Antonio Cesaro Is Right, You Know

Give this man a cooking segment!
Photo Credit: WWE.com

There comes a time when a heel's shtick cuts a bit too truthfully, or at least it should. It's one thing for, say, Ric Flair to lie about taking lascivious pictures of Miss Elizabeth to get under Randy Savage's skin. That's the easy heel heat (and a guy like Flair pulling that off makes it the best kind). It's a whole other for Antonio Cesaro to tell people that he hates fat Power Rangers and that Halloween is the pinnacle of American decadence and gluttony. Mainly, it's because Cesaro is actually right, at least in a way.

Once upon a time, Halloween was a nice treat, a day when kids could take a break from having to eat in moderation and pig out on chocolate, caramel and powdered-and-formed sugar. Nowadays, it's not that every day is Halloween in terms of volume, so to speak, but the nutritional value of the baseline has seemingly dipped below the Mendoza line of healthiness to the point where people consider spinach/artichoke dip as a vegetable course. Therefore, Halloween has gone from "nice treat" to "symbol of the diabetes culture."

Deep down, the fans whom Cesaro was taunting had to have known that he was right, especially those who look at themselves and don't like what they see. Then again, if Honey Boo Boo is to be believed, is the self-image of the stereotypical pro wrestling fan rooted in any kind of standard other than "low?" That's another question for another day. Still, I can't believe that everyone throwing verbal shade at Cesaro truly hates him just because he represents "taking mah freedoms away, dagnabbit!"

So, do people boo Cesaro because he's an asshole, or do they boo him because he's telling a truth that they don't want to hear and they're lashing out? It's an interesting question to pose, one that might dig into the roots of what makes the most effective heel and what lies at the base of the sentence "Heels speak the truth."

The thing is, Cesaro isn't some Michael Moore-looking slob who preaches a big game but acts conversely to how he might be better equipped to get his message across. The guy is ripped out of his mind, and his moveset, especially his impressive-looking Neutralizer, accentuates his strength and power. If anything, we as wrestling fans should be in awe of this guy. I mean, we're supposed to love the shit out of Ryback because he lifts things up and puts them down (violently), right? Cesaro has arguably done a better job of that (read, didn't have Tensai and Paul Heyman either not cooperate with him or not know HOW to cooperate), and he's actually giving the fans life tips. Sure, he's doing it condescendingly, which plays into our psyches as to why we would be compelled to boo him.

That being said, we're in the Seinfeld era now. Everyone in WWE is a jerk, whether it's supposed white knight John Cena or the guy who's supposed to embody everything wrong with how people are supposed to act, Heyman. While WWE nominally lays out how you're supposed to react, I have to wonder if they secretly wish the fans to make their jobs easy for them. With that in mind, maybe it's time we stopped booing Cesaro when he says things like "We're too fat" or "We don't get enough exercise."

Of course, he can go to hell by saying that Elvis Presley sucked but that's a whole other argument for a whole other day.