During a recent interview with Sport 360, Cesaro discussed his recovery and return to the ring, Daniel Bryan’s retirement and more. Here are some highlights:
On being able to speak five languages: “To me, I always focused on the in-ring part, the wrestling, that stuff. They’re my strong suit. Also, the beauty about that is, I feel actions speak louder than words and wrestling is kind of my sixth language that I can communicate with anybody. Even if they don’t speak my language or I don’t speak their’s, I go in the ring and I can entertain in a way that nobody else can.”
On how close he is to a return: “According to the doctors, it’s probably going to be another two or three months. I hate to say it, but [WrestleMania 32] is probably too soon. It’s like the worst time to be hurt, not that there’s a good time to be hurt, but it’s probably the worst time of the year to be hurt. Missing the [Royal] Rumble, missing WrestleMania, it’s our high season.”
On how close his character is to his real life personality: “I kind of feel like it became the same, as in, they always say, ‘your character is an extension of yourself or whatever you portray’ and I think that is certainly the case for the more successful characters of the past in WWE. And I think also in the future or currently, if you look at someone like Daniel Bryan, what you saw on the screen is very reflective of [of who he is as a person] and I think fans feel that. For me, yeah, of course, when you get on TV and you walk through that curtain, it’s just that little extra oomph of adrenaline and personality out there. I mean, I’m not walking around here swinging and uppercutting people, obviously. I could. Just kidding. So, to me, it’s very close. I just try to be as authentic as possible and that’s fun to me.”
On Daniel Bryan’s retirement: “It made me very sad. It made me very sad, just watching [the retirement speech on WWE Monday Night RAW]. And even I was over in Germany for the Germany tour show and they played a Daniel Bryan video before the show, just the retirement speech clip, the music, the highlight video, I couldn’t watch it because he [has] been a really good friend of mine for the past 10 years. And when I first came to WWE, I traveled with him and we talked about a lot of things, and, I mean, he’s still my friend and I’m still going to see him, probably, but it’s just not as much as I used to and he was just so much fun to be around. On the other hand, I’m very happy for him that he was able to go out, talk to the fans, and say goodbye in a way that only he can. The stuff that he said that night and then even the next day on SportsCenter, I didn’t know some of that stuff, and like he said, he hid some of it. I haven’t spoken to him, but I think that, for me, it’s important, as a friend, that he can live the rest of his life in good health and to risk his health is just not worth it, so I think, definitely, it’s the right decision and anybody in the world, all the fans that know what he [has] been through and seen what he [has] accomplished, they understand that.”
