10 Wrestlers BANNED From Getting Over

8. Cesaro Is Told To Be Less Spectacular

Daniel Bryan
WWE

WWE crowds (at least in the United States more often than not) are quiet.

It's the strangest thing. WWE sells out massive arenas for TV tapings every week as an engaged online fanbase basks in the idea that the power is back. TV ratings are impressive; WWE is bucking trends in the wider cable landscape. WWE is, across several objective metrics, hot. And yet, the crowds aren't. It is bizarre. Until the finish, the fans just sit on their hands in a ThunderDome made flesh.

WWE isn't happy with this; if they were, they wouldn't pipe in crowd noise. And it's not as if the modern WWE crowd is rejecting what is put in front of them, compelling Vince McMahon to pretend that his company has been spirited to Bizarro World for the night. They aren't "acting up" or being obnoxious. They just aren't, as Pat Patterson was said to remarking, "going banana".

Why, then, was Cesaro told to tone down his eruption-triggering salvo of incredible, lung-bursting offence?

Arn Anderson, speaking on his ARN podcast, claimed that "[Cesaro] continued to get leaned on to stop doing all that stuff [a reference to his repertoire] as a heel. It was just too flashy and all that stuff."

WWE turned the man heel almost to the second he got over as a babyface in 2014. They booked the guy to be a focal point of WrestleMania XXX!

That almost feels cruel in retrospect.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!