Antonio Cesaro: The Rise of a 'Real American'

The excitement around Antonio Cesaro is turning to look like a gathering storm. Not only did the Staples Centre crowd give him a rousing ovation, the WWE management seems to have made a business decision to remove his first name. He goes to the Elimination Chamber as a dark horse who surely has a lot of expectations behind him, given his impressive set of moves and how beautiful he makes them look.

Since coming to the main roster, he’s gone from having Aksana as his valet to a U.S Champion to a short lived stint as a jobber and a yoddler to finally a ‘Real American’. Looking at the history of US champions in the past year or so, he surely seemed to be doing great as a champion as he constantly was spectacular to watch with his Neutralizer and once he swung the Miz into the barricade over and over.

Cesaro can rightfully be credited as the most innovative wrestler the WWE has seen in a while. His European uppercuts and the Giant Swing may not be something that he invented but he will be the only one known to make it popular. And if the WWE keeps giving him much deserved screen time, like they are, he’ll surely become too popular to be elevated up the card.

His power and technical skill is awesome to watch and he doesn’t even look like the muscular prototype that the WWE has always endorsed. Add to that some great matches with Bryan, Cena and the like, one will be left to wonder what is it that this guy lacks. His mic skills are definitely not as spectacular as his physical prowess in the ring. But with Zeb Colter by his side, he has gone leaps and bounds ahead as far as crowd appreciation is concerned. Many of WWE’s most remembered stars with their prototype bodies have never had a great voice. Brock Lesnar is one such example.

It’s hard to take your eyes off all the entities that he’s dismantled and all the power he displays and his presence is still ever relevant but his mic skills have never been up to the mark. Add Paul Heyman and there you have one of the most remembered and one of the greatest manager-wrestler alliance.

Zeb Colter, hence, should stick with Cesaro as he hopefully gets up the ladder in his career.

On the other hand, even though Cesaro is the shining one in his team, it is too premature to break the Real Americans up. The team really looks impressive and it’s ‘We The People’ chants has undoubtedly been the second most popular chant in the WWE right now. Maybe Cesaro can take this chant and persona with him when he focuses on Singles competition and portray more of a badass that he can be. And even though there is speculation that he’ll be turned babyface, characters like Cesaro should remain heels that too with a pinch of cool added to it. It is a wonderful contrast having a foreign character claim the control of the Americans.