WWE Planned For Tensai to Headline “SummerSlam” Against John Cena in 2012

Just after WrestleMania 28 in 2012, WWE debuted the monstrous Lord Tensai character, the Japanese persona of pro wrestling journeyman Matt Bloom. Many were aware by his presentation, WWE had big plans for the man formerly known as Albert.

But in a new blog post by former WWE Creative member Kevin Eck, it is revealed WWE has substantially bigger plans than once even believed for the man now known as Jason Albert. Eck noted Tensai had been set for quite the main event push.

“The idea was to strap a rocket to him and have him main event SummerSlam against John Cena. In an effort to get Tensai over at that level, he was given pinfall victories over top babyfaces Cena and CM Punk on TV.”

According to Eck, Cena himself was very much down with the idea of working with a larger guy who could go in the ring, but Eck believes it was Tensai’s presentation that ultimately doomed him.

He also revealed there were several different ideas for his gimmick originally.

“Among the pitches for Bloom were for him to be a masked mauler, an ex-prisoner in an orange jumpsuit and an American samurai. 

I was of the belief that the best option was to give him a cool-looking mask with black ring attire that showed the tattoos on his upper body but covered his ample midsection. The more we hide his identity, I thought, the less chance the crowd will be chanting ‘Albert’ at him. I also thought he needed a mouthpiece, and my suggestion was to hire James Mitchell as his manager.

The samurai character was my least favorite. Of course, that’s the one we went with. And instead of a manager, he was given a follower who never spoke English named Sakamoto.”

Ultimately, the character did not work out, and he became a comedy character before moving to commentator and eventually head trainer for NXT.

Editor’s Note

Well no kidding it wouldn’t have worked. I like the mauler idea. James Mitchell would have been a nice addition.

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