The 2012 TWB 100 Slow Release: #4

Cesaro giving Tyson Kidd the face wash on the canvas Photo Credit: WWE.com

4. Antonio Cesaro
Points: 4299
Ballots: 48
Highest Vote:1st Place (Gregory Davis)
Last Year's Placement: 25th Place

TH: Some wrestlers get better when they go from the indies to WWE. Even if they were good on the indie circuit, improvements on the next level are noticeable. I thought Cesaro would be a wrestler who would benefit from being among his own kind, even if I had lots of fun watching him throw luchadors around like pinballs on the indie scene. However, I didn't think he'd improve this much. The man feels like a natural in a WWE ring, but more than anything else, he actually feels like someone who is better at being a WWE hoss than most guys hand-picked by Vince McMahon on the bodybuilding circuit. But then again, Claudio Castagnoli went up through the wringer as a wrestler. Don't be shocked.

I was a bit worried when I found they stripped down most of his signature indie spots, but the ones they gave him showed off his unique combination of strength and agility. They let him keep the only spot that really mattered, the Swiss Death pop up European uppercut. The Goomba stomp has been a nice addition to his moveset, and the Neutralizer is the most awe-inspiring feat of strength finisher, maybe in WWE history. If he had been around the entire year on tape, or if I had caught more of him in FCW, I might have put him in my top five, but regardless, Cesaro is a guy to watch.

Cesaro plays the role of Mario to R-Truth's Little Goomba Photo Credit: WWE.com

Ryan Kilma: Made leaps and bounds for both legitimate strongmen and leg tape. John Cena might be as strong as him, but no one makes the act of being strong look more difficult yet seamless than Cesaro. When he picks Sheamus off the ground and hurls him like he was Spike Dudley, you can see all the effort that goes into flawlessly pulling off a move that maybe ten men in the world could hit. My new dream match would be 1980’s Hulk Hogan vs. Antonio Cesaro for the fate of America.

Justin Daley: Pound for Pound the strongest man in wrestling. Hell, I would not be surprised if he was THE strongest man in wrestling. His moves are always very precise, especially his European uppercuts. He proved he can get one of the bigger crowd reactions in WWE last year, even when not even facing anyone of his ability. If he can get a good feud with one of the bigger stars this year (ie. Ryback or anyone more popular) He could move into the upper echelon of WWE superstars.

De O'Brien: When I was growing up, the evil foreign heel was a staple in the WWF. Guys like The Mountie, Nikolai Volkoff , Mr. Fuji; all of them were fixtures, seemingly always around and always up to no good, easy to hate and hard to love because they were from "away", places most of the viewing audience had never been and would never go, places with sometimes exotic names and even more exotic beliefs, dangerous to the American way of life because we didn't understand them and we didn't WANT to, and boy howdy were they just awful.

After Sgt. Slaughter's weird and ill-advised heel turn into an Iraqi sympathizer, the goofy heelishness of Kaientai, and the poorly done debacle that Muhammed Hassan turned into, the Evil Foreign Heel died out for the most part as far as the WWE was concerned, and for a good while it seemed to be us vs. them, regular old bad guy vs. good guys. It seemed that an era and a gimmick that when done right was spectacular had died out, and wrestling was just a little bit sadder for it.

Then, in 2012, along came a different kind of Evil Foreign Heel: Antonio Cesaro, initially presented as a cultured, well-educated rugby playing gent who cared not at all for the citizens of America, but who was determined to embrace the American lifestyle and all of its many opportunities while taking every chance he could to remind us that hey, I hate every single one of you, but MAN do I love mocking all these chances you've had to be like me, and here you are sitting at home being fat/lazy/uneducated/poor and passing up this good life.

And we weren't sure whether or not we loved him or hated him for it. After his US Championship win over Santino Marella during the SummerSlam pre-show, it seemed that everything Cesaro had claimed about us were true - no one, least of all a "lazy" American, has been able to take the title off of him.

Surprisingly, however, I'm completely fine with that. As long as Cesaro keeps delivering the quality of wrestling and sheer presence he's been giving us consistently for the most part since coming to WWE, I don't care if anyone else ever holds the US Championship - I, for one, am just grateful I have Antonio Cesaro as the kind of debonair, evil, jerky life coach I now see I've needed all along. With heels like these, who needs faces?

Eamon Paton: Can we all just agree that Antonio Cesaro has to be the MVP of 2012? This guy put on near guaranteed amazing matches every single week on Raw, and while he currently hasn’t had the best 2013, he made 2012 Monday Night Raw super enjoyable. The amount of “Holy Crap” moments in his matches were through the roof and he really cemented his place on the current roster. Here’s hoping Cesaro gets out of this losing to Randy Orton and Ryback slump and has a great 2013, even better than 2012.

Cesaro wrangling a wild Sin Cara Photo Credit: WWE.com

Frank McCormick: I only know "Antonio Cesaro"; I only got into Chikara after "Claudio Castagnoli" was gone. But whatever name this walking slab of Swiss beef goes by, he is amazing. Ryback has muscles on top of muscles, but nothing he's ever done has impressed me the way the sheer strength and power of the Very European Uber American does in nearly every match he has. Also unlike Ryback, he is much more than a roid-freak with a few slams in his arsenal. That European uppercut! That Neutralizer! That swinging Miz around like a ragdoll! Those nipples! (Errrr... maybe that last one isn't actually a move, but they deserve to be recognized.) Incredible. And he just does so many little things, like the backwards dust-kicking of downed opponents, the European soccer slides when he's victorious, or his entrance fist pump/jab thing. Like the watchmakers of his homeland, he is meticulous in the details of in-ring work. He's also a great opponent, able to go up against the big guys in HOSS FIGHTS and as a walking springboard/pole for the smaller high-fliers to work off of.

Mike Pankowski: I had not yet gotten on the Chikara bandwagon by the time Claudio Castagnoli had left for the WWE, so I had only known from others how good he was. But seeing him first hand over the year has made me want to go back and see what I missed. Cesaro’s combination of strength and versatility is crazy. I love how he can just strike that uppercut out of any position. He can have a good match with any hoss one night and then keep up with a quicker guy the next. Here’s hoping that the WWE continues to have Cesaro beat up fools the rest of 2013.

John Rosenberger: The dude is a beast. I got in to an argument with a friend of mine last week about whether or not a guy can look strong while also losing. Pointing to the fact that Cesaro loses almost exclusively at this point and still looks like a goddam monster is what sealed this argument for my side. Plus, oh man that goddamn uppercut.

Dave Musgrave: Antonio Cesaro showed himself to be a prototype for WWE stars this year. He has all the attributes that WWE has been seeking with all the indy cred and experience allowing him to appeal to any type of fan. Other than initially being teamed with Aksana, everything went off without a hitch in 2012 for this guy and I hope he gets to the top in 2013.

Dylan Hales: I suspect Cesaro will finish really high on this list on account of the "what have you done for me lately rule." The truth is Cesaro was really good for the last quarter of 2012 and it has carried over into 2013. At this point in this year he is probably the top guy in the WWE and perhaps the world (Freelance, Kyle Matthews and perhaps even Chico Che may have something to say about that). But if we go farther back into 2012? I saw a bit of Cesaro in developmental in the front of the year and he looked sharp but not outstanding. He was solid almost from the moment he made the main roster, but he really didn't break out from the pack or excel until he started getting time - which again was the last three months of the year. In a year where very few guys knocked it out of the park for even nine months, let alone twelve, he is someone I can see in a top twenty five. Top ten? I really hope he doesn't end up THAT high.

Cesaro showing absurd strength putting down the Funkasaurus Photo Credit: WWE.com