Who would have guessed this a year ago (Main Event spoiler)

**Fox** · 01-31-2013, 12:47 AM

Well, there's that then. They tried as hard as they could to keep Albert from going back to his comedy roots, but I suppose it was inevitable.

I was excited about Albert coming back to the WWE. I'd heard a lot about what he was doing in Japan and was hoping that WWE could make use of their newly evolved returning employee.

The problem with the way they handled the Lord Tensai debut was that it just doesn't fit into today's landscape. Lots of people complain that today's superstars don't have anything interesting about them - they're just cookie cutter, good looking, six-pack and monster pec having athletes in underwear. And in most cases, that's true. I can name examples in Kenny Dykstra, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, Alex Riley, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Michael McGillicutty, etc. But nobody is complaining about the lack of colorful, outrageous characters that WWE paraded through their ring in the 90's: the Doinks, the garbage men, the canadian mounties and IRS men. Those days are dead and gimmicks like that just don't work anymore (look at the Boogeyman, the Pirate guy - Umaga is the only one that has really been successful in the past decade).

You need to find a middle ground. With Tensai, they didn't go for the middle ground - they went for the full on gimmick, with a Japanese assistant and the long flowing Japanese gown and all of that, and nobody bought it.

They could have just brought him in and built him up with his real history. Here's a guy who used to be in the WWE and back then he ran over people and had wars with some of the best (Undertaker, Lesnar, Mysterio, etc). He's been in Japan for several years and has come back to the WWE as a polished and dangerous warrior. It's real, it's gritty, it doesn't insult the long-time viewer's intelligence by suggesting that we don't recognize A-Train/Albert, and it makes him look like a real world, legitimate threat. Not some hokey gimmicked pro wrestler.

The gimmick was going to be limited anyway. The guy doesn't talk much and his manager obviously doesn't talk much. They were going to build him up as a real monster (giving him wins over Cena and Punk in his first couple months), but even then, the only place he could go is down, as there's no room for his character to evolve and grow.

Like I said, it's a shame what happened to A-Train/Albert/Lord Tensai/Tensai. Just another failed gimmick attempt to throw on the pile.

01-31-2013, 12:47 AM	#21
Fox "Ask him!" Posts: 10,075	Well, there's that then. They tried as hard as they could to keep Albert from going back to his comedy roots, but I suppose it was inevitable. I was excited about Albert coming back to the WWE. I'd heard a lot about what he was doing in Japan and was hoping that WWE could make use of their newly evolved returning employee. The problem with the way they handled the Lord Tensai debut was that it just doesn't fit into today's landscape. Lots of people complain that today's superstars don't have anything interesting about them - they're just cookie cutter, good looking, six-pack and monster pec having athletes in underwear. And in most cases, that's true. I can name examples in Kenny Dykstra, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, Alex Riley, Curt Hawkins, Drew McIntyre, Michael McGillicutty, etc. But nobody is complaining about the lack of colorful, outrageous characters that WWE paraded through their ring in the 90's: the Doinks, the garbage men, the canadian mounties and IRS men. Those days are dead and gimmicks like that just don't work anymore (look at the Boogeyman, the Pirate guy - Umaga is the only one that has really been successful in the past decade). You need to find a middle ground. With Tensai, they didn't go for the middle ground - they went for the full on gimmick, with a Japanese assistant and the long flowing Japanese gown and all of that, and nobody bought it. They could have just brought him in and built him up with his real history. Here's a guy who used to be in the WWE and back then he ran over people and had wars with some of the best (Undertaker, Lesnar, Mysterio, etc). He's been in Japan for several years and has come back to the WWE as a polished and dangerous warrior. It's real, it's gritty, it doesn't insult the long-time viewer's intelligence by suggesting that we don't recognize A-Train/Albert, and it makes him look like a real world, legitimate threat. Not some hokey gimmicked pro wrestler. The gimmick was going to be limited anyway. The guy doesn't talk much and his manager obviously doesn't talk much. They were going to build him up as a real monster (giving him wins over Cena and Punk in his first couple months), but even then, the only place he could go is down, as there's no room for his character to evolve and grow. Like I said, it's a shame what happened to A-Train/Albert/Lord Tensai/Tensai. Just another failed gimmick attempt to throw on the pile.