10 Times Modern WWE Stars FINALLY Felt Like Big Deals
9. Cesaro
For an eternity, it felt as though Cesaro was destined to become the most misused talent in WWE history. Or maybe not.
We would rage for years about this; was Cesaro too good for a company unwilling to recognise greatness, or did he simply lack the intangible star power to headline?
The Swiss Superman wasn't just your typical, alliterative wrestling moniker; the man, defying his impressive frame, took to the skies with incredible fighter jet offence that should have - but weirdly did not - cement him as a future WWE Champion-in-waiting. There was a certain, ineffable Alberto Del Rio-like disconnect to the act immune to his incredible in-ring ability. He almost went the route of the last man to sip that poisoned chalice in Wade Barrett; from multi-lingual foreign menace to yodeller (!) to stripper (!), Cesaro could not carry his in-ring momentum up the card. An inconsistent and often awful portrayal hardly helped, but then, there was no defiant, irresistible groundswell of support. Where they could not bear to see Daniel Bryan relegated, the plain truth is that the crowd could take or leave the King of Swing.
Even an absolutely tremendous TV mini-programme with John Cena did not make him.
What made him was a rivalry and partnership with fellow struggler Sheamus. In a meta development that mirrored The Bar's onscreen origin story, Cesaro and Sheamus were simply better together as two ultra-mobile bruisers unafraid to show themselves up in entertaining backstage segments.