10 Times WWE C-Shows Were AMAZING
7. Cesaro Vs. Luke Harper - Main Event, July 8, 2015
This absolutely thudding monster mash pitted fighter pilot Cesaro against backwoods bruiser Luke Harper. Both men defy their own physiology, have no right to fly, and in 2015, both were perennially ignored by a dreadful creative regime that would have pushed them to the moon, before the rot set in, a decade prior.
Cesaro showed off his herculean strength immediately by picking up Harper and plunging him chest-first to the mat. In response, showing in seconds just how many years he was ahead of his hoss peers, Harper outwrestled Cesaro on the mat.
After the initial exchange, designed to create a parity of strength, Cesaro sent Harper tumbling over the barricade with a rocket fuel uppercut. This major spot, and Harper’s recovery from it, portrayed both acts as formidable. This was a revelatory, Bret Hart-esque performance from Cesaro, who decimated Harper’s leg but built an engrossing narrative in parallel. They teased a swing spot early—and this was a great touch—barely hinted at it. Harper was too big to even attempt the spot. Cesaro instead quickly settled on a Sharpshooter. After a sequence of impressive submission exchanges and blood-pumping power moves, Cesaro revealed his hand; the master manipulator swung for the fences, and the crowd, mouths agape and stupefied at the exhibition, almost forgot to react.
An initially uninterested crowd had aimed chants of “Take a shower” at Harper—but in the end, they had washed away both Main Event’s C-show stigma and their own reputation as forgotten men.