I'm not really enamored with the idea of Cesaro as a top face anyhow, but it's a shame that receiving a "push" these days means having to be main event or nothing. If they weren't planning on at least giving him the Intercontinental Championship (although that belt is a curse for anyone who wears it these days) after being paired with Paul Heyman, why not just keep him as one half of The Real Americans? Especially since they've went and apparently turned Swagger and Zeb into babyfaces anyway... this whole USA vs Russia storyline has managed to get Swagger over (although I don't see the audience continuing to stay invested in him after the angle is over), so imagine if Cesaro were in Swagger's position instead. Furthermore, imagine the reaction Cesaro gets if he actually defeats Rusev. You wouldn't even have had to break The Real Americans apart yet, just have Cesaro occupied with something else while Rusev crushes Swagger and puts him on the shelf, and then in comes Cesaro to step up to the challenge next.
All in all, I actually think the Shield breakup might have screwed up Cesaro's push a bit. The decision to break The Shield apart was apparently made about three weeks before Payback, meaning that Cesaro may have originally been slated to win the MITB briefcase before they decided to go with a freshly turned Rollins instead. Not that Cesaro would have probably been jobbing any less (they often exhibit a bad habit of jobbing out their MITB winners under the belief that they're 'bulletproof'), but still.