The Bar (professional wrestling)

 

On the July 19 episode of SmackDown Live, Cesaro and Sheamus were drafted to the Raw brand in the 2016 WWE draft, being the last two televised picks for the brand.^[2] The two men started a feud shortly after the draft. Cesaro defeated Sheamus in two consecutive matches, resulting in Cesaro earning a match for the United States Championship, which he received on the August 8 episode of Raw against Rusev, but lost after interference from Sheamus. Both men had issues about being on Raw, with Cesaro saying he would have more opportunity on the SmackDown brand, and Sheamus having been in a career slump since The League of Nations dissolved. Raw General Manager Mick Foley then announced that the pair would face each other in a best-of-seven series with the winner to receive a future championship title match. Sheamus won the first match at SummerSlam. Sheamus would defeat Cesaro in the second and third matches, but Cesaro defeated Sheamus in the fourth, fifth, and sixth matches, tying the series 3-3.^[3] At Clash of Champions, Cesaro fought Sheamus to a no contest when neither man could continue, leaving the outcome of their best-of-seven series undecided.^[4] Since Foley did not want to insult the impressive effort and performance the two had in the seventh match, and because he did not want the two to potentially injure themselves from an extra eighth match, he decided to reward both men with a championship match in the form of an opportunity at the Raw Tag Team Championship.

Cesaro and Sheamus defeated Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) in a non-title match on the October 24 episode of Raw, and defeated them by disqualification at Hell in a Cell, but did not win the title.^[5] On the November 7 episode of Raw, Cesaro and Sheamus were announced as part of Team Raw for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series on November 20, 2016, which Team Raw won. Cesaro and Sheamus were the sole survivors for their team, and for this reason, Foley gave them a title opportunity the following night on Raw. On Raw, however, Cesaro and Sheamus again failed to capture the tag titles from The New Day following interference from Xavier Woods. After a scripted bar fight on the November 28 edition of Raw where they initially spoke of their apparent split as a tag team, the two men finally began to co-operate, reforming their team.^[6] They lost to The New Day in a triple threat tag team match on the December 12 episode of Raw also involving Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. They received another title shot after winning a fatal four way #1 contenders match at Tribute to the Troops and at Roadblock: End of the Line, Cesaro and Sheamus defeated The New Day to win the Raw Tag Team Championship, marking Cesaro's second reign and Sheamus' first reign. In winning the title, they ended New Day's record setting reign of 483 days. They then retained the title against New Day in a rematch on the December 26 episode of Raw, ending their feud. On January 16, Cesaro and Sheamus announced their participation in the Royal Rumble match. Before that match, however, they were scheduled to defend the Raw Tag Team Championship against Gallows and Anderson on the Royal Rumble pre-show, where they lost the titles, ending their reign at 42 days. The duo then began to show tension between each other and were both later eliminated from the match by Chris Jericho. Their championship rematch was sabotaged by Enzo Amore and Big Cass, who interfered and caused a disqualification loss for the pair. Cesaro then defeated Enzo before he and Sheamus were defeated by the duo the week after to become the number one contenders to the title. At Fastlane, Cesaro defeated Jinder Mahal. It was later announced that Cesaro and Sheamus were to compete for the Raw Tag Team Championship against Enzo and Cass and Anderson and Gallows in a triple threat ladder match at WrestleMania 33. At the event, however, the match was made a four-way ladder match when the returning Hardy Boyz were added, who won the match.

 

At Payback, they were defeated by The Hardys, and attacked them after the match, turning heels in the process. They began calling themselves by the collective nickname The Bar, stating "We don't just set the bar, we are the bar!", and their entrances became further synchronized, wearing the same attire to the ring. They regained the titles at Extreme Rules in a steel cage match and defended them in a 30-Minute Iron Man match against The Hardy Boyz at the Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view.^[7] During the Summer, The Bar started a feud with Seth Rollins, who allied with his former stablemate Dean Ambrose. At SummerSlam they lost the titles against Rollins and Ambrose and lost the rematch at No Mercy.^[8] Cesaro and Sheamus aligned with The Miz as a result of the continuing feud with this eventually resulting in the reunion of the Shield when Rollins and Ambrose re-aligned with Roman Reigns. At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, the team of The Miz, Cesaro, Sheamus, Braun Strowman and Kane lost to Ambrose, Rollins and Kurt Angle, who replaced Reigns due to Reigns being removed from the match on medical grounds, in a five-on-three Handicap Tables, Ladders and Chairs match.

On the November 6 episode of Raw in Manchester, England, Cesaro and Sheamus defeated Ambrose and Rollins following a distraction from their former rivals The New Day to win the titles. By winning this match, it set them up to face SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos in a champions vs. champions match at Survivor Series. Cesaro and Sheamus lost the match.^[9] Cesaro and Sheamus then lost the Raw Tag Team Titles to Rollins and Jason Jordan on the Christmas episode of Raw. They had their rematch at the Royal Rumble, where they regained the titles, becoming record four-time champions as a team and marking an individual record fifth reign for Cesaro. After Braun Strowman singlehandedly won a tag team battle royal for a Raw Tag Team Championship match at WrestleMania 34, Cesaro and Sheamus were scheduled to defend the titles as long as Strowman found a partner. After weeks of failed attempts of finding out who Strowman's partner was, Cesaro and Sheamus walked into WrestleMania clueless. At the event, Strowman chose a 10-year old fan named Nicholas as his partner and they defeated Cesaro and Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Titles.^[10]

 

On April 17, as part of the Superstar Shake-up, Cesaro and Sheamus, now officially known as The Bar, were traded to SmackDown. Despite the trade, they still had an opportunity to win the Raw Tag Team Championship as they faced Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt at the Greatest Royal Rumble, but failed to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. They entered a brief feud with The New Day, losing to them and failing to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match. After going on a hiatus, the duo returned in late-July to take part in a No. 1 Contenders Tournament for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship beat The Usos to advance to the finals, where they lost to The New Day. After failing to become number one contenders again, the duo finally were gifted a title match. At Super Show-Down, The Bar failed to win the title.

At the 1000th episode of SmackDown on October 16, The Bar defeated The New Day to capture the titles with unlikely help from Big Show. They subsequently retained the titles against The New Day at Crown Jewel and Starrcade.^[11] On the November 27 episode of SmackDown Live, The Bar and Big Show's brief alliance ended after a confrontation backstage.^[12] They later entered a feud with The Miz and Shane McMahon, culminating in a match at the Royal Rumble on January 27, where The Bar lost the SmackDown Tag Team Championship to Miz and McMahon. The following SmackDown they lost a number one contenders match to The Usos.^[13] The Bar defeated Kofi Kingston at Fastlane in an impromptu 2-on-1 handicap match. The team then lost to New Day, DIY, The Hardy Boyz, and Aleister Black and Ricochet over the next two months on SmackDown.^[14]

At WrestleMania 35 in April, The Bar lost to The Usos in a match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.^[15] At the Raw following WrestleMania, The Bar interrupted a Winner Takes All match between Seth Rollins and Kofi Kingston, resulting in a tag team match. This resulted in "AEW" and "CM Punk" chants from the crowd, voicing their displeasure in the match they were given instead.^[16] The next day on SmackDown, Sheamus suffered a concussion in a six-man tag team match with New Day. Cesaro was drafted to Raw a few weeks later and started competing as a solo wrestler, although he would keep the bar theme song and attire. He would later premiere a new song and attire different from the bar.^[17] Cesaro stated in a later promo that The Bar had broken up due to Sheamus having to take the time off.^[18] Sheamus returned to action in 2020 and both resumed their careers as singles wrestlers. On February 24, 2022, Cesaro left WWE after his contract expired.^[19]

• WWE
  • WWE Raw Tag Team Championship (4 times)^[20]
  • WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship (1 time)^[21]
  • WWE Year-End Award for Tag Team of the Year (2018)^[22]

• Cesaro on WWE.com
• Sheamus on WWE.com
• Sheamus on Twitter
• Swiss on Twitter
• Claudio Castagnoli at IMDb
• Stephen Farrelly at IMDb