Lord Tensai, better known as Albert or A-Train, returned to WWE last Monday Night on RAW. Unfortunately for him, his return was overshadowed by the buzz going around the rumoured return of Brock Lesnar. The red-hot Miami crowd were almost expecting Lesnar’s return so it took a little away from the pop Tensai received. All week long we’ve been rambling about Lesnar, Cena and The Rock. This lead me to focus on Tensai as I think he’s going to be a bigger deal than we expect of him. Therefore it got me thinking on who he can face and feud with, this is when I realized he can feud with many of the WWE roster. WWE have a great opportunity to use him to put over guys and make bigger stars for the future. Let me go through a couple of talents I would love to see him feud with.
Zack Ryder
The Long Island Iced-Z is on the verge on falling flat on his face. Two months ago he was United States champion, getting regular backstage cameos on RAW and getting huge crowd pops wrestling. Now, he’s the man bitch to Eve Torres. That’s his role on RAW and I hate it. Ryder seems to be going to nowhere land. Therefore, if WWE can book him to overcome the nasty and powerful Lord Tensai, his whole popularity would be re-established, refreshed and fans could take him seriously, not just some comedy goof-ball. Ryder would look like a hero. I’d certainly rather see him involved in a series of matches with someone serious rather than crying like a bitch to Eve.
The Big Show
Okay, so Lord Tensai is just coming off a loss to Zack Ryder, WWE need to re-establish to us that Tensai is a big deal. Who better to prove this by him getting over from Big Show. The Big Show is a 7’3, 500 pound giant. It could all come about after Big Show cuts a promo on Smacdown how he wants new competition. This is where Tensai would appear. They have a stare-down and you can see regret in Big Show’s eyes. This is something rare we would see from The Big Show. John Laurinaitis comes out from backstage and orders a referee to come down + announces the two will face right now in a non-title match. The match would be even enough with Tensai just getting the better of Big Show, like no need for a feud. At least this doesn’t make Show look weak and it makes Tensai look good.
Kofi Kingston
Well, what else is Kofi doing? He is stuck in mid card hell and doesn’t look like he’ll be getting out of there anytime soon, if he doesn’t get put in a decent feud. If you go on YouTube and look up some Giant Bernard matches from New Japan Pro Wrestling, you’ll notice many of his opponents are smaller and high-flyer wrestlers. Kofi is the perfect opponent for Tensai. The clash of power and speed could take you to the edge of your seat/sofa. You can vision this match perfect in your head, Tensai is there just tossing Kofi around the ring like a rag doll, which makes Tensai look powerful/dominant. Then Kofi is there continuing to bring it and give his all to Tensai. I think this could get Kofi to the level Dolph Ziggler is currently at. Lord Tensai is the right man to ensure that happens.
Conclusion: I think Ryder would need a series of two or three matches on RAW to look good over Tensai. As I said under The Big Show part, he could re-ensure his dominance by defeating Big Show, I think the one match would do it, no need for more than one really. Against Kofi I’d like to see them face off in a small feud, maybe a 3-4 week to feud ending at a Pay-Per-View. Kofi needs Pay-PerView spotlight more than Ryder in my opinion. I think Kofi has more potential to be a main eventer than Ryder has. At least, in my eyes, two more guys would be at a higher level which is building WWE’s StarPower up.
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Personally, I thought Lord Tensai’s return should have been held off a little longer. Raw was already jam packed with advances and surprises I agree his he was over shadowed.
Some people seem to be disappointed with his in ring ability, what did they expect? For him to start doing moonsaults and hurriciranas? Of course he’s slow, look at the size of him!
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Perhaps it should of. I think if they even waited until this RAW fans would of shown more interest in his debut. As I said in the column, fans were more interested in the then rumoured return of Lesnar.
He’s actually not that bad in the ring, there’s tons of videos of him on YT wrestling for NJPW.
Funny enough, he actually faced Lesnar before http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaf_NixGEuA
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Yeah, I’d seen the Lesnar match before, along with a few of his other matches. Trouble is most people heard he was coming from New Japan and expected the world, his moves, speed, endurance etc… hasn’t changed all that much he’s just gained a lot of experience with Japans finest, worked on his craft and just become an overall better wrestler.
I’ll be honest, until his return was announced I think Id only seen the Lesnar match. But the first thing I did was check out his other videos so I new what to expect and not form an opinion off hear’say.
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I get what you’re saying. However, I don’t think people should judge how good in the ring he’ll be for WWE until he actually wrestles with someone and not a squash match.
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True, knowing how strict WWE are with match content its difficult to to know what to expect.
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Judging by his look, they should’ve held off his return for a couple months, then have him return as Lord Tensai: The Punkasaurus!
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He could face Brodus Clay but I don’t think WWE will want each of them to lose against the other, as both are relatively new.
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Unless, it’s a fight on top of a skyscraper?
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His first feud needs to be against someone to get him over, not for the other person to get over. So, Ryder is out, as is any face that will be going anywhere in the next however many months. Then, once he’s an established heel, others can feud with him, and come out like heros. So…let him destroy Big Show.
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I was thinking that but with 2 months of promo hype we’ve seen of him, we assume he’s that monster. A Ryder win would come off as ‘shocking’. Then he’ll face someone like Big Show and destroy him as you said, it proves he is a dominant force. Also it’ll make Ryder look good too.
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If his first opponent overcomes him in a feud, it discredits the vignettes and the character.
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Agree on Kingston. When is the last time he even had a proper storyline? He was getting over big when feuding with Orton and since then he’s just been floating around as this popular superstar who has no character nor feuds.
I’d have Tensai beat the crap out of small guys (if they’re not going to be pushed then you might as well use them to help get a big guy over) leading to either Mysterio or Sin Cara turning their attention to the big man.
This is your basic playground bully storyline but I think it’d be quite fun to watch.
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I think Orton was he last proper feud. Man I loved Kofi rage, he was awesome in that feud! He was having a good run while he was with Bourne and tag champs, but Bourne fucked up by doing drugs then Kofi was held back, as he was one half of tag team champ.
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Yes! More Kofi rage!
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Or instead of Mysterio/Cara you could do the deal where Show asks Tensai to pick on someone his own size and there you have a ready made feud to continue with.
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Perhaps that’s a better way of going about it. He could have a proper feud with Big Show this way.
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I enjoyed Lord Tensai return/debut on Raw. I thing a feud with Kingston would be best. Kingston has been lost in the pack for far too long now and needs an actual feud with promos. I can’t remember the last time I heard him talk.
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The last time he talked was probably weeks ago. But that’s kind of what I’m saying about Pay-Per-View spotlight, a time when people are focusing on just him and then his opponent obviously.
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I hope Kingston gets his chance. But back to Lord Tensai, there are rumors going about that he was going to feud with Cena or Punk on his return. I don’t see him facing Cena due to Lesnar return but maybe Punk after Extreme Rules.
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I’d rather WWE build him properly, a month of build is pointless for him. He needs at least 3-4 months of dominance before he goes for Punk IMO.
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The problem is people will get bored if that build lasts too long. Heck, people wanted Brodus Clay to have a feud after a couple weeks of build.
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I agree.
I think he debut too early tbh. I would prefered to have seen more promos like they did with Del Rio and kept building. He felt small time compared to that other bloke who returned
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I’m extremely excited for Tensai to get going in WWE. I don’t think he should be feuding with any mid-card talent whatsoever, unless he’s going to squash him. For him to be main event status, they need to keep promoting the fact that he was champ in Japan and make him sound like a top caliber champion. Having him get some good wins over main eventers is the best way to do it in my opinion. He’s also not that slow. His match was a squash match just like Ray said, and no talent is ever shown in a squash match.
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That’s a good point. I know he’s good because I’ve seen many of his Japan matches but not everyone has. WWE need to tell us he’s good and prove it to us. I rather see him put a few people over first, though.
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Didn’t Johnny Ace mention to Punk something about a natural disaster on Raw?
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Yes, and Tensai means disaster!
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Since Tensai means disaster, he’ll definitely be going after Punk. Probably after Extreme Rules when Punk/Jericho have possibly their last match in this feud. So the only build he will get will be between now and then.
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Yes it’s looking that way. There’s no doubt it’ll be interesting. I just think they should build him up as long as they can instead of throwing him in a title match just as he came to WWE.
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Dang, I was wanting a new Natural Disasters tagteam!
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With Extreme Rules, I could see Punk vs. Jericho in a no DQ match for WWE Title, Tensai comes out and destroys Punk giving Jericho the win, which would still make it look like Punk is strong and didn’t get beat clean. Then Punk vs. Tensai for a bit, while Jericho beats some face to look strong, then Punk vs. Jericho at a summer PPV. I could see that. I want Jericho to win the Title from Punk in Chicago in the cheapest way possible for heel heat. Punk has had way too many wins in his hometown….time for a loss.
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I heard Jericho was leaving again at the end of May so he might have a short title reign if he wins it at Extreme Rules.
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Maybe it might have been an idea to debut him on Smackdown?
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I honestly don’t know why they didn’t just do this.
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I like the Big Show one better.
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I agree with Andy that his debut should have been left a bit longer. We spoke about this on the Podcast tonight, personally I HATE debuts where they just come out and squash someone.
For a debut, they should return unexpectedly and destroy someone, making a real impact, especially if they are the size of Albert, definitely a face for radio though with his massive DOME head.
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I remember you saying that but it’s always done that way to get them over. Very few lose on their debut.
They could do that but then fans might not be interested in them!
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I dont mean he has to lose, I meant more two stars having a match and Albert intereferes or even a midcard match and destroys the two participants. Its just much more of an impact then beating Alex Riley.
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Actually it would be a good idea. I wouldnt care about him vs. big show but it is needed in the grand scheme of your whole idea. But it would be great to help out Ryder and Kofi.
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Thanks. WWE really need to think about building their current stars. All well and good Lesnar is back, Rock appearing every so and so, Taker appearing at Mania but we need to watch starpower talents in the winter time to keep us watching!
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Kofi’s a good shout for a feud. I think he should terrorise the midcard until he gets a shot at Cena or something only to be beaten 😛
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I’d love to see that happen but don’t think it will 😦 haha
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