‘Underrated’ is a word that is thrown around a lot in wrestling, arguably too much, and one man who epitomizes the word is the Swiss Cyborg, Cesaro. Wrestling Observer ranked him the most underrated performer for four consecutive years (2013-2016), there has been “Cesaro Section” signs at WWE Tv Tapings and PPVs consistently for almost five years and despite WWE claiming to give the fans what they want, Cesaro has never been given a sniff at the main event championship picture. Having been in WWE for nine years, at 40 years old, the question is, will Cesaro ever become a world champion in WWE?
In December 2014, Vince McMahon appeared on Steve Austin’s podcast. Austin, when talking about the current roster, asked why Cesaro wasn’t at a higher level. Vince explained some of the skills which were needed for the new big star were charisma, a strong work ethic, and a passion for the business. He did not believe Cesaro was connecting with the crowd and that he did not have ‘it’.
He hoped he would develop over time, and even when this interview took place seven years ago, people could not believe his comments. Cesaro has all three of these skills in abundance; when given the opportunity he’s shown to have bucket loads of charisma, his work ethic is second to none, (that U.S. Championship match with John Cena anyone?) and no matter what WWE throws at him creatively, he does what he can to make it work.
Take his Tag Teamwork for example; Cesaro has become the king of random tag team pairings, with Tyson Kidd, Sheamus, and most recently Shinsuke Nakamura. In all of these instances, they ended up winning Tag Team Championships. His pairing with Sheamus was the most fruitful, with five Tag Team Championship reigns. It was so good in fact, that they even had an actual team name. (Imagine that!?)
”He is not connecting yet, we hope he will, he doesn’t quite have the Charisma, he doesn’t have quite the verbal skills as well, it may be because he is Swiss, I don’t know in terms of European style, those are the big things he is lacking”
Vince McMahon, 2014 – Stone Cold Podcast
If anything there’s an opportunity to attract more fans from central Europe because of Cesaro’s nationality and his ability to speak multiple languages fluently. His marketability is huge, but it appears, unfortunately, WWE may not see that.
When given the opportunity he is shown to have a lot of charisma. The James Bond look which he has been sporting recently just works so well. Currently, the Hitman franchise is massive in the world of gaming and he looks very similar to the game’s protagonist, Agent 47, known to be a silent assassin, WWE could use Cesaro in that sort of manner if they really do not rate his mic ability, he would be a huge hit.
But the main question is, can we ever see Cesaro as a world champion? Recently, he has been getting a string of victories over former champions Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan. A strong showing in the Royal Rumble could have helped him, which we did not see, unfortunately, luckily that’s not the be-all and end-all of his career, the WWE commentary team seems to put Cesaro over a lot when he’s in action and maybe there is something to that. Cleary the writers and Vince don’t dislike him per se as he is getting weekly television appearances which they would not do if they did not rate him.
McMahon is stubborn, he claimed Cesaro did not have the ‘It Factor’ and it feels like because he said that, he has to stick to it as he would look foolish to have Cesaro put into the main event picture after claims such as these. In his entire time in WWE, Cesaro has had only one solo title reign, the United States Championship in 2013 which is shocking, in fairness, he has been focused on Tag Team Wrestling for the last few years but now he’s a solo competitor I feel like he should be at least winning the Intercontinental Championship sooner or later. But as far as world champion? Now he is forty years old, I cannot see it happening personally although I would love to be proven wrong. Cesaro has been a loyal servant to WWE for almost a decade and if there’s anyone who deserves rewarding with a major push, it is him.
You can watch the Stone Cold Podcast here, do you agree with Vince’s comments?