Cesaro Talks About The Pressure He Puts On Himself In WWE

Cesaro has an army of devoted fans, and is often seen as one of WWE’s most underpushed stars. Now with a potential match of the night awaiting with Seth Rollins at WWE WrestleMania 37, Cesaro is arguably under the biggest spotlight since joining WWE in 2011.

Speaking on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast, Cesaro detailed the pressures he feels as part of the WWE, especially as he prepares for his first ever WrestleMania singles match:

“I feel that pressure every single day. They're so many people that I feel support me and want me to do well that I represent, in my mind, from all over the world, and this is my first WrestleMania singles match, so of course, it's like the pressure is on, because I want to make everybody proud. I want to show everybody that I deserve this I want to show everybody that what they believe in can happen oh, that what they believe in is happening and I am worth their support and I can actually do this, so there's a lot of pressure. 

“I always do but if even more because I'm like ‘Okay, I need to do this.’ I'm always under the impression of like, what can I do to get better?’ I'm never like, ‘I'm freaking awesome.’ I'm always like, ‘Oh no. I'm not that good oh, I need to do this to get better. So there's a lot of pressure.”

He continued, “Also, with the whole thing with Rollins with the promos and stuff... It's like, ‘Oh, your potential...’ I'm not the one that's telling everyone I deserve it or this is my potential, I just want to earn it. I want to be there and prove everybody, so the pressure is on immensely but the trick with anything is, do it with grace. You go out there and do it, and hope for the best, and just be true to yourself and make it the best you can.”

Vince McMahon memorably singled Cesaro out when talking about the infamous ‘brass ring’ on Steve Austin’s podcast in 2014, but Cesaro says the fact he is still employed by WWE seven years later puts that discussion to bed:

“I'm still here, we're like almost seven years later, and I'm still here and I'm doing well. That just speaks for itself. Again, that's one of those [things] that I feel actions speak louder than words because there's a lot of people that can come out the next day and go public or on Twitter or whatever, and be like, [mocks a rambling rant], and I said that Talking Smack promo that I did would not have worked 5 years ago.

"It worked now because people see my body of work and they know that what I say is not just what I believe in but also what I live by and what I do every day. I'm not the one that says like, ‘I work really hard. I train every day’ No, they've seen me on TV and off TV for the last eight or nine years doing it all the time, every time. So, I feel like actions do speak louder than words, and if you actually say something that just backed it up. 

“I was always under the impression that I don't want to be the one that's cheerleading myself, that's just lame. I'm just not that guy. It's very kind when other people say it but that's why I feel like there's so much pressure on me because so many people believe in me and I do not want to let them down. I do not want to let my friends down who helped me. There's a lot of people who either put in a good word about me or spoke nicely about me. I don't want to let those people down."

Credit: Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions H/T: Fightful for the transcription