Adam Rose is one of those characters that can work well in small doses, and usually has a very brief shelf life. The South African wrestler formerly known as Leo Kruger's recent call-up to the main roster from NXT started out nothing short of disastrous. There was a ton of hype for his debut, with promos running for weeks in advance signaling the arrival of the Exotic Express. A paryt bus full of zany misfits such as an Easter Bunny, a human cheeseburger and Waldo from Where's Waldo fame accompanies Rose everywhere he goes. A shameless pilfering of Russell Brand's Aldous Snow character, the gimmick was intended to add a bit of fun to WWE. The problems began when his big Raw debut fell flat on its face. There was very little crowd reaction other than some singing along with his theme, and it appeared that the gimmick was much better suited for the smaller, niche NXT audience in the confines of Full Sail. One of the issues is that the performer is secondary to the gimmick. The real attraction is the entourage and the music, the wrestler is just window dressing, when it should be the other way around. The man behind Adam Rose isn't that great of a worker to begin with, so when it comes time to get down to business, he's not going to deliver anything particularly compelling in the ring. It was reported that WWE has been very disappointed with the response to his first few appearances, and it remains to be seen whether the reaction from May 19th's London crowd has changed their mind. Although to be fair, that crowd was more of a night after WrestleMania type of outlier than a typical Raw audience. And we all know that when WWE feels something isn't working, unless they're heavily invested in seeing it succeed, they often lose interest and move on to the next shiny toy. Plus, dude has a lollipop. Fans aren't going to get behind a grown man sucking on a lollipop.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
