Has WWE given up on the Tensai experiment?
 

I can't remember when he won a match last, and after being fed to Ryback im guessing WWE have given up on the gimmick.

Should WWE try and still salvage the gimmick, change him back to A-Train, or cut their losses and release him?

It's not really surprising. They didn't give him anything to work with other than "Go have a match." He's not exactly Daniel Bryan or CM Punk in the ring.

Give him a story, a microphone, something and maybe people would care. I think the gimmick could work if he were attached to something. But given the fact that a lot of people know who he was, sending him out for squash matches wasn't going to work.

He needs a decent angle, any angle really.

He needs to go back to being A-Train.

This, and drop the Tensai gimmick. Everyone wants the hip hop hippo back. Team him with Brodus Clay, the kids will love it. And if the kids are happy, Superslim is happy!

Sadder still is that they had plenty of opportunity to salvage this. Instead, they chose to:

a) ignore all the "ALBERT" chants by pretending he didn't exist. These are the same fans who chanted "YOU STILL GOT IT" to Ricky Steamboat, but we're supposed to forget this guy is just a shaved A-Train.

b) bank on the fact that just because he "looks the shit" as an intimidating heel that he was supposed to hotshot to the top of the card after a lengthly absense from WWE. They're not even pushing guys that are around, why would the crowd buy a guy that just came back after x amount of years to be a world tiltle caliber main eventer? Even Lesnar's return wasn't an out of the blue WHC/WWE Title match or a true build to one. It was a showcase matchup. Much like any return Undertaker may have left in him.

c) do nothing to flesh out his character other than say "he's huge in Japan and was unstoppable there". Oh, and that all those henna tats on his face say "BEWARE OF TENSAI". Well, he's not in Japan anymore. Only goes so far. Why does he only speak Japanese? We know Albert speaks English. What was the deal with Sakamoto? Why take the abuse and hang around him? Nothing.

yep they gave up on him and clay feed them to the big show, wonder when ryback will be feed to show.

lol jesus christ

Tat the rest of his body and call him Hakushi.

There's no shame in jobbing to Ryback.

It's sad, because he's gotten so much better in-ring, from his Albert days, but hasn't had much opportunity to show it.

That great match with Sheamus a few months ago was probably the only exception.

To me he's just another unremarkable big man in the Mark Henry / Big Show vein, but with even less charisma.

I see your decent, and raise you an obtuse.

Anything other than the 'arggghhhh I'm a hoss fear me' would be an improvement, kinda knew he wasn't going anywhere when they went with the generic undefeated streak at the start.

He is just going to be used as a big guy to feed to mid-top stars

Yeah, it totally looks like WWE lost all interest and will use him as a jobber now.
Which is a shame cause I really really like A-Train/Tensai. I think he's one of the most fun to watch guys and I have just always loved him since his days as Prince Albert.

If I booked WWE, I would have him as world champ, but alas, he will get jobbed out and released within a year.
:(

Right, but if you booked WWE you'd also have Mantaur be your John Cena, or Giant Gonzales in his fur suit.....so I'm ok with A-train getting jobbed out.

I've always been a huge fan of Albert. He does fill an important role of elevating others. He'll always be seen as a threat so it's not crazy when he defeats somebody of note, but also is a good win for an mid-carder.

Never really enjoyed him outside of T&A really. Not too fussed about what they do with him really but I agree with most that he's best used to elevate upper midcarders similar to how Mark Henry was used for years before he eventually got his main event push, except I don't see Albert ever getting that push.

I have enjoyed almost all of his matches since coming back. Probably should drop the Tensai gimmick and go back to A-Train.

Albert/A-Train was awful and I'm glad that guy is dead.

This guy, however:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eVc2p3mMGlo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
is the fucking goods.

He kind of fill Viscera's role and a big, bad ass looking guy used to ganrer impressive looking wins for others, especially when they pick him up with ease like Ryback.,

They barely did anything with him considering they only focused more on him as a stereotypical foreigner type heel instead of more on his past or his reputation in Japan as someone really fearsome.

His match with Sheamus was his best so far and that was because it fit his brawling and tough style from Japan.

No, but Drew McIntyre would be a main eventer

I enjoy Tensai when he is actually booked to be a monster. When he is jobbing to Ryback in two minutes, it kind of ruins him.

They could have played up Tensai being a huge challenge for Ryback. Could have had Tensai actually seem like he was threatening Ryback some. Only for Ryback to rally and "overcome" and then pick Tensai up, which would be even bigger and more impressive after taking more punishment in the match.

They could then play it up that Ryback faced a major challenge here, but still managed to come out on top. They then could be all "is Ryback ready for bigger things?!" (IE CM Punk or whatever)

With a short squash match, though, it was just "Yep. There he goes. Ryback winning again. Tensai jobbing again."

Could have been "Oh shit Tensai is a monster, but holy shit here comes Ryback and WHOA THAT WAS AWESOME!"

His matches with Sheamus have been really fucking good and like nothing else WWE has done recently though they've been relatively short. It would work wonders for both characters to have a legit feud but Tensai needs to be pushed to a level where he's a threat to taking the title.

Also really liked his matches with Orton. The guy can go in the ring. He doesn't need a gimmick change or anything. He just needs a feud that makes the matches he's putting on mean something.

Wasn't Albert linked with Heyman when he was SmackDown GM? Have him denounce the Tensai gimmick as something the WWE forced on him and proclaim that he is a "Heyman Guy", then become muscle for Punk.

Sounds like 90% of Noid's proposals.

He probably would have done better if they hadn't saddled him with some bullshit outdated gimmick

I knew when he got resigned that he'd amount to nothing.

He quit? And who the fuck are you?

I see where you're coming from, Rammsteinmad.

Yes. This reminds me of how Goldberg plowed through Wrath on a warm Monday Nitro in September 1997... except Tensai wasn't injured by the squash.

On that thought, I don't think Ryback will amount to anything either.
Eventually WWE will get bored of him and job him out as well.

can't believe they jobbed him to Tyson Kidd and Kidd went nowhere after.

He went to be filler in Money in the Bank

After he lost to Cena and Sheamus he should have went to put Ziggler over

Ryback needs to end the streak at rasslemania in a squash

He should go over Rock clean at Mania