15 Wrestlers WWE Debuted In The WORST Way Possible
2. Lord Tensai Has No Chance
Debut: Hype packages had already aired for a character calling himself Lord Tensai before his proper debut took place 24 hours after WrestleMania XXVIII on the 2 April 2012 episode of Raw. On the night, Tensai ran right through former Miz protege Alex Riley like WWF Jakked was on the marquee instead of WWE Raw. The promotion had waited until the night after 'Mania for a reason.
They hoped that a rowdy crowd would make Tensai's debut look awesome.
Why It Was Bad: Instead, the rowdy audience (who were still revelling after enjoying their WrestleMania weekend) rebelled against the match by chanting: "Albert! Albert! Albert!" at the top of their lungs. The new Lord Tensai gimmick was far fetched anyway, but you've really got to question the wisdom (or lack thereof) of debuting it in front of a raucous, possibly drunk crowd who were in the mood to troll and live it up.
Matt Bloom, the man behind the persona, looked spooked by what was happening. This was a nightmare scenario for the guy, because blame would likely be pinned on him for how big of a flop the Tensai character was. Yes, already. WWE weren't known for their patience back in 2012, let's be honest.
Pivoting, the creative team had turned Tensai into a comedy character rather than a feared heel brute within months. They realistically gave the gimmick zero chance of succeeding. Those trolling "Albert!" chants had followed Bloom even when working as A-Train in WWE before, and the night after 'Mania was most definitely not the place to try and repackage him.
A case could be made for bringing him back as Giant Bernard, which was a name he'd used in Japan, or just reverting to the Albert or A-Train names; but not this.