3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Nov 21)

Downs…

6. Tozawa Ditches Ninja Gimmick, But…

In a move that should have earned an “up” on its own, Akira Tozawa finally ditched the offensive ninja gimmick he’d been saddled with for more than two full years.

Tozawa, an accomplished wrestler in his own right, has spent the past two years chasing the 24/7 Championship while dressed as a ninja. That really shouldn’t surprise anyone – Vince McMahon and his cohorts thought dressing a Japanese wrestler up as a ninja was a great idea, and then kept it up for more than 24 months.

To be fair, Akira played his role well, eliciting some genuine laughs with his ninja horde, but this gimmick should’ve never happened and at worst should have been killed off when the empty arena shows ended.

Monday, Tozawa appeared on top of the Raw commentary desk to torment JBL as a continuation from last week. However, he jumped into Bradshaw’s arms, then stole his cowboy hat before fleeing through the crowd with it.

Yes, Tozawa’s return to a “normal” appearance was punctuated by a bad comedy angle involving the theft of a hat. Credit for ditching the get-up, but we can’t give this positive marks yet.