Peaked at ‘good’

[d-d-d-dAz]

3 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

In the spirit of this, I’m going to say A-Train/Albert. When I started watching wrestling, I thought he was a brilliant big man wrestler on the Smackdown brand, and I was surprised when I found out that people considered him a bit shit. I don’t think he was at all.

Sorry, you want the 'Peaked in Japan' thread. I imagine it'll be a bloody long thread.

[LaGoosh]

I liked that thing he did where he swung a clothesline, his opponent ducked, then he immediately hit them with another in the back of the head.

Apart from that his look and lack of charisma basically killed any interest anyone could have in his ring work (I have no memory of whether he was good or not).

Weird when when he came back from Japan and everyone had to pretend he wasn't a fatter, hairless Albert with bad tattooes but was in fact a Japanese lord.

[Carbomb]

10 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I liked that thing he did where he swung a clothesline, his opponent ducked, then he immediately hit them with another in the back of the head.

Apart from that his look and lack of charisma basically killed any interest anyone could have in his ring work (I have no memory of whether he was good or not).

The lack of charisma, I get, but look-wise he was pretty impressive, I thought- as A-Train, that is. I remember him having a match with Lesnar in which he came out on the jobbing end, but still looked competitive and like he warranted going toe-to-toe with him. He also had quite a good range of big power moves.

10 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

Weird when when he came back from Japan and everyone had to pretend he wasn't a fatter, hairless Albert with bad tattooes but was in fact a Japanese lord.

I don't remember it like this, though. I remember commentary specifically referring to his past as A-Train and having previously been a WWE superstar who'd gone and made a name for himself in Japan; hence why this obviously European-looking bloke was dressed like a Japanese and had a Japanese moniker.

He was still shit at this point.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

I liked that thing he did where he swung a clothesline, his opponent ducked, then he immediately hit them with another in the back of the head.

Apart from that his look and lack of charisma basically killed any interest anyone could have in his ring work (I have no memory of whether he was good or not).

Weird when when he came back from Japan and everyone had to pretend he wasn't a fatter, hairless Albert with bad tattooes but was in fact a Japanese lord.

Tensai wasn’t great, but A-Train was. He had a real explosivity about him, and I think his matches from that era have aged rather well. I’m not saying he was better than good - he wasn’t - but he certainly deserves credit for his work during the early years of the brand split.

[Joe Blog]

Careful lads, Albert is adored on here. Billy Gunn though….

[BomberPat]

14 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I don't remember it like this, though. I remember commentary specifically referring to his past as A-Train and having previously been a WWE superstar who'd gone and made a name for himself in Japan; hence why this obviously European-looking bloke was dressed like a Japanese and had a Japanese moniker.

The weirdest thing about the gimmick is that it was somewhere in-between those two points - they talked about him being a former WWE superstar who "found himself" in Japan, but I don't think they ever just said, "yeah, it's Albert". Even though it obviously was, and there was no reason not to just say who it had been. It was probably a Vince McMahon "no one will remember that" edict. But what it led to was the gimmick - bad as it was anyway - getting no chance to get over, because the crowd always mockingly chanted "Albert" at him. Which they probably wouldn't have done if the TV show explicitly said that it was Albert, as then you wouldn't have fans wanting to be smart-arses about it. Or, at least, they could play into how the chants made Tensai angry and have him react to them.

I always liked the big lug, though. Perfect midcard thug heel. 

[Carbomb]

38 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

The weirdest thing about the gimmick is that it was somewhere in-between those two points - they talked about him being a former WWE superstar who "found himself" in Japan, but I don't think they ever just said, "yeah, it's Albert". Even though it obviously was, and there was no reason not to just say who it had been. It was probably a Vince McMahon "no one will remember that" edict. But what it led to was the gimmick - bad as it was anyway - getting no chance to get over, because the crowd always mockingly chanted "Albert" at him. Which they probably wouldn't have done if the TV show explicitly said that it was Albert, as then you wouldn't have fans wanting to be smart-arses about it. Or, at least, they could play into how the chants made Tensai angry and have him react to them.

I always liked the big lug, though. Perfect midcard thug heel. 

I do vaguely remember Michael Cole mentioning the name "A-Train", but it was very much in passing, and he only did it once.

12 hours ago, Joe Blog said:

Careful lads, Albert is adored on here. Billy Gunn though….

Not at all! The tiresome sarcasm of the "Good In Japan" moniker that is often used on here is broadly down to him, and maybe Karl Anderson. I've not seen his work as Giant Bernard in NJPW, but for the most part I didn't really enjoy his work except as A-Train.

Billy Gunn gets a lot of love on here, I think - he's well regarded as one of the best tag-team wrestlers to ever do it, whether it's the New Age Outlaws, Billy & Chuck, even the Smokin' Gunns. The only exception being the James Gang/Voodoo Kin Mafia, which, despite basically just being the NAO, just flopped - probably because TNA were using them solely as a means of jabbing at WWE, rather than just doing what they did in the WWF.

Edited April 2, 2025 by Carbomb

[Browser Brady]

The Giant/Big Show.

 

Considering his longevity, i can’t recall any obvious killer matches…….possibly ….possibly Vs Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble 03 i think it was. I remember it being good at the time.

Edited April 2, 2025 by Browser Brady

[Carbomb]

3 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

The Giant/Big Show.

 

Considering his longevity, i can’t recall any obvious killer matches…….possibly ….possibility Vs Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble 03 i think it was. I remember it being good at the time.

That's a good shout. Only other match of his I can think of that I enjoyed was his IC title match with Cody Rhodes back in his pre-AEW days. That was a lot of fun. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

The Big Show was a phenomenal house show wrestler. He could do 'fun' tremendously well. They did a house show at the O2 in 2016 I think where he wrestled Primo and Epico and it was about the best thing on the show. That Big Show run where he cosplayed as other wrestlers (think they did a Kurt Angle vs Hulk Show-gan on PPV once), was an absolute hoot.

But yeah, i'd say that's a good shout. His best spot was as a 'fun' act, I think.

[Callum1993]

He had some good matches with Sheamus as well in I think 2012? But yeah generally his output was poor across the years. Especially 2005-2006 when he was massively overweight. 

[RedTwoster]

46 minutes ago, Browser Brady said:

The Giant/Big Show.

 

Considering his longevity, i can’t recall any obvious killer matches…….possibly ….possibility Vs Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble 03 i think it was. I remember it being good at the time.

I’d say his match against Floyd Mayweather. It’s genuinely one of my favourite Wrestlemania matches! 

[Vamp]

Yeah, the Floyd Mayweather match is great and was, for a long time, one if the best celebrity matches they ever had. 

The Survivor Series match where he win the title from Brock was pretty great too. 

Despite being near the top of the card for a long time he's probably one of the worst booked wrestlers ever. I can't think of anyone who had that level of longevity near the top of the card who received so little support from the booking. 

[digforvictory]

He was honestly booked best in WCW.

I don't think Big Show ever felt as important or as big of a star as The Giant did. Even his name in WCW was cooler.

[Carbomb]

I never liked the name "The Giant". Just felt very lazy and unimaginative, not to mention that there are plenty other giants out there, so why should he be called that? Still better than "Big Show", though.