Lord Tensai's not going to last too long if he can't find more ways to stand out than by spitting green mist, wearing Japanese clothing and no-selling.
Gimmicks are fine and can work extremely well when done right, but I seriously doubt that anyone over the age of 12 believes that that green mist really temporarily blinds Tensai's opponents and allows him to incapacitate them with his one-handed version of the Khali vice grip.
Wrestling is all about getting the fans to suspend their disbelief, and I just don't think that Lord Tensai will be able to do that unless he drops this green mist-spitting nonsense we've seen every week since his debut so far. If he wants to have a gimmick, then that's obviously fine. They key, however, is to make sure that his gimmick is not too gimmicky. Aside from already established gimmicks like Kane and Undertaker, most of the gimmicks that work today do so because they resonate with today's fans and are just an extension of the wrestler's actual personality.
While someone like Zack Ryder's gimmick works in large part because of the success of Jersey Shore and that show's popularity, there is no real connection between Tensai's gimmick and anything in mainstream culture today.
He likely would have thrived in the s and s when extreme, over-the-top gimmicks were the norm. But his gimmick is something that just doesn't resonate with people today. Most wrestlers today don't have gimmicks so much as they are just being themselves, but Tensai's gimmick is something that would have fit when these ridiculous gimmicks were the norm. I know, I know, Lord Tensai's not supposed to be Japanese. He's supposed to be embracing the Japanese customs.
Yeah, I worked there for an extended period of time. But that doesn't mean I'm suddenly Mexican. Again, I get that Lord Tensai isn't trying to be Japanese, but it's just hard for people to understand the fact that an average-looking Caucasian man is suddenly embracing all of the customs of Japan. Alex Riley was the wrong opponent for Tensai. Sometimes that is a good thing. The crowd's sympathy for a favorite star will allow them to turn on the villain and help get him over in the process.
This was not one of those times. One can blame the creative team for debuting Tensai at the wrong time, for placing him in a match against the wrong opponent.
But at some point, the performer himself deserves blame. Lord Tensai simply was not impressive in his first match on WWE television. With a crowd as rabid as the post-Wrestlemania crowd in Miami, for them to sit on their hands and have nearly zero reaction or care for the returning superstar or anything he was doing in the ring should have been an immediate "red flag" for Vince McMahon and the creative team. Tensai was essentially A-Train with a shaved back, a few new elbow strikes and green mist, and the fans did not buy into the new presentation.
Things did not get better as the weeks progressed. Log in. Amateur Wrestling. Modified 07 Oct Where are these WWE Superstars now? Edited by Staff Editor. Sort by: Most popular Recent Most upvotes. Login to post your comment. Show More Comments.
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