odessasteps Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 An Invisible Cesaro would wreck you. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jiji Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I'm not really seeing how Cesaro had a better 12 months than Neville. He started off red hot and then failed to work himself out of the hole WWE put him in. Vince gave him a shot, however limited and not playing to Cesaro's strengths as it was, with the promo after the Austin podcast and all the brass ring shit. He fucked the promo up and then shat the bed in a brutal match with the returning Barrett (again, bad booking to have a guy redeeming himself in the eyes of his critics to then lose to a returnee). I think the world of Cesaro but he hardly covered himself in glory with very few standout matches on TV or PPV and while I think he's a top 5 guy in the world in terms of in-ring talent, it wasn't there enough to make people care about him in whatever limited and poorly constructed role he was given. Neville started off poorly, as the champion nobody connected with or cared about, and has since become a fiery, intense babyface that is believable if not flashy in the charisma and interview department and very good-to-great in the ring. In many cases, the argument of who carried whom is overblown by people, but I thought the Balor/Neville match was one of his best performances and I would argue he made what could've been a spotty, move-centred match into a rather thrilling and engaging encounter. It was built around Neville playing a bit more defensive than usual against the painted up Balor and then building up to hitting the big top rope moves where the top rope was equated with doom. I didn't get as much out of the Owens match as many on here did but it was still another good match for his resume. The two Zayn matches were about as good as WWE in-ring storytelling get and I would say there hasn't been a match under the WWE umbrella that told as compelling a story as Zayn/Neville from December since Austin vs. Hart from WM 13. There are probablybetter WWE matches in-between those two bouts but not in terms of bell-to-bell storytelling in my opinion. This isn't really close in my eyes. I could see Cesaro catching fire again and going on to win the tournament next year but this ain't his year. Can Cesaro go back to the Dean Malenko theme song he was using before Real Americans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Blaming Cesaro on having a down year thanks to Vince not knowing what his strengths are is bogus. Not hearing it. Neville was one of the most improved wrestlers on the planet in the last year, but that doesn't make him better than Cesaro. Don't let the fact that Cesaro isn't near the top of the card blind you to the point that he was the best wrestler on WWE TV in the past year-plus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man Known as Dan Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Blaming Cesaro on having a down year thanks to Vince not knowing what his strengths are is bogus. Not hearing it. Neville was one of the most improved wrestlers on the planet in the last year, but that doesn't make him better than Cesaro. Don't let the fact that Cesaro isn't near the top of the card blind you to the point that he was the best wrestler on WWE TV in the past year-plus. This is a silly standpoint IMO, the voting is based on the last year, and Neville had a better one then Cesaro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Blaming Cesaro on having a down year thanks to Vince not knowing what his strengths are is bogus. Not hearing it. Then take your fingers out of your ears and maybe you will hear it. If Cesaro had been given more to do post-Mania, he probably could have had better matches, and that's not saying the matches he had were bad. Like I said when I voted, Cesaro is a better wrestler than Neville. Neville, however, had the better year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Blaming Cesaro on having a down year thanks to Vince not knowing what his strengths are is bogus. Not hearing it. Neville was one of the most improved wrestlers on the planet in the last year, but that doesn't make him better than Cesaro. Don't let the fact that Cesaro isn't near the top of the card blind you to the point that he was the best wrestler on WWE TV in the past year-plus. This is a silly standpoint IMO, the voting is based on the last year, and Neville had a better one then Cesaro. What made it better? I said year-plus, but that doesn't mean the extra few months dating back to the Regal match in December of '13 accounted for my reasoning. If anything, I've loved the fact that in spite of how he was booked that Cesaro went out and had the year that he did. That's way more impressive than being booked to have great matches with better workers for the last year and improving along the way. I keep seeing people say Neville had a better year but not backing it up with reasoning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man Known as Dan Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I don't know know, MOTYC matches as well as multiple stand out matches that all have a case as being as good as anything Cesaro did this year? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Neville's best match was with Zayn. That's better than anything Cesaro did. I'll give you guys that. But if you wittle that down to say, a Top 10, Top 25, Neville's list looks awfully thin. Cesaro's year was filled with the Sheamus series, assorted good TV matches, his stuff with Tyson Kidd, etc. He was way more consistent, and people touting the Balor match as something akin to the match with Zayn is hilarious to me. Especially considering his match with Owens smokes that match. I'm not saying it's a landslide. But on a full year scale, I don't see how Neville's year is better than Cesaro's unless you are weighing one match over all his other ones, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man Known as Dan Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Of course his list looks awfully thin, he wrestles on a show that has one hours of television a week instead of 6-7 the main show has. He wrestled significantly less times then Cesaro did, but had a significantly higher average of good to great matches he was producing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanWaco Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 MOTYCs? As in plural? Does Neville really have more match depth than Cesaro who has the good/real good tag stuff with Kidd, the Sheamus series, the July match with Cena, the Ambrose brawl (which I thought was overrated to be fair, but is rate it at the level of or above some of the Neville stuff in this thread), the last of the Real Americans v Rhodes stuff which was in the voting period, the Cara match, the Rowan Superstars match from Dec...I will grant Nevilles best stuff is more memorable because if the booking and presentation of NXT. And his best match was better than Cesaros. But good match depth? Eh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cristobal Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 In terms of impressive matches, I'm not sure Cesaro had anything in the period better than Neville carrying Brodus Clay's big useless ass to actually good title matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MORELOCK Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Goldust couldn't get by on rep alone, I don't see why Cesaro should be able to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron Moose Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 I tied it at 45-45 with a vote for Neville. I deferred to a good friend of mine who doesn't follow any kind of backstage stuff, and her intuitions seemed to follow the emerging narrative of the thread, being "a few great matches outweighing a very high floor of competence. " Cesaro's booking didn't do him many favors this year, and Neville's completely plausible turns from bland flying technician to dickish competitor to furious avenging eclipsed Cesaro's meandering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godfrey Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Somebody post that deadlift German Neville did on Owens. Oh! And that apron superplex Cesaro did on Cena. This won't help anyone decide but they sure were awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCM Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 All I keep hearing people talk about are matches. I could give two shits about some throw away match between Cesaro and Sin Cara that not even the people booking it give a damn about. I give much more credit to Neville for helping build the best post Mania story in WWE delivering in and out of the ring to help build that year long story to a fever pitch and deliver a wonderful payoff. That to me is what pro wrestling is about not a bunch of throwaway matches in a vacuum on the C-show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DylanWaco Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 I wouldn't fault anyone for taking Neville over Cesaro based on presentation and booking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lamp, broken circa 1988 Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Neville impressed me significantly this year, since I pretty much hate everything that's ever happened near Dragon Gate and actively enjoyed what he put in. That upgrade in my personal standing biased me towards Neville. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Full disclosure: I have not watched a Neville match yet (and no I am not going to because I've already run out of net time for videos, downloads etc. this month and the time doesn't turn over for another 13 days) and I really had no plan to vote unless the finals looked interesting. But, this is my boy Cesaro. And y'all fucked up in letting Bryan die the death that WWE already has in store for him in the brackets so SPITE! C'mon folks, grab that brass ring! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hail Sabin Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Went with Neville because he had a hell of a year the Tyson feud, the 4 way match, the whole Zayn Fued, and the #1 contender's tournament matches including the Balor match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoeCristyV.1.6 Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 There goes your champ, guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 10, 2015 Author Share Posted March 10, 2015 Its less than 24 hours into a 48 hour poll... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRV Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 yo this is definitely a grueling match-up, but when I think about it, PAC came up as the dude who could do more flips than other dudes, and Claudio came up as (well okay, first as a sleazy indy looking fake rich dude with really cheap gear) an unimaginably strong dude with the dream body for wrestling, a really nice overall old school feel about everything he does and an ability to make anyone he can possibly face look like a million bucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoffman Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 I don't care if he fell off the face of the Earth for months afterward, Cesaro bodyslamming Big Show out of the Andre the Giant battle royale was enough for me to throw a vote his way. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 11, 2015 Author Share Posted March 11, 2015 Either the Neville supporters waited to vote or someone created a ton of sock puppets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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