1. Cesaro
If there was ever a time to do a "Cesaro as massive underdog" story and make him a superstar in one night, it'd be at Survivor Series 2015. In one night, there's a huge opportunity to have Cesaro beat mega-stars and ultimately be presented as a bad-ass pure wrestling machine who has strength and grit, plus a huge will to win on his side, too. In round one, Cesaro vs. Brock Lesnar would end in five minutes with Cesaro getting a surprise victory after surviving an initial deluge of suplexes, spinning out of an F5 attempt, and pinning Brock with some sort of crazy Lucha rollup. Cesaro and Brock are both flexible and gifted enough to make it work. Ever wanted a legitimate looking finish that would break the internet? There it is. In the semi-finals, Cesaro gets John Cena, and bests him in a great match with a surprise submission after Cena hits the five knuckle shuffle and Cesaro turns it into a crossface. Again, this is a finish that actually isn't hard to do, and Cesaro's good enough to make it look like a million bucks. In the final, Cesaro wrestles Roman Reigns, and entertainingly enough, tells Renee Young before the match that he's scouted Reigns too, and that like Reigns did against Brock at WrestleMania, he "knows he's going to take a beating," but has a solution. Reigns hits a Superman punch, Cesaro's smart enough to maneuver himself close enough to the ropes to get a foot on the bottom rope. Cesaro gets hit with the Spear, he rolls to the outside. He wrestles the smartest defensive match possible, and after "rope-a-doping" Reigns, catches him slipping with a European uppercut and Neutralizer, winning the match. The next night on Raw, you have Sheamus cash in "like a man" in wanting to wrestle Cesaro face-to-face, and Cesaro wins cleanly. From there, the buildup of the client Paul Heyman had and dropped versus a stunned and asshurt (in a similar manner to when he lost to Frank Mir in UFC) Brock Lesnar chomping at the bit for Mania and having to win the Rumble could be fun. Brock starting at like, #2 to do so would be amazing in the same way that Ric Flair winning the 1992 Royal Rumble was. Heck. Even put Heyman on commentary like Bobby Heenan in '92 and you have a license to print money.
Marcus K. Dowling
Contributor
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
See more from
Marcus