Antonio Cesaro was getting over earlier this year with his airplane swing and exciting in ring style. WWE abruptly turned him heel, and aligned him with Paul Heyman as a Heyman Guy, the “King of Swing”.
Early in the year, WWE decided that Roman Reigns would get the next huge babyface push, and this was even before Daniel Bryan had been injured.
The idea would be to push Reigns as the top face, with Cena, Bryan and also Sheamus as the rest of the top of the card on the babyface side. That would have left Cesaro at #5 on the face depth chart at the highest, and that’s not a huge push.
Instead WWE decided to “cool off” Cesaro, keeping him heel and having him tone down the workrate and style that was getting him over with the fans. WWE management believes they can then “heat up” Cesaro again in 2015 as a babyface once Roman Reigns is established on the top of the card.
However, the risk is that Cesaro cannot regain the momentum he had earlier this year. That remains to be seen.
