Gavin Logan on Cesaro…

Not all wrestling fans are WWE fans. There’s plenty of folk out there who absolutely loath Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s version of wrestling and most of them aren’t shy at all at passing judgement on his product, including myself. I’ve lost count at how many times I’ve screamed at my television because of a stupid angle or a bullshit finish. Wrestling fans may not all be fans of WWE but there’s one thing we can all relate to; we all think we’re experts.

But that’s the beauty of being a wrestling fan. That’s the nature of the beast. We have so much passion for the product that sometimes our complaints get lost in translation and it just sounds like we’re being unreasonable and petulant. After all, we don’t know exactly what is going on behind the scenes all the time and it takes a lot of factors to come together to produce the product that we watch week in, week out.

The resounding issue that most of us wrestling fans have with WWE is who they regard to be a main-eventer and who they are unwilling to push, and Cesaro probably tops the list of talent we’d like to see utilised better. Anybody with an ounce of wrestling knowledge knows that Cesaro is one of the best in-ring performers on the entire roster and consistently puts in top notch matches yet he has never really been able to fulfil his full potential.

Is he finally being given the opportunity?

Having built his reputation at various other promotions including Ring of Honor, PWG and Pro Wrestling Noah, Cesaro (real name Claudio Castagnoli) was having great matches on NXT (then known as Florida Championship Wrestling) and stealing the show before it was the cool thing to do. He made his debut on the main roster in 2011 and quickly captured the U.S title but despite having stellar matches, his feuds weren’t really given that much TV time (as was the norm for the smaller titles a few years ago). He held the title for 239 days and it was during the end of his reign that he started to get really over with fans.

After the official launch of the new NXT, Cesaro would return to the developmental promotion to have excellent matches with the likes of Tyson Kidd, Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn which were genuine MOTY contenders in 2014. Despite proving his worth as a singles wrestler Vinnie Mac just didn’t think he was ready for the big push and he was teamed with Jack Swagger. But then Wrestlemania 30 happened and Cesaro won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He was easily one of the most over performers on the night and on the following RAW Hulk Hogan endorsed the Swiss strongman.

In the wake of Brock Lesnar’s shock win over Undertaker at WM30, Lesnar’s advocate Paul Heyman was the hottest property on WWE TV and his association with Cesaro seemed like it would finally be his big singles push we had all been waiting for. Unfortunately the coalition was short-lived between the two and Cesaro returned to the mid-card. He fizzled around the Authority/Cena Survivor Series feud but it always felt that his inclusion was never really given any steam by the WWE.

Eyes rolled when he was teamed with Tyson Kidd, not because it was a bad decision (they’re two of the finest wrestlers in the company) but more because we all thought initially it was just a short-term pairing that wouldn’t be given any time to nurture. I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I never thought we’d see the team outside of Main Event or Superstars. How wrong was I? They instantly got over and revitalised a waning tag-team division, having some very entertaining matches with the Usos and New Day. The team were ready to takeover but an untimely injury at the hands of Samoa Joe put Kidd on the sidelines. Surely I wasn’t the only one who thought Cesaro would be forgotten about?

During an interview on the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast Vince McMahon said that Cesaro hadn’t quite connected with the fans yet and that he still needed time. While most people disagreed with his comments I have to believe that Vince was challenging Cesaro (like he has done with a bunch of top talent over the years) to prove him wrong and grab that “brass ring” (remember those Brass Ring Club t-shirts?) I think it’s safe to say that since Cesaro returned to TV with Kidd and even after Tyson’s horrific injury, he has definitely been proving Vince wrong. Sure he doesn’t quite have the charisma of a Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose or Kevin Owens but the guy is easily one of the best wrestlers in the company and he might even be creeping into the Top 5 most over wrestlers on WWE TV right now. His two matches with John Cena are proof that Cesaro can hang with the big boys in a big spot. But we all already knew that right?

FACT! He can have great matches with absolutely anybody and deserves the push now otherwise he may just fall back into mid-card obscurity or dare I say it, pre-show limbo.

I understand that the entire roster can’t all be main-eventers but if anyone deserves a chance at a spot on top of the mountain it’s definitely Cesaro. I can see awesome programs in the future with him and Ambrose, Neville, Rollins or even Brock.

Who wouldn’t want to see Brock vs Cesaro…?

Let’s hope that his latest appearances on TV aren’t just to add something spicy to the Cena/Owens feud and that WWE actually devote some time to his character too.

Gavin Logan – Follow me on Twitter