How BAD Was The Lord Tensai Gimmick Actually?

#wwe #lordtensai #tensai

Before Matt Bloom became the well-respected head coach of NXT, he was once known as Lord Tensai, a gimmick that is widely regarded as one of the BIGGEST flops in WWE history.

This video takes a look back at Matt Bloom's failed run as Lord Tensai while also answering the question: just how BAD was the gimmick actually?

Timecodes
00:00 - How BAD Was The Lord Tensai Gimmick Actually?
00:55 - Early WWE Career
01:48 - New Japan Career
03:00 - The Rise Of Lord Tensai
05:47 - The Fall Of Lord Tensai
08:18 - Tons Of Funk/Sweet T
09:27 - The End Of Tensai
10:03 - Analysis

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[letsgowrestling]

What did you think of the Lord Tensai gimmick?

[greer]

Classic WWE. Punish someone for a gimmick failing. A gimmick assigned by them.

[azrael]

They should’ve acknowledged his background as Albert from the beginning. Give him a backstory of being transformed into a dominant, respected giant influenced from his time in Japan, better than repackaging him entirely, pretending hes Japanese when hes not and having him job because everyone realizes its Albert.

[CarlosColon-mi]

He gets a random clean win off of John cena and in the end dances with Tyrus.

[ahmadceasar]

The fans killed this gimmick on day 1 but if the WWE acknowledged his prior run i think he could've been a solid mid carder

[DeadKoby]

Trying to re-make him as a completely different wrestler couldn't work. They should have just gone with the "re-trained in Japan"... and have him alter his style accordingly. Monster of strong style or something.

[dkupke]

Matt Bloom actually had an intimidating look and could be a beast in the ring. But he had the charisma of a plank and kept getting stuck with dumb gimmicks.

[OMGITZQUEZZO]

Lord Tensai could have worked if they gave him a Samurai mask to hide his identity they blew it the moment he was revealed because OG fans know it’s Alber then later down the line they could’ve unmasked him revealing him as A-Train or Giant Bernard but a middle aged white guy pretending to be Japanese was never gonna work 😂

[eutimiolongoria]

I think a big part was trying to deny that Prince Albert ever existed. Maybe have Tensai give a monologue over his past and how his experiences in Japan changed his outlook in life.

And now he’s back in the WWE as a changed man, a better one who no longer is satisfied with being a mid carder but a champion. I know keyfebe is important to wrestlers but I feel this would have made Tensai more relatable to the fans.

[yez]

i met this dude in person at disney springs and bro is actually massive, he was chill tho

[TheJamison]

Having him speak broken Japanese had to have been a rib.

[csmith]

I was 9 when lord tensai debuted and i didnt kniw anything about albert or anything. I just thought the mfer was boring

[SunnyBeeRandomTuber]

Forget the A Train A Train theme was bad reall riff monster

[asapoluu]

Just crazy they thought cos he went to japan he had to come back Japanese

[HandlebarOrionX]

It's gimmicks like these that remind me why the PG era was truly the dark ages. Not other PG eras after it like the New Era or Post Pandemic or even the kinda boring Authority Era, but the 2008-2014 PG era was just some of the dirt worst

[davidmcaninch]

There’s really only one person who can take the blame: Vince McMahon. And in the words of Ron Simmons,

[Swannonymous]

Although he was dominant for a while the failure lies with creative rebranding an established character with another gimmick, they should've just brought him back as A-train or Albert cause any older fans were going to recognize him right away after taking the mask off

[WhiteBeard]

I think this gimmick would’ve been saved if Lord Sensai brung up being A-Train/Prince Albert but then could’ve talked about his experiences of being in Japan 🇯🇵 and how it changed his life. He then could’ve told the crowd not to chant it. In which they would, which could’ve angered Lord Tensai like Kurt Angles “You Suck” Chants

[davisbowe]

I think the gimmick would've been fine if they had at least acknowledged that it was Albert from the get-go. The could've ran vignettes referencing that he had returned from an excursion in Japan with a newfound reverence for Japanese culture, hence the 'Lord Tensai' moniker. The fact that they genuinely tried to act like this was some Japanese guy before the reveal just killed the gimmick before it even started. I remember being pretty stoked about his return because I enjoyed his work in NJPW as Giant Bernard and thought he could've been a solid upper midcard heel in WWE, of course this killed any chance of him getting a decent push.

[Foreriverricky]

7:32 I understand the context, but I’m laughing at it for a completely different reason 😂