would actually make their team better given how he’s been booked, and then sided with Team Authority. Is he actually on Team Authority, replacing the immobile heat sucking machine Kane? Nope. He just came out so Team Authority could yuck it up and act like they pulled one over on Cena. Except the joke was on them as Ryback, the guy who squashed Cesaro on Smackdown a few weeks ago and then beat him again on Raw, joined Team Cena. 

With the injuries to Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns and the absence of Brock Lesnar, you would think that WWE would want to build around a guy like Cesaro. He has a superstar look, is solid on the mic, and is one of the five best wrestlers in the company. 

Yet in seven short months they’ve turned him into a guy who got one of the biggest pops on the biggest show of the year into a guy that no one could possibly care about at this point. 

He never should’ve been paired with Heyman following Wrestlemania. It immediately cut him off as a babyface and turned him into a heel that no one wanted to boo, but they just couldn’t cheer Heyman. They basically used Cesaro as an excuse to keep Heyman on TV so he could come out and always talk about Brock Lesnar ending the streak. They could’ve used 50 other guys, expendable guys who weren’t ready to enter into the main event scene. A guy like The Miz or a turning Big E, who Lesnar could’ve then squashed upon returning. 

He should’ve won the US or Intercontinental title in order to restore some prestige to one of the two belts. He should’ve been elevated following the injuries to Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns instead of John Cena, who can’t go any higher than he currently is no matter how hard WWE tries. 

It’s possible that they can rehab Cesaro and turn him into a top guy in the company, but it’s going to take a lot of work, unnecessary work given where they were with him following Wrestlemania 30.