Opinion: Cesaro’s Time is Now

It doesn’t matter if you’re the best wrestler. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best talker. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best overall performer. It doesn’t matter if you make the two clowns to my left on commentary look like amateur hour.

There is a glass ceiling and no one is allowed to break it. – CM Punk

I realize he’s not the most popular guy in the wrestling world. He may not be the best guy to get a quote from these days, but as much as people complain about Punk, I’ve never heard anyone accuse him of being wrong.

A lot of people watch WWE now and see certain guys held down by the system that will push John Cena, Ryback or anyone else that doesn’t fit their mold instead of “real talent” for this business.

I do the same sometimes, but when I see a performer being underutilized, what I see is a misinterpretation of what the fans want. I see missed opportunities and wasted potential.

Most wrestlers don’t last long in this business, so every week of WWE content that goes by could be the last time we see them. Daniel Bryan was on top of the wrestling world. Now, he can’t even get back into the ring.

 

I don’t believe in jobbers. A wrestling roster needs people at the bottom to elevate another talent, but I just don’t agree that should be a performer’s only purpose. If a match isn’t going to help both people, why do it?

Cesaro is a perfect example of this idea. How many times have we watched Cesaro outperform his opponent this year and lose to a single finisher? It’s not insulting because Cesaro is losing. It’s insulting because it doesn’t make sense. If Cesaro is so good, why does he lose despite looking better than the other guy?

In any other sport, you’d think he was a choke artist that can’t handle the clutch situations. In wrestling, it’s just Cesaro’s glass ceiling. He shouldn’t be losing as often as he does, but he’s about to do it again to put over Roman Reigns.

Over the weekend, there was a poll about who the WWE Universe wants to see win the WWE Championship tournament. Roman Reigns is actually third in the voting behind Dean Ambrose and Cesaro as the top choice.

That’s extremely interesting because most people are expecting Reigns to win or even turn heel. However, WWE fans just showed what they want to happen. Tonight, we have Cesaro vs. Reigns and in a lot of ways, it’s what WWE wants versus what the fans want.

Unfortunately, we’re all in a no win scenario here. The only scenario where the fans truly win is Cesaro beating Reigns clean. That doesn’t help Reigns, so naturally WWE would run an angle of Reigns getting screwed over by The Authority or a Dean Ambrose heel turn.

That doesn’t help Cesaro either because he didn’t get to beat Reigns clean. On paper, the only realistic option is for WWE to do what they always do. Reigns will go over, and Cesaro will look great because that’s what he always does.

This appears to be Cesaro’s fate. From WWE’s perspective, good but not good enough. From the fans perspective, a potential star that never was. Cesaro could become a guy that was good enough to put over Reigns or Cena and so on. He could just be so much more, and it could start tonight.

The time to push Cesaro is now. He’s in a perfect position to be elevated. He’s over and a win tonight is a career changer even if he doesn’t win the championship.

Cesaro could FINALLY break through the glass ceiling. He just needs a small boost.