The Lord Tensai Thread

[ParagonOfVirtue]

You know, there was a guy one time, that had a bland japanese gimmick, stared blankly at opponents, had terrible mic skills(Hell, he didn't even talk for 3 years for fucks sake!), was mostly still but sometimes fast in the ring, only had "salt and a manager". He got over pretty good.... He was a Champion, and now a HoF'r. Maybe you heard of him? Yokozuna?

To another post I noticed: Alex Riley. I agree, I want to know WHAT this guy did. Or WHOSE cheerios he pissed in. The guy has the look, he's pretty decent in the ring, he's got awesome entrance music, and he's great on the mic. I just don't get it. To me it would seem he's got the total package. And hell, he gets a good pop to boot. When he was getting the mini-push and an onset to a fued with Miz or Ziggler, I thought things were on the up. Then they just vanished into nothing, along with A-ry. I mean, shit, how do you revive a guy that loses clean to HEATH SLATER?! I don't know who/what/why/when/where, but he pissed of Vince or Trips or someone, or otherwise f'd up somewhere, and he's looking like he'll be on the FE list, which I hate. Sucks to see a good talent go down the tubes, but alas, he's just another name on too long of a list of wasted talent.

Mark Henry: Ups, downs, inbetweens, but I really enjoyed his monster heel unstoppable force run last year. He showed miles of improvement in the ring, on the mic, etc, but the recent injuries coupled with age have gotten to Mark, and I see him gone within a year or so.

[ParagonOfVirtue]

Oh yeah, and Miz. Miz is.... well... Miz. Sometimes he's Aaaawwwwweeeeesooooooooome. And... sometimes he's awful. From what i've seen the past year or so, he's more the latter than the former. Was doing pretty well with R-Truth after the awkwardness wore off of their promos together, but since then I haven't seen him do anything worthwhile or interesting except for the two weeks they treated him like a badass when he took out Truth and JoMo. But they f'd that up to having him get his ass kicked just a week or so later, and start running around like a scared little bitch. He's got talent, both in-ring and micwork, but his own worst enemy is himself. He acts way too overexcited often times in the ring, but under-performs when striking a lot. Watching him float punches to his opponent that look like they wouldn't tear a paper bag kinda make you go, Really? Really? .... really.

[URATOOL]

You know, there was a guy one time, that had a bland japanese gimmick, stared blankly at opponents, had terrible mic skills(Hell, he didn't even talk for 3 years for fucks sake!), was mostly still but sometimes fast in the ring, only had "salt and a manager". He got over pretty good.... He was a Champion, and now a HoF'r. Maybe you heard of him? Yokozuna?

Ah man. You are making this to easy for me. So we can now add out of date (by about 20 years) and unoriginal to the list of reasons Tensai will fail.

[Viperfish]

I see an incredible disconnect with him and the fans that will hurt him beyond repair. Look at all the people coming back/debuting, and who they're portraying. Jericho... well he's probably not being himself but it's not like he's a character. Rock, not a character. Brock, not a character. These guys are what WWE needs in 2012... I'm not talking about old stars, I'm talking about believable, real personas.

Tensai strikes me as someone right out of the 80s and early 90s. He's the odd man out and I don't think that's going to help him any. I think they need to humanize him through vignettes... give everyone a peek at what he's done in Japan, give a little insight into the character and who he's supposed to be, etc. They need to basically remove him from the direction he seems to be going in right now.

It's been a very long time since there has been a prominent Japanese character in the WWE(whether they were played by a legit Japanese person or not). If I'm missing someone between Yokozuna and Tensai... then I'm sorry but I just don't remember. Taka Michinoku is arguable in terms of a prominent character, and I think Taka lacked the same thing that Tensai does now in terms of getting the culture out there and breathing a little life into themselves through that. Yokozuna had Fuji, he portrayed a sumo wrestler, he liked to yell banzai and his finisher even had the word banzai in it, he waved the Japanese flag around, he had the girls in the kimonos/yukatas while Fuji and Yokozuna himself sometimes would wear Japanese robes... that's the kind of flavor I'm talking about, maybe not as over the top as Yokozuna but I think the culture thing would really help him.

[Viperfish]

One. Match.

ONE MATCH.

Everyone calm your tits--give them so time to actually develop the character for Funaki's sake.

I cringed reading that last line with the Funaki name-drop... just because of what they did to him with the whole Kung Fu Naki thing.

[82Tucker]

Hakushi was the last one I believe who had any decent relevance in WWE. He seemed to do ok during his time.

[RobHimself]

Just keep Brock away from him lol

[abacabb138]

I actually made an account here just to answer this thread. If you want to know the hype behind Lord Tensai/A-Train, go to Youtube and run a search on Giant Bernard. That was his name in New Japan. He's been headlining over there for quite some time, not just as a singles, main eventing against Hiroshi Tanahashi and others, but as a dominant tag team performer with "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson. You won't be disappointed. Just make sure what you watch isn't from 2011's Wrestle Kingdom. I thought Beer Money screwed that match up something fierce, even though they were a great team.

[tdp]

Lol some people seem real butt hurt over Tensai. To the point comparing Miz's main event status (ex-main event status) Tensai may be "stiff and boring" but no one can say he doesn't look like he could go toe to toe with anyone in wwe. The Miz looks like a high school kid could choke him out. Overall I doubt Tensai will ever be the next big thing but he can surely be a force for years to come.

[K2Jelly]

Lol some people seem real butt hurt over Tensai. To the point comparing Miz's main event status (ex-main event status) Tensai may be "stiff and boring" but no one can say he doesn't look like he could go toe to toe with anyone in wwe. The Miz looks like a high school kid could choke him out. Overall I doubt Tensai will ever be the next big thing but he can surely be a force for years to come.

I only compared The Miz to Lord Tensai because CMRyder implied The Miz was in a similar state to lord Tensai when he debuted. My point was at least The Miz could actually wrestle and didn't look bad when he was competing and was also pretty good on the mic. Why else would WWE take the time to rehire The Miz after his run on Tough Enough? That doesn't happen very often and when it does, only a handful ever make it to the top.

I don't care how many tattoos, salt, eeiree Japanese music or grunting this guy has behind him. It still doesn't compensate the fact that he doesn't impress me at all and that after his push to the top, he'll fade into obscurity.