Cesaro On Why His Pairing With Paul Heyman Didn’t Work

WWE's Cesaro sat down with Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN to talk about his upcoming WWE Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania: Backlash this Sunday. The match will be Cesaro's first ever shot at a world championship in his decade long WWE career, and it was an opportunity that he, at times, thought would never come.

"I spent many sleepless nights asking myself that question , to be honest," Cesaro revealed. "And, you know, I didn't really find the answer. It's just for certain people, it takes longer. I remember, when I first got to WWE after a year or two, somebody told me was like, 'You'll get there, it will just take a while. That's just your path'. You don't want to hear that when you just started. You don't want to hear it will take a while, and you just see other people just jumping the line or getting the opportunity, and you're just there working day in and day out. You don't really want to hear that. But then if you look back at it, you think like, 'Well, the journey was worth it because you took all those people that watched you over the past nine years, or like you even longer you took them on the journey with you'.

"So when you finally arrive, and that journey is not over this Sunday, I tell you that much, it just starts with a nice shiny title belt. So if you take those people on that journey, it just means so much more. I feel when I talk about that I deliver all the time or working hard and dedicating myself to wrestling, it's not just, who's this new guy just saying that stuff? It's like, 'No, you've seen me for nine years and live by the words that I'm saying'. I feel like they all happen for a reason, and I've finally arrived where I want to be now. Looking back, I can say that I took the hard road. I did, and it means so much more."

Cesaro's match with Roman Reigns will put him across the ring from Paul Heyman, Reigns' adviser. Heyman was once the manager for Cesaro back in 2014, and Cesaro concurs with Heyman that the partnership, while nice on paper, didn't work out.

"I'll say this much. I learned a whole lot from Paul, and I still do. But I agree 100 percent with Paul's assessment because that's 100 percent right," Cesaro said. "Paul used that opportunity to talk about Brock Lesnar and, I was second fiddle at that point. He even said that in the Talking Smack interview that he did. He said that he knows that alliance was more beneficial to him than it was for me.

"But you know what, despite that, I'm here today, challenging Roman Reigns on Sunday. I'm here despite not being picked, not being "The Guy" chosen by powers that be. I'm still here because of what I bring to the table. I feel that speaks for itself."

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