Over the years there have been a number of Paul Heyman guys, and it seemed that Cesaro was on his way to reaching the next level in his career when he aligned himself with Paul Heyman following WrestleMania 30. However, Cesaro’s run with Heyman didn’t amount to much, and Cesaro never broke through the glass ceiling in WWE in the years that followed.
While talking about his partnership with Cesaro during an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Heyman made it clear that he believes Cesaro had everything he needed to become a top star. He then openly admitted that Cesaro’s run with WWE was a wasted opportunity.
“You look at Cesaro and he checked, specially at that moment in time, he checked every box to become a top star. Everyone who got into the ring with him came back into Gorilla saying, ‘Give me him.’ Everyone. I remember John Cena worked with him on television and came back and looked at Vince [McMahon] and said, ‘I could main event WrestleMania with him.’ And probably could have and should have.
Cesaro was placed in that position the day after Brock Lesnar conquered the streak so that when Brock took his hiatus, I had an excuse to be on television to say, ‘My client Brock Lesnar conquered The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania.’ And you needed an excuse to have me out there on television. If you put me on commentary, I can’t say it for two or three hours. I have to say it with him once a week. Just drill that into your head. Reinforcement, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. And so Cesaro became the excuse to see me say the line.
If Cesaro was given the opportunity to answer every question in a different language, you’d have seen a side of his personality because he will put emphasis in the dialect and you will see his mannerisms match the dialect that he’s presenting. So I think Cesaro could have been a fascinating promo if he was given the chance to do that in WWE. He wasn’t. And that’s our fault. That is a major fumble that was a crime that was committed against the career of Cesaro and a crime that was committed against the audience for not allowing this gifted performer to do what at the time, certainly he could do better than most anybody else on the face of the planet.
When you realize what he’s capable of, what an opponent he could have been for Brock Lesnar. Had I turned on Cesaro and we built him up to be a threat to Brock, the matches the two of them could have had are mind boggling. A tremendously wasted opportunity and no one for us to blame but ourselves, including me.”