During a recent interview with DAZN, Cesaro commented on his pairing with Paul Heyman and why it didn’t work, his long road to getting a Universal Title shot, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On why it took so long for him to get to this point: “I spent many sleepless nights asking myself that question, to be honest. And, you know, I didn’t really find the answer. It’s just for certain people, it takes longer. I remember, when I first got to WWE after a year or two, somebody told me was like, ‘You’ll get there, it will just take a while. That’s just your path’. You don’t want to hear that when you just started. You don’t want to hear it will take a while, and you just see other people just jumping the line or getting the opportunity, and you’re just there working day in and day out. You don’t really want to hear that. But then if you look back at it, you think like, ‘Well, the journey was worth it because you took all those people that watched you over the past nine years, or like you even longer you took them on the journey with you.’ So when you finally arrive, and that journey is not over this Sunday, I tell you that much just starts with a nice shiny title belt. So if you take those people on that journey, it just means so much more. I feel when I talk about that I deliver all the time or working hard and dedicating myself to wrestling, it’s not just, who’s this new guy just saying that stuff? It’s like, ‘No, you’ve seen me for nine years and live by the words that I’m saying’. I feel like they all happen for a reason, and I’ve finally arrived where I want to be now. Looking back, I can say that I took the hard road. I did, and it means so much more.”
On his pairing with Paul Heyman not clicking: “I’ll say this much. I learned a whole lot from Paul, and I still do. But I agree 100% with Paul’s assessment because that’s 100% right. Paul used that opportunity to talk about Brock Lesnar and, I was second fiddle at that point. He even said that in the Talking Smack interview that he did. He said that he knows that alliance was more beneficial to him than it was for me. But you know what, despite that, I’m here today, challenging Roman Reigns on Sunday. I’m here despite not being picked, not being “The Guy” chosen by powers that be. I’m still here because of what I bring to the table. I feel that speaks for itself.”
On Daniel Bryan advocating for him: “That means the world to me. I also know that you don’t get an endorsement like that just from nothing because I’ve known Bryan for so long. I’ve known him for almost 18, 20 years. We’ve gone through a very similar journey. For him to do that, that just meant the world to me because it just shows, like we talked about, you get frustrated, and you want to have quick success. You want to have the overnight success that is never really overnight. But you don’t let that weigh you down. You keep working hard. You keep having a positive attitude. That’s how you impact and interact with different people along the road. If you’re just all negative, and just to be like, ‘Screw it, I’ll just do whatever’. That’s not a good mindset. That’s not how you get people to advocate for you or to speak up for you down the road because they see that no matter what, no matter how hard life hits you, you just keep getting up, keep fighting, keep doing your best you, and perform every single time no matter what. I think that’s very important. That just shows that your body of work is appreciated and that everything you do actually matters. I’m very lucky to be able to call Daniel a friend.”
