Cesaro has quietly parted ways; he apparently declines a contract extension.
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After a year of cutting and pushing out talent, WWE seems to have altered their ways in the last few months. They gave experienced wrestlers like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and this week, AJ Styles to new contracts. Thus, they ensured a number of reliable performers were tied up with new deals. But that has changed again; Cesaro, one of the business’s top senior wrestlers, has quietly departed WWE.
This comes after he and the organization were unable to reach an agreement on a new contract.
Thus, Cesaro and WWE have split ways after a long and tenured run. His existing contract was coming to an end and the two sides spoke of a new deal for a while. And while they were negotiating, WWE offered him an extension of his current contract instead of a new, better deal. Thus Cesaro – whose real name is Claudio Castagnoli – decided it wasn’t what he wanted and let the contract expire.
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Cesaro will not have to serve the 90-day no-compete rule that his other former WWE superstars had to face. This is due to the fact his contract merely ended here and he was not dismissed.
“This would be a case of Cesaro’s contract expiring, so there would be no 90-day non-compete,” Mike Johnson of PWInsider said.
“Cesaro had been slated to be at tomorrow’s SmackDown taping in Hershey, PA, but will obviously no longer be there as his deal expired earlier this week.”
Cesaro went on to become one of WWE’s most reliable performers on their roster after debuting with them in 2011. He was usually referred to as one of the finest wrestlers by his peers.
What’s more, fans too made clear they wanted to see more of him higher up the card. But WWE management never appeared to get behind him for a significant push.
He recently expressed his displeasure with this after being significantly absent from this year’s Royal Rumble event.
Cesaro’s most recent bout occurred on the February 11 edition of SmackDown, when he lost to Happy Corbin.
Seth Rollins was one of many who paid tribute to Cesaro on his Twitter account. He shared a gif of the now-former WWE star executing a no-handed Airplane Spin on him.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) February 24, 2022
Cesaro, who is just 41 years old and seems to be in good form, still has a lot more wrestling battles ahead of him.
While most fans would assume he’d next appear in AEW, as many other former WWE stars have, it’s conceivable he’ll take his skills abroad, back to his old stomping grounds of ROH when they return, or maybe give IMPACT a go.
So, Cesaro has all the alternatives in the world for a person as skilled as him, so perhaps he’ll find a decent landing site soon where he’ll be happy and successful.
