Antonio Cesaro interview

Antonio Cesaro

Here are a few highlights from the interview:

Which wrestlers have helped him the most: “I grew up with WWE and New Japan, but when I started traveling to Germany, I had the chance to train with people like Christian Eckstein and Tony St. Clair. They were two of the cornerstones of the German “beer tent” wrestling era, when they’d have 30-day tournaments in the same town.

“Then Chris Hero, now Kassius Ohno, had a hand in helping me out early in my career. Together we went to Mexico and I trained with the trainer of Toryumon and Dragon’s Gate. He was known then as Skayde and now Jorge Rivera. I trained with him for about four years in the lucha libre style and developed a hybrid style of American wrestling mixed with lucha libre mixed with whatever else you could find like amateur wrestling. I incorporated it all.

“Then I traveled to Japan and incorporated some of the Japanese style. I think that’s what makes you the wrestler you are. You can’t just copy someone. There are so many different styles that you can just kind of pick and choose whatever it is you’d like to do.”

Using the giant swing: “The giant swing is a move I’ve been doing for a while, but before the WWE. I just thought it was time for something new. To me the giant swing is one of the most traditional moves in professional wrestling and still one of the most entertaining ones. I’m really proud to be able to introduce it, or reintroduce it, to a completely new generation.

“When you think of professional wrestling you think of an elbow drop and swinging people by their feet. If you could do any move in a fight, you’d probably do the giant swing on somebody. It’s such a show of strength and you see variations of it in movies and cartoons. Most people think it’s impossible to do. Obviously not?if you’re Antonio Cesaro.”

The key to success in WWE: “There isn’t just one key to success. There are so many. If there was one key to success, everybody would do it. It’s different from person to person. If you look at who has been WWE champion or world champion, and to me that’s the top of the ladder, there’s all kinds of different attributes.

“What’s important is finding what makes you different and highlight those strengths. And then work hard and be consistent. We wrestle 250 days a year. You have to be consistent and reliable. We don’t have an offseason. You can watch us year-round.

“The most important thing is entertaining the fans, in whichever way you do that. And that’s different for every WWE Superstar. So there’s many keys to success?you just have to find yours. Hopefully I’ve found mine.”