I can already hear the complaints: “HEY, CESARO DIDN'T START AT THE BOTTOM!!11!!1! DIDN'T YOU WATCH HIM IN ROH?!?! KINGS OF WRESTLING!!!111ONEONEONE” Yes, I'm fully aware. Claudio Castagnoli (his real name) was great in ROH. I was personally a fan of his work in Chikara as “Very Mysterious Ice Cream”, but I'm going on a tangent. We all know Vince hates indy guys, so as soon as Cesaro was under WWE contract, he was shoved to the bottom. I don't think Cesaro needed as much time at NXT as he got, but he was there. And then, something funny happened.
He appeared on Smackdown one week to get a contract. The next week, he faced Tyson Kidd in a tryout match and wowed anyone who saw it. Then he got a hot valet in Aksana. Then he started cutting promos in 5 different languages. (Do you see the climb up the mountain yet? Yodel along!) It all culminated with Cesaro getting a US Championship match vs Santino Marella in August at the SummerSlam ppv. A lot of people were bored of Santino by that point, but I don't think anyone saw what was coming next: Cesaro won. In a matter of 4 months, he went from indy hero to WWE fixture and more importantly, champion.
Now you're seeing this metaphorical mountain climb. Antonio is yodeling his way up the peak, making his way to the top... a bit too quickly. He defeats Zack Ryder at Night of Champions. Then he dumps Aksana for being a distraction (A FUCKING WRESTLER BEING UPSET ABOUT LOSING A WRESTLING MATCH). He beat the following superstars in title matches: Santino, Justin Gabriel, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Wade Barrett, The Great Khali (who he hit with a fucking Neutralizer btw) & The Miz. Oh, and he had a match with Sergeant Slaughter. Oh, and he held Brodus Clay up while Cesaro made faces in the camera. The climb had reached the top...
And then, March 1st, 2013 came along. Antonio Cesaro faced The Miz in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the US title on Smackdown, which Cesaro won. He wouldn't defend the title again, and started to job to guys like Alberto Del Rio every week. He was getting less mic time. And when he did speak, it was to yodel. He didn't even get on the Wrestlemania card, while The Miz was winning the Intercontinental championship on the pre show. The other 45 minutes were used for hype and video packages. Why was there no room for Cesaro?
Last Monday, Antonio Cesaro defended the US title against Kofi Kingston... and cut a promo where all he did was yodel. Not speak, not say no American was going to beat him for the title, just yodel. That's it. Then the match happened, and it was great... for Kofi. Antonio Cesaro lost the United States championship to a guy who says he “brought it home”, but is billed from Ghana. Antonio Cesaro, like our mountain climber, has fallen over the edge.
As personally upset as I am by this, I can't help but wonder what Cesaro did to deserve this. Is he just “paying his dues”? Did he piss off a high ranking executive? Did he sleep with John Cena's Bella twin? Whatever the case, Antonio Cesaro has been shoved to the bottom of the mountain. It's time for the climb back up.