Dub H
Crow T. Robot
Captain Pixel: the Game Master
I ❤ Aniki
Posts: 47,837
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Post by Dub H on Dec 23, 2012 14:24:02 GMT -5
I think it's fairly easy to find different cultures strange or annoying and most people are pretty easily offended and dislike being out of their comfort zone. Combine overly aggressive and cheating tactics with annoying and strange behaviors and condesending, rude or obnoxious talk and what is there to cheer for? There's nothing to cheer for, but there's also very little to boo. Foreign heels have just been done to death in the most one-dimensional way possible. Yeh,but i am sure WWE learned that and they won't use anymore
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Post by Unaffiliated on Dec 23, 2012 14:41:26 GMT -5
I think that if they were going for "ex-WWE superstar who went to Japan to hone his craft", then they shouldn't have had a problem with acknowledging Albert. It would be like "Remember how he wasn't that good? Now he is".
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Dec 23, 2012 14:44:05 GMT -5
From Tensai's bio on WWE.com
"Tensai’s path to that fateful night began when he competed in WWE under the names Albert and A-Train for a number of years. "
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mrjl
Fry's dog Seymour
Posts: 20,319
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Post by mrjl on Dec 23, 2012 15:15:48 GMT -5
I think that if they were going for "ex-WWE superstar who went to Japan to hone his craft", then they shouldn't have had a problem with acknowledging Albert. It would be like "Remember how he wasn't that good? Now he is". Wasn't that good? A-Train was a monster, in WWE's history. He just got better in Japan. Basically in WWE's behavior towards wrestlers if someone was ever bad, the best he'll grow to is pretty good. Sort of like Zach Ryder. Tensai was going to be a main eventer
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Post by Andrew is Good on Dec 23, 2012 15:19:10 GMT -5
It was foolish of them to ever ignore his WWE past in the first place. We don't live in an era where the fans will just........accept that. Now that his past is getting mentioned, he's getting a reaction. It's not perfect, but it's better than where he was a few months ago. Yeah, that killed him. They mentioned his past on WWE.com but never did on TV. They should have had vignettes involving showing video of him breaking in in 1999, leaving in 2004 and getting some New Japan and All Japan footage. Also, having him with a dumb Master Shreder get up was the final nail in the coffin.
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Post by CATCH_US IS the Conversation on Dec 23, 2012 15:27:38 GMT -5
It was foolish of them to ever ignore his WWE past in the first place. We don't live in an era where the fans will just........accept that. Now that his past is getting mentioned, he's getting a reaction. It's not perfect, but it's better than where he was a few months ago. Yeah, that killed him. They mentioned his past on WWE.com but never did on TV. They should have had vignettes involving showing video of him breaking in in 1999, leaving in 2004 and getting some New Japan and All Japan footage. Also, having him with a dumb Master Shreder get up was the final nail in the coffin. But they ditched the Lord Tensai gimmick months ago, and the Tensai we've been seeing for the past few months was pretty much just Albert/A-Train/Giant Bernard. Once the robes, mask, and mist were gone, and Lord Tensai simply became Tensai, the fans reactions were no longer "WWE insulting their intelligence". We pretty much got Albert, but fans were from that point on simply being smarky/snarky for no reason. Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, and Damien Sandow are closer to the "Let's Pretend This Guy Never Existed" example than Albert/Tensai ever was.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2012 15:28:10 GMT -5
I like that WWE stretched about a bit on the Tensai gimmick. They probably thought they were doing something more interesting than just bringing back Albert: Large Headed Hoss. It bombed though. It sucks for Albert himself, but I don't think it's this "WWE is so dumb they ruined him" thing. Sometimes things just don't work.
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Post by carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army) on Dec 23, 2012 15:47:47 GMT -5
It's because he's white, and people don't accept a white Japanese person.
The dude lived in Japan for years in real life. A case can be made that he's more Japanese than Funaki. It's just that people feel super weird about a white person in that context. They want to go WHAT THAT'S SO RIDICULOUS BUT HE'S WHITE as if there's no such thing as a white Japanese person.
Also, he was never an Evil Foreign Heel, because he never said anything about Americans sucking. He just had a Great Kabuki gimmick.
I mean, I like the guy, so whatever works. I feel like it's a Drew MacIntyre situation though, where they're mad at him for not getting over (even though it wasn't his fault) and will just spend the rest of his tenure there mocking him.
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Post by bearned on Dec 23, 2012 17:38:40 GMT -5
I liked the whole idea of the Tensai thing but crowds were not buying it one bit. Maybe if they had alluded much more to his past and how he improved himself in Japan before he returned then things would have been different.
Also would gave helped if he worked his matches at a quicker pace from the get-go.
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Post by flatsdomino on Dec 24, 2012 11:47:07 GMT -5
3 things actually DID 'ruin' the Tensai gimmick, and it's the same thing WWE is doing right now with Daniel Bryan and Kane; they're not having it develop in any way that it should be by this point. That's kind of become WWE's MO the last few years, with mystery higher power angles never being revealed and just kind of spinning their wheels until they peter out, guys with initially promising gimmicks being watered down to one-note repetition machines, and interesting storyline possibilities being ignored for the safe option so as to not rock the boat. Hell, that last part has been John Cena's entire 2012. But Daniel and Kane should have had a big "we're friends now" feels moment where one of them saves the other, or D-Bry should have embraced "yes" by now; but they're keeping them from being full-on faces, and it's hurting them.
So back to Lord Hentai. The idea of having him be a gaijin that wrecks people Japan style wasn't a bad one. BUT:
1. Having him wrestle that slow, plodding style hurt him with fans, because it let them sit on their hands and get bored...and then start to chant "Albert" out of boredom, which, unfortunately, was the only thing about Tensai that caught on. Squash machines like Ryback, Brock, Goldberg, and Umaga got over because they WRECKED guys in exciting ways that left the crowd energized. Seriously, if you couldn't gt over on THAT Raw, it was never going to happen. The slow, methodical style didn't work. The sad thing is, from watching him in Japan, Giant Bernard is 10x the bruiser that Ryback is.
2. The promos in Japanese. Good lord was that dumb. Have him be silent and Sakamoto speak for him, but don't have him refuse to speak english. That really did make him seem like a fat white guy in yellowface.
3. They alluded to his past, but tried to gloss over it, and never mentioned the name "Albert", making fans feel like they were trying to hide something; and when the gimmick bombed with fans, they decided to mock WWE by using the supposed "secret". I had an idea for a Tensai/Big Show feud after Tensai debuted where Big Show is at first happy to see Tensai again, but Tensai blows him off backstage and then attacks him after a match, not explaining his actions. Big Show would then cut a promo on how Tensai "isn't the man he used to know" and how he's become more dangerous, but Big Show has the WMD now so it's gonna be a different fight than it was years ago. Small things like that establish the new character while allowing him to be rooted in his past. But it was clear they wanted to go the Umaga route with him, knew they couldn't, so they half-assed it.
The sad thing is, as has been said, was that WWE really WAS trying something different with the Tensai gimmick besides just having Matt Bloom be a giant hoss; but even when they're trying WWE still seems to only go halfway with things now, one of the biggest marked differences, to me, between now and the attitude era. Mankind, for example, NEVER would have gotten those sit-down promos with JR that really established the depth of his character in today's WWE. And things like that are, more than anything, ruining gimmicks in WWE - and not just Tensai's.
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CM Dazz
King Koopa
Chuck
Posts: 10,475
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Post by CM Dazz on Dec 24, 2012 13:16:21 GMT -5
Shhhh. Can't tell the truth because then people can't play the "Vince is a xenophobe" card. Oh & yellow face? LMAO! Never happened. It's both stupid, & a lie.
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mrjl
Fry's dog Seymour
Posts: 20,319
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Post by mrjl on Dec 24, 2012 13:18:38 GMT -5
Shhhh. Can't tell the truth because then people can't play the "Vince is a xenophobe" card. Oh & yellow face? LMAO! Never happened. It's both stupid, & a lie. he does have some sort of fake tan or something going on. His face is a different tone than his chest
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CM Dazz
King Koopa
Chuck
Posts: 10,475
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Post by CM Dazz on Dec 24, 2012 13:25:28 GMT -5
Shhhh. Can't tell the truth because then people can't play the "Vince is a xenophobe" card. Oh & yellow face? LMAO! Never happened. It's both stupid, & a lie. he does have some sort of fake tan or something going on. His face is a different tone than his chest That's still not close to being in yellow face as in on par with black face. Besides, most people's faces are darker than the rest of their body because of the sun...
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