As awful as the Tensai-Brodus Clay segment was on last week’s Raw Roulette episode of Monday Night Raw, it looks like there was an actual means to an end behind it. After all, the Tensai character hasn’t been able to gain much traction since the WWE superstar formerly known as Albert came back to the U.S., and something needed to change for his own sake.
Following an insanely successful run in Japan as Giant Bernard, I’m sure that 2012 wasn’t exactly what Matt Bloom had in mind when coming back to the states. With that said, Bloom is still a more talented wrestler than many folks (aside from Martin Shaw) give him credit for, and this past week on WWE Main Event, I felt like Tensai vs. Titus O’Neil definitely stole the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXaQtgPAcfU
As an agile big man Tensai definitely has the ability to pop a crowd with his move-set, and by playing to the crowd even just a little bit during this match, the apathy and indifference were gone and the crowd even started chanting “Tensai” at one point.
In fact, what I saw throughout this entire clip was everyone playing their mid-card parts perfectly: Darren Young threatening to lay out Tensai with his hair pick; O’Neil looking better than I’ve ever seen him as a cocky heel in singles action; Tensai adding some nuances to his persona; and Brodus Clay bringing Tensai out of his shell.
I’m sure this is headed towards the formulation of a Tensai-Clay tag team and I think that can be a good way to get some more production out of those two than we’ve seen to this point. What I don’t want to see is Tensai completely adopting all of Brodus’ mannerisms because I think it would be better for him to keep things more subtle than going to full Funkasaurus mode. That’s very important in terms of making all of this work without completely having the Tensai character resort to being a Brodus Clay clone, and if they can keep them as distinct identities while working as one collective entity, then 2013 could be salvaged for both big men just yet.
That’s all from me — CB.
