Cesaro's Road to WWE Stardom: Chronicling the King of Swing's Journey

By the time Cesaro first wrestled for WWE, his wrestling boots had to have been worn thin and his passport heavy with stamps. The Swiss Superman had been wrestling for a decade, knocking back foes with his trademark uppercut everywhere from New England to Japan.

As stellar a performer as Cesaro (real name: Claudio Castagnoli) is inside the squared circle, it's hard to imagine him doing anything else.

Had he not seen an advertisement for a wrestling school on the computer, though, WWE's King of Swing might have put his athletic gifts to use elsewhere. The Lucerne, Switzerland, native grew up loving sports rather than sports entertainment. 

But once he tasted wrestling, even in front of crowds of just dozens of people, Cesaro latched onto the industry. He traversed the independent circuit until WWE opened its doors, where he used his years of experience to quickly start wowing far larger audiences.

Entering the Industry

Cesaro grew up in a picturesque place where mountains hug the horizon and lush meadows surround Lake Lucerne. The central Switzerland city was anything but a wrestling hub. He would have to venture far beyond its borders to make his name in the ring.

On his personal website, Cesaro recalled being an active young man who played soccer, tennis and basketball. He was so committed to these sports that he'd wake up early to get in some soccer an hour before school started and would sweep snow off the court in order to play hoops in the winter.

An online ad inspired him to seek out a new athletic endeavor—pro wrestling.

Early on, he trained on mats in a threadbare facility. His trainer, SigMasta Ripp (aka Sigi the Swiss Tank), invited him to travel to Germany to train in an actual ring for the first time. That ended up leading to Cesaro's first pro bout, one he didn't believe he was prepared for.

"I wasn't trained very well at that point. I knew the very, very, very basics, I didn't have proper ring gear, the show was in a bar in front of 50 people and I had no business being in a ring," Cesaro wrote on his website.

Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) in Germany provided his gateway into wrestling. 

This is where, competing as Double C, he battled his trainer in a Tables, Ladder & Chairs match and twice won the promotion's top title, as noted on WXW-Wrestling.com. Teaming with fellow Swiss grappler Ares, he formed Swiss Money Holding. 

Decked out in a dress shirt with torn sleeves, a necktie and elbow pads, Cesaro played a Swiss banker who could handle himself in a brawl.

Opportunities outside of both wXw and Europe soon opened up for him. In 2003, the strongman wrestled brief stints for American indy promotions Chikara and IWA-Mid South. And then came his ticket to rising up the wrestling ranks.

As Frederick Heinen wrote for Slam! Wrestling, "In 2004, Claudio was granted permanent residency in the U.S." It was then time to start putting miles upon miles on his odometer to gain a surplus of experience.

Years of Trekking 

Once Cesaro moved to the United States, his resume filled up with a diverse set of entries.

He worked for the comedy-heavy Chikara and Combat Zone Wrestling, famous for its hardcore wrestling. Lesser-known companies such as Far North Wrestling and Power League Wrestling booked him, as well. 

In 2005, he won the Chikara Tag World Grand Prix with Arik Cannon. Strangely enough, one of the men he and Cannon bested that night—Chris Hero—ended up being Cesaro's tag team partner for a number of years. 

While Cesaro worked well with Cannon and Ares, something truly clicked when he formed Kings of Wrestling with Hero.

Hero was more of the loudmouth of the group, the brash trash-talker who meshed well with Cesaro's often cold demeanor. In the ring, they produced time and again. Some of Cesaro's best pre-WWE matches came as part of this duo.

The Kings of Wrestling won the Ring of Honor tag titles in 2006 and again in 2010, per ROHWrestling.com. And, as noted on Indeed Wrestling, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named Hero and Cesaro the best tag team of 2010.

Before that, Cesaro flirted with the big time. WWE signed him to a developmental deal in late 2006, but that marriage didn't last. Heinen wrote, Cesaro's "stint in World Wrestling Entertainment was short-lived, and he returned to the indie scene in early 2007 with close to no off-time from the independent circuit."

That allowed Cesaro to further work on his craft on the indy circuit, where he put on stunning matches at ROH and thrived in comedy roles at Chikara.

In 2007, he joined Los Ice Creams for a night. It was a silly gig, the supposedly injured wrestler returning as a masked alter ego. Wrestling Facts shared a photo of him in full ice cream garb:

"

Cesaro once competed under a mask as "Very Mysterious Ice Cream" as part of a team called Los Ice Creams. pic.twitter.com/yUeFezszMO

— Wrestling Facts (@WrestlingsFacts) April 5, 2016"

Of that time, Cesaro said in an interview with Chris Jericho on the Talk is Jericho podcast, "Chikara is very fun-oriented. It's its own universe, but the fans are all in on it."

He toured Japan while working for Pro Wrestling Noah several times between 2008 and 2011. Alongside Hero, Kings of Wrestling were making a mark against many top Japanese talents. 

Cesaro won the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla World Championship in 2010, per the PWG website, briefly serving as the flag-bearer for that emerging California promotion

Cesaro's adaptability was on display during these years. He pulled off being one of the Ice Creams just as well as he played a top-tier bruiser. 

Opportunity Continues to Knock

As Cesaro further built his brand, he would face off against a number of men he would later meet in a WWE ring.

He feuded with Brodie Lee (now known as Luke Harper) in 2008 and three years later, he and Kevin Steen (link contains NSFW language), known today as WWE's Kevin Owens, battled over the PWG title. When both men were part of ROH, Cesaro and Bryan Danielson (Daniel Bryan) collided in memorable action.

Cesaro's foes were varied, as were the venues he performed in. He was wrestling in Tokyo and Detroit, the Goodwill Fire Association Hall and Boston University.

One might imagine that freelancing from promotion to promotion would have worn on Cesaro, that he would have been pining for wrestling's major leagues. But he was thrilled to be where he was.

Cesaro told Bill Hanstock of Cageside Seats in an interview before WWE came calling for the second time, "I'm living the dream!" Looking ahead, he said, "I just want to do as good as I can. What that is I don't know. I never dreamed of moving to the US and do what I do, so let's see what the future holds for me."

Even before the spotlight brightened, before the paychecks ballooned, he seemed content. He was an artist perfecting his craft, and apparently, the size of the gallery didn't matter.

In the fall of 2011, as noted by Pro Wrestling Torch, WWE signed Cesaro to a developmental deal, placing him in its Florida Championship Wrestling territory. 

He traded wrestling under his real name to going by Antonio Cesaro. WWE would later have him drop the first name after he moved to the main roster.

Again, he stared down faces he would meet down the road on Raw and SmackDown.

He made his FCW debut against Mike Dalton, who would later morph into Tyler Breeze. And teaming with Rusev, he went up against the Rotundo brothers, better known today as Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt.

All those men would make it to WWE's main roster eventually, each experiencing different levels of success.

Cesaro quickly established himself as one of the most impressive athletes on the entire roster. En route to winning the United States title and the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, he kept impressing no matter what silly gimmick WWE threw his way.

Whether he was showing off all the languages he could speak, yodeling or claiming to be a Real American, Cesaro's ring skills shone through. Fans started bringing in "Cesaro Section" signs as they cheered him on. WWE has been hesitant to treat him like a top-shelf star, but he has often been in line for opportunities at championships.

At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, he is among the six men set to battle for the briefcase containing a contract for a world title match. 

Whether WWE selects him as the man to retrieve that prize or relegates him to midcard duty, the one certainty is that Cesaro will deliver. He has been doing that everywhere he has ever stepped between the ropes.

Match history courtesy of CageMatch.net.