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Cesaro has arguably been the most underutilized wrestler in WWE ever since he signed with the promotion. He has never held a top championship and the closest he's ever been to a world championship is being a part of top contendership matches for the title. However, with the WWE Royal Rumble coming this Sunday, things could change for the Swiss Cyborg.
The WWE Royal Rumble has been known for being a platform for stars to shine. Last year we saw Drew McIntyre get the push to the main event after hanging around in the upper mid card for a while. This year, many fans believe that the star making moment will belong to Cesaro.
Barely a few weeks ago, people wouldn't even have considered Cesaro as a threat in the Royal Rumble. Yet now he is a top contender to win the whole thing. How did that change so quickly? Let's go into depth on that question and look at five signs that Cesaro could win the WWE Royal Rumble this year.
#5 - Vince McMahon was reportedly looking to push underutilized WWE talent
Vince McMahon is the final voice in WWE management. Not a leaf moves in WWE without his permission. Everything that we see on television goes through him first. So when he wants to push someone, it gets done one way or another.
Last month, WrestleVotes reported that the WWE writing team was asked to jot down the names of some wrestlers who they believed were being underutilized in WWE. Nearly every list that the writers had come up with included Cesaro's name.
Cesaro is undoubtedly one of the most underrated wrestlers of our generation and we haven't really seen him work in the main event scene. If the report is accurate, then Cesaro might be on his climb up to the top. With Vince behind the 'King of Swing', the sky is the limit. The first step in this push could very likely be winning the Royal Rumble this Sunday.
Moreover, the WWE universe has been demanding a Cesaro push for a long time. He is a fan favourite and every once in a while management tends to listen to the fans. Let's see if this is one of those instances.
#4 - Cesaro would make a fresh, strong opponent for Roman Reigns on WWE SmackDown
Roman Reigns has been on an absolute tear ever since his return at WWE SummerSlam. He has become an unstoppable force who hasn't lost a singles match ever since he came back. He has even laid his control on the WWE Universal Championship and it doesn't look like he's letting go of it anytime soon.
For his character to progress even further, Roman needs a strong opponent, one with a lot of momentum on his back. It can be argued that Daniel Bryan is going to assume that role, but it is not as fresh of a match as Cesaro vs Roman Reigns could be. Roman vs Bryan could easily be a match at WWE Fastlane instead.
Cesaro, on the other hand, is a whole new basket of options. We haven't seen Roman and Cesaro battle it out before, with such big stakes on the line. Moreover, Cesaro did have something to say a couple of weeks back when Roman and Jey laid a beating on his partner Shinsuke Nakamura.
On last week's episode of Talking Smack, Cesaro made it official that if he won the Rumble he would be challenging Roman Reigns. If that were to happen, it would make for an extremely exciting scenario. With the level that these two work at, their rivalry could be a treat for the fans.
#3 - Cesaro's social media posts about WWE have been hyping up a Royal Rumble win
It is common for WWE Superstars to use social media as a vehicle to further on-screen storylines and Cesaro seems to be hinting at something big for himself. After his win on WWE SmackDown two weeks ago, he posted a picture on Instagram with a promising caption.
This is by no means solid evidence that he is winning the Rumble, but in the current conditions it might as well be a sign. Cesaro rarely ever hypes up or properly pushes for a certain target on his social media. He also has his recent performances to back these claims. Plus, this isn't the only time he has mentioned winning the WWE Royal Rumble on his social media accounts.
At this point it is clear that Cesaro's current goal is to win the WWE Royal Rumble. If we look at previous winners, they were also making sure to bring up the Royal Rumble as much as possible leading up to the event. At the moment there are only a select few who are being hyped up for the Rumble and Cesaro is one of them. This year could truly be Cesaro's time to shine.
#2 - Cesaro has been getting big wins on WWE SmackDown
Less than a month ago, Cesaro was not even a relevant figure on WWE television. But in a matter of weeks he has been shot straight up to the top. In the last two weeks he has picked up some major wins.
Firstly, on January 15, Cesaro was scheduled to face Daniel Bryan one on one in a singles match. To the surprise of many, Cesaro went over clean on The American Dragon after connecting with the Neutralizer.
This came as an unexpected occurrence in WWE, because Cesaro was a mid-card heel who had gone over one of the top babyfaces of the company cleanly. This was more than enough to convince some that he poses a threat to twenty-nine other men at the Royal Rumble.
The following week, Cesaro cemented his position as a Royal Rumble favorite after defeating Dolph Ziggler in dominant fashion.
Cesaro has gotten two back-to-back wins over former World Champions within two weeks. That could be a major sign of what's to follow. Wrestlers don't accidentally get such big wins consecutively. Vince McMahon seems to be pushing the Swiss Cyborg. Only time will tell if that push is big enough to give him a Royal Rumble win.
#1 - WWE Personnel have been putting Cesaro over strongly
One of the signs that a WWE wrestler has something big ahead of them is when they are being praised on WWE TV more often than usual. The perfect example of this is currently Cesaro. It began when, during his match against Daniel Bryan, Michael Cole and Corey Graves brought up and spent quite a while talking about Cesaro's Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal win from 2014.
Also, last week on Talking Smack Cesaro was featured as a guest and he had an interesting interaction with his former manager, Paul Heyman, who showered praise upon Cesaro. Heyman went as far as to say that if anyone on the roster has any hope of stopping Cesaro, it's Roman Reigns.
Within a matter of seconds, Heyman elevated Cesaro to a whole new level which was arguably the most convincing sign that Cesaro could win the Rumble in the whole build up.
Throughout the years, many wrestlers have sung the praises of the Swiss Superman and recently the WWE Champion Drew McIntyre also mentioned that one of his dream opponents is Cesaro. That was also brought up on Talking Smack by Kayla Braxton.
There is always a reason for such strong mention and talk about certain wrestlers. Last year this time around, Drew was also being talked about frequently on WWE RAW, WWE Backstage and other WWE Network Specials. If the past is any sign of things to come, then we might finally be seeing a Royal Rumble win for Cesaro this Sunday.
A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE
