One of the interesting stories happening in WWE in 2014 is the rise and weird, steady decline of Cesaro. At WrestleMania XXX he was one of the most popular people in the building, bodyslamming the Big Show from the ring to the floor to win the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The next night on Raw, he became a “Paul Heyman Guy” and his future looked incredibly bright. The next few months, however, were an exercise in nerfing his crowd response. He stopped using the crowd-pleasing Cesaro Swing, lost the ‘King Of Swing’ nickname he’d JUST GOTTEN and became an afterthought to even Paul Heyman, who decided he only wanted to hang out with Brock Lesnar.
That silencing of crowd response is still happening, apparently, as a fan report from Night Of Champions posted on ProWrestling.Net claims WWE personnel combed the crowd to remove any pro-Cesaro signage.
I was in section 105 and the same guy that always hands out Cesaro signs was there in an El Generico mask. He always hands out the “Cesaro Section” signs but today he handed out “King of Wrestling” signs with Cesaro’s face on it. Security came by during the match and took all the signs. We asked them why and they said, “You don’t need to know why” and “we’re just doing was we’re told.”
It reminded me of the guy who had his Nitro signs taken recently. They seemed to also be on sharper alert concerning inappropriate or off color signs, as they made people mark out the writing or turn in any signs with “sucks” on it.
But hey, blackface signs with n-word jokes get a closeup!
Here’s a video of the King Of Wrestling signs, and the Low Men In Yellow WWE Coats showing up to take them away. It’s in slow motion, so on top of seeing WWE’s thought police in action you get to hear a drunk announce team. Well, drunker than usual. (Jerry Lawler sounds like Bill Cosby.)
One person who disagrees with the anti-Cesaro sentiment (besides, you know, the rest of us) is Jim Ross. Good ol’ JR posted the following on his blog, and he’s exactly right.
“IMO the US Title match between Champion Sheamus and Cesaro was the match of the night. Great physicality, drama and compelling action for my taste. Congrats to both men. Cesaro could easily fill a viable fan favorite role on the depleted WWE hero side of the roster. There is money in ‘face Cesaro if it is cultivated.”
What’s money?
