Guys...ETHAN is coming!

[lildude8218]

it seems to be Derrick Bateman pretending to be Larry Sweeney

[El Cokehead del Knife Fight]

It is Bateman.

PWInsider posted:
The ETHAN character that TNA has been running vignettes for the last few weeks is former WWE NXT talent Derrick Bateman, real name Michael Hutter, who had a tryout a few weeks back and has been signed to the promotion.
As we've noted a few times here on the site, the word has been there are new talents the company will be bringing in. Hutter is the first example.

[Toates Madhackrviper]

Bateman! Awesome. This makes me excited.

Should have just used his real name though. Michael Hutter is a perfectly acceptable wrestler name.

[A Platypus Rave]

Ethan has got to be one of the worst ring names I've heard in a while.

[________ has left the building]

Oct 4, 2013 3:32:21 GMT -5 Toates Madhackrviper said:

Bateman! Awesome. This makes me excited.

Should have just used his real name though. Michael Hutter is a perfectly acceptable wrestler name.

Anything is better than ETHAN. Bateman is the type of wrestler TNA needs to go after. Young, hungry, and properly trained. They need to offer Percy Watson and Briley Pierce jobs.

[Jeremy]

Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Bateman.

[bootytea]

Hopefully Derrick Bateman is not as sloppy as he was.

The dude had potential, but watching him almost kill people on NXT scared me a lot.

[Toates Madhackrviper]

Oct 4, 2013 9:26:01 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Oct 4, 2013 3:32:21 GMT -5 Toates Madhackrviper said:

Bateman! Awesome. This makes me excited.

Should have just used his real name though. Michael Hutter is a perfectly acceptable wrestler name.

Anything is better than ETHAN. Bateman is the type of wrestler TNA needs to go after. Young, hungry, and properly trained. They need to offer Percy Watson and Briley Pierce jobs.

People make fun of WWE for going after WWE castoffs and I mostly agree when its older guys who already made their WWE name.

But younger hungry "WWE Castoffs" who never properly made a name for themself in WWE and in this case barely made it out of development but had a lot of untapped potential are the perfect place for TNA to look. Especially since guys like Bateman (and Watson) would probably go fairly cheap in these times of crisis. Maybe even cheaper than some of the top guys in the indys. Like you said they're guaranteed to be properly trained and ready for national television which you don't get with indy guys. In fact thats probably why a lot of WWE castoffs are signed which is a thing a lot of people forget when making those jokes.

Which is why by the way I've never had a problem with them bringing in Wes Briscoe. I know he's a goofy bastard and all but he's actually pretty solid in the ring and has some explosiveness in there a lot of guys never seem to know how to bring. He'll never be a star but he's a solid hand I think and I hope he sticks around after Aces and 8s is over.

Note this isn't me saying "dont sign indy guys" they need to be looking for indy guys too but those guys will need more polish, changing of style, and readying for television than a untapped WWE castoff will. Like even the veterans of the indys might need a short run in OVW to polish those things.

[The Spelunker!]

After watching the second video, I'm hyped.

[________ has left the building]

Oct 4, 2013 11:07:31 GMT -5 Toates Madhackrviper said:

Oct 4, 2013 9:26:01 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Anything is better than ETHAN. Bateman is the type of wrestler TNA needs to go after. Young, hungry, and properly trained. They need to offer Percy Watson and Briley Pierce jobs.

People make fun of WWE for going after WWE castoffs and I mostly agree when its older guys who already made their WWE name.

But younger hungry "WWE Castoffs" who never properly made a name for themself in WWE and in this case barely made it out of development but had a lot of untapped potential are the perfect place for TNA to look. Especially since guys like Bateman (and Watson) would probably go fairly cheap in these times of crisis. Maybe even cheaper than some of the top guys in the indys. Like you said they're guaranteed to be properly trained and ready for national television which you don't get with indy guys. In fact thats probably why a lot of WWE castoffs are signed which is a thing a lot of people forget when making those jokes.

Which is why by the way I've never had a problem with them bringing in Wes Briscoe. I know he's a goofy bastard and all but he's actually pretty solid in the ring and has some explosiveness in there a lot of guys never seem to know how to bring. He'll never be a star but he's a solid hand I think and I hope he sticks around after Aces and 8s is over.

Note this isn't me saying "dont sign indy guys" they need to be looking for indy guys too but those guys will need more polish, changing of style, and readying for television than a untapped WWE castoff will. Like even the veterans of the indys might need a short run in OVW to polish those things.

TNA has to be careful about who they sign though. There are reasons why WWE fired some people from developmental. TNA signed Rob Terry, Lacey Von Erich, and Wes Briscoe without wondering why they pass over and being shocked they haven't worked out as planned. Some wrestlers are injury prone. Others fall behind the back and got the axe. Some got attitude issues that make them not worth the time. And sending people to OVW actually is making them worst. It's the not the star making factory it was when WWE was running the show. Terry been down there for years and still is the same guy he was before. The only person who actually improved was Crimson and TNA fired him.

[Harry The Arrow was Wrong!]

Terrible name. At least give him a surname.

Despite the name, I'm pretty happy to see Bateman join TNA.

[PKO]

Woohoo Bateman!

[Madagascar Fred]

well best news i've read from TNA in a while

[Deleted]

Gotta say, the biggest mistake TNA is making with ETHAN is trying to keep his identity a secret. They're really obsessed with that aren't they? Well, not obsessed, but into it.

Anyway - now that I KNOW who Ethan is, I'm actually a little more interested. That second video was fun and I'm interested to see what he can bring to the table.

Its funny because there is a lot of UGH TNA ONLY HIRES WWE GUYS kind of talk, but you have to understand that there's a difference between hiring a WWE guy and using his exact same (more or less) gimmick and character in TNA and hiring a WWE guy and giving him an entirely new character/persona to work with.

One is blantantly trying to capitalize on another company's creative work. The other is at least being original.

Hopefully Ethan is the latter.

[Ecks Ecks Ringout Ecks Ecks]

Great hire. Not-so-great name.

[Michael Coello]

I think if they combined this name with Gunner's, it would sound better, or more flashy.

Come on. Gunner Ethan is kind of a bad ass name

[Deleted]

Count me in with the not liking that they're hiding his identity at the moment. That usually leads to disappointment whether it's Vince McMahon as the Higher Power or Tito Ortiz as August 1 warning.

Hopefully this is the start of some good signings for TNA though, they should really try to use the ECW model of finding guys that get passed over elsewhere and make them stars. Probably 75% or so of ECW's roster would have been jobbers in the WWF or WCW back then but they made it work, and who knows maybe a guy like Bateman will hit it out of the park and suddenly TNA has a character that starts to get some positive attention for them. Realistically if a guy comes in and shows some good charisma he's going to get over, because outside of a few guys TNA is really lacking in that department, IMO.

[Deleted]

I hope he has a last name. ETHAN is generic as hell.

[mrbananagrabber]

Did anyone ever fins out why Regal always seemed so down on him on NXT? During commentary Regal always tries to make everyone sound like a killing machine, but every week he always made some comment about Bateman being a waste of space.

[Michael Coello]

Oct 4, 2013 13:51:44 GMT -5 mrbananagrabber said:

Did anyone ever fins out why Regal always seemed so down on him on NXT? During commentary Regal always tries to make everyone sound like a killing machine, but every week he always made some comment about Bateman being a waste of space.

You mean, beyond any kind of USA/UK heat issue?