Antonio Cesaro: Carrying the Flag for the Future of WWE

This week's WWE Main Event provided us with an extremely entertaining matchup between Dolph Ziggler and Antonio Cesaro—and despite Ziggler being the self-proclaimed "Show Off," his opponent was the one "Stealing the Show" this time around. 

And not for the first time, either. 

It was almost a year ago that Antonio Cesaro won the U.S. Title by beating Santino Marella on the Summerslam Pre-Show, which at first seemed to signal the start of great things for the Swiss throwback. However, despite an impressive, long reign as champion, he never really received the air-time that his credentials deserved—especially as the "Road To WrestleMania" arrived and almost all attention was directed towards the likes of Brock Lesnar, Undertaker and The Rock.

Cesaro wasn't even given a match at 'Mania, which seemed to disgruntle some fans and a certain CM Punk, who opted to walk around on the WrestleMania media access day wearing one of Cesaro's WWE Shop T-shirts.

Since he lost the title to Kofi Kingston, Antonio still does all in his power to make sure he isn't forgotten by the fans nor the powers that be behind the curtain, whether that's by picking up a microphone or simply showing the strength and technique he has in the ring, just like he did on Main Event this week.

As whoever's on commentary likes to remind us, he's built a reputation as the strongest pound-for-pound performer in the business, which is something that he utilizes very often in his matches, throwing his opponents around with prominent ease. And that suplex-turned-superplex where he stands on the turnbuckle and launches fellow superstars from the apron back into the ring is just incredible. His intelligent innovation and pure strength is clear for all to see.

Now that he is without the burden of a title and under the guidance of Mr. Propaganda himself, Zeb Colter, Cesaro can hopefully be pushed towards bigger and better things, even if he doesn't win his Money In The Bank Ladder Match. Antonio has managed to show in the space of a couple of weeks that he's more charismatic and better at handling the whole "Real American" gimmick than Jack Swagger ever was...and he's not even American. 

Much like Daniel Bryan, the former European Rugby player has shown that even if he has to include a strange shtick with his character, he won't let it affect his in-ring prowess. Whether he's posing, yodeling or even wrestling, Antonio Cesaro has shown that he's able to deliver every week in any way WWE wants him to.