Reader since 98 at least and bought every book so please publish this...what do u think they can do to save Tensai? Unless they scrap it altogether, my only idea is he HAS to acknowledge he was once Albert and explain his intentions of being reborn in Japan after being ridiculed to "shave his back" and dance with Too Cool...them avoiding it and continuing the facade will only be a slow death. I may be in a small minority who actually digs the character and his work in the ring, but this might be their only chance unless they wanna lose a solid big man talent...your thoughts??
It's not the end of the world, man, he's just not working out in his current incarnation yet. As others have suggested, they could easily move him to Smackdown where at the very least they can sweeten the audio and edit his slower-paced squashes down if need be. Basically I think as long as he speeds it up and finds a motivation for his character, he'll be fine in the midcard like Umaga was. I guess the bigger concern would be that he was brought in from Japan for what I assume is a significant chunk of cash in order to be Johnny's hired goon (hired goon?) and now that spot has already been usurped by Brock Lesnar. But it's not like anyone sees him as a main event guy anyway.
The irony in all this is that they trot out all these legends because they expect their teenaged fans to have some sense of history and they're all perplexed when people don't remember who Dusty Rhodes or Jimmy Hart are, but then they somehow expect that there will be no memory of the 90s and they don't get why people would remember Albert after his repackaging. Frankly they should be doing MORE 90s nostalgia, because that's the period that their fanbase is actually nostalgic for, not the Horsemen era that jaded old farts like me want to see again.
He's only had two matches so far. Finlay got "boring" chants for his redebut matches back in 2006. If he can't get over when placed in a feud with someone like Cena or Orton then we can all consider him a failure.
ReplyDeleteThey have acknowledged on commentary that he'd worked there previously and went to Japan. I don't really think having him do a promo about it would help much one way or the other. Like Scott said, I could see him working the same way Umaga did.
ReplyDeleteI think they messed up by not having him wear a mask. They could still acknowledge he used to work for WWE but keep it more secret.
ReplyDeleteI also think debuting him in front of the smarkiest smark crowd in history was a bad idea. If they debuted him, say, in May in Oklahoma...the "Albert" chants would've been non-existent.
They CAN'T do 90's nostalgia, because that would remind everyone that the product pales in comparison to what they were doing in the 90's.
ReplyDeleteThe 80's is much closer to what they are trying to emulate anyway.
I guess my issue with him is he's come back as the same guy with a different name and an oddly blank expression. Emotionless monster only works if you have a mask.
ReplyDeleteHired goons?
ReplyDeleteI agree. A mask would have worked wonders for him.
ReplyDeleteI am incapable of hearing the phrase "hired goons" without automatically doing a Pavlovian response of Homer's quizzical "Hired goons?" and I'm glad I'm not the only one.
ReplyDeleteHired goons?
ReplyDeleteI was actually legit shocked when he took his mask off during the debut & had the Hakushi thing going on. Especially with that smarky crowd...he had no chance.
ReplyDeleteSee that's the problem. I've been watching wrestling for 20 years, and even then I only really knew Dusty as a commentator, Sarge as Commissioner Slaughter and early Stooge, and even Piper as a semi-retired old fart. I learned about what they had done after the fact, of course, and have seen a lot of their glory days. But for me, a nostalgia trip would be seeing the Headbangers, Scotty 2 Hotty, Flash Funk, Waylon Mercy, Man Mountain Rock, and, well, Prince Albert.
ReplyDeleteAlbert wasn't that over back in the day anyway, he just rode the wave of Attitude popularity. He was only noticed for the hairy back and piercings, which at that time was a fairly new thing to the wrestling world.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you with him now that he is a big block of hairless alabaster?
Maybe they should have gone the route WWE did when they introduced Rick Steamboat. They showed him in a Dojo, talking about practicing the discipline and becoming 'The Dragon'. Everyone knew it was Rick Steamboat, but the story at least explained why he was relying heavy on karate and breathing fire before matches.
I know they said Albert was a former WWE superstar that went to Japan and dominated there, but who did he dominate? I didn't see any domination of any Japanese opponents. At least Steamboat had jobbers dressed as ninja taking an ass kicking and Gene Okerlund blathering on about jujitsu.
Sweet my email got posted! But yeh I really do dig the character so I hope they do what they can to establish him....I still stand by my idea that a venegeance motive would be cool..pissed about being a comedy character, goes to Japan, becomes beast, comes back to dominate...I totally think that would work.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a Masked Villain push would have worked. Of course, they already have Kane as one, and there are MANY guys in the company bigger than Albert... so he'd better hope he can show some work at least on Umaga's level, or he's right-fucked.
ReplyDeleteI think it's more in the middle like the time from 93 to 96. No real star power that can draw, just some Indy Kids on the top mixed with some muscle freaks (CM Punk ~ Shawn Michaels, Daniel Bryan ~ Bret Hart, John Cena ~ Lex Luger). ;)
ReplyDeleteActually a mask would be very good for Lort Prince Albert A-Train Tensai, because he just looks like a big fat babyface - literally.
ReplyDeleteIt's IMO the same with Kwang and Savio Vega. Kwang was a cool bad ass and Savio Vega was a slimy doofus.
Think people are calling him a failure way too soon. Why would their be heat for his matches against losers like Alex Riley and Yoshi Tatsu?
ReplyDeleteTensai has the same problem as Brodus Clay and numerous other guys they debut. They bring these people in, have them win several squash matches against jobbers, and expect them to get over based on that. Why not bring people in and give them proper storylines and feuds against repsected wrestlers right from the start? If Tensai had debuted the night after Wrestlemania by attacking, say, Kofi or R-Truth, leading to a PPV victory against them at Extreme Rulez he'd be off and running. Instead, it looks like he's going to have to endure endless squashes that will ultimately lead nowhere.
ReplyDeleteThey could still do that. Like I said earlier these first two matches Tensai was in were just to introduce the character to the audience. He can still be easily placed in a feud with a bigger superstar like Kofi.
ReplyDeleteWhat Tensai really needs is a Jeff Hardy-style babyface to bump around for him and make him look like a killer. Did wonders for Umaga, who had an even goofier gimmick out of the gate than this one.
ReplyDeleteWas A-Train over when he was on Smackdown? I recall them trying to push him a couple of times and it not working until the A-Train switch, and him being on pay per view and angles with Undertaker, but was he actually over? I'm going to assume no because he ended up moved to Raw, jobbing and never being heard from again, which is usually the result of a failed push.
ReplyDeleteI agree with whoever already said they should have done more to build him up. Why can't he talk? He talked before. Show im as A-Train, have it explained that he left for Japan and dominated (show footage of that, or show him in the ring, dominating someone) and that now that he's good he's come back to dominate WWE. Explain why he's going by Lord Tensai rather than A-Train. All they've done is put a guy who most of us remember, dressed him up in a silly gimmick and said "this guy used to be a loser here in WWE, but he went to Japan and beat a lot of people, and now he's back".
Yeah I think running through the jobbers first is an ok strategy to just introduce someone, you just have to nip it in the bud before that becomes all they do. I think handling it the same with with Tensai as they did with Brodus will be ok, maybe just a few weeks shorter, and then move him onto a real storyline the way they seem to be with Brodus and Zig Swag.
ReplyDeleteI think a good way to go with Tensai would be him & Ryback in a feud. They both start destroying jobbers and then get in each other's path and have each other be their first "real match" on a PPV. That should give them a good appraisal of where they're at as far as working and then they can transition each one to other feuds on their individual shows.
I think that same thinking is why Brodus will be likely feuding with Ziggler: Ziggler will make him look like a billion bucks by flying all over for him.
ReplyDeleteAnd look at the "bright side"--this got Riley and Tatsu on Raw, so...
ReplyDelete