At the age of six, I watched a wrestler who put on clown make-up, dressed up in circus attire and would laugh when he was a good guy and become IT’s little brother when he was bad. Everyone remembers Doink The Clown, a bit of a comic relief character who had his moments such as feuding with Randy Savage, Bret Hart and Crush. It was a time when I watched wrestling as a fan. Just a fan, no knowledge of what a bump was, not a clue about what the Gorilla position was. Nothing. It was two guys beating each other up, one guy winning and one guy losing. The purest form of entertainment outside of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
As I grew older, the times changed. Colourful characters gained edginess, a certain “Attitude” mentality was adopted and things became racy at times. For instance, beating up your boss was not frowned upon but actually encouraged. Lust was not a sin but something you laughed about as a greasy forty year old would foam at the mouth at the sight of anything “puppy” related. Into my teenage years, the WWE evolved with me and continued to remain interesting and fun to watch.
It was later in that era when things became more evident to the general public. Wrestling was scripted. Not fake, the bumps and chair shots do hurt and injuries are real in the sport of wrestling. The word was scripted, where a winner was pre-determined, the promos were — for the most part — scripted and behind that cult-leading Deadman was Mark Calloway, a pretty bad-ass guy that would give the shirt off his back to help someone who was suffering. It was always like this but the public was shielded from it all. We didn’t stop to think, “Hey wait a minute, that punch barely grazed his forehead yet he acted like he just got knocked out.” We watched, we were entertained and we gained memories to hold onto for a lifetime.
At the age of 22, I had the chance to enter an actual wrestling ring and learn the ropes. I discovered that setting up a ring wasn’t as easy as I originally thought. I found out the hard way how much it sucks to jump into the air and land on your back, especially if you don’t tuck your chin into your chest or you decide to take the bump in the corner of the ring instead of the center. Most importantly, I was taught that the most important thing to have once you enter a ring is trust. Trust yourself to perform and be safe and trust your opponent to be the same and take care of you in the ring as much as you care for him. To the audience, you are attempting to take the guy’s head off. In your mind, you are making sure you both get out as healthy as you entered the match.
In a sense, this experience changed my view on the wrestling world. For months, even years, following this adventure, I watched wrestling a completely different way. I realized the minor errors, the slip-ups, the “botches” as they call them. Soon enough, my viewing experience became more of a judgmental observation than it did “fun”. I was among those who used such words as “buried” and “push”. The product was no longer entertainment or fun, but business and politics and who’s getting rightfully placed in the main event, who’s getting screwed and who deserves to be rocketed into the sun for such a display of uninteresting promos and matches. The Daniel Bryans and Dolph Zigglers of this world should be getting everything while others who are at the top should be knocked down a peg or two.
The company that once inspired me to try this myself — in a ring, folks — and become hopeful that some day I might be able to wrestle in front of millions of people worldwide, was now just a product that I became bitter about if the things I wanted did not happen. I became part of the Internet Wrestling Community.
Then along came someone that changed my outlook. Adam Rose, an eccentric personality that encouraged those around him to have fun and enjoy life. His catchphrase of “Don’t be a Lemon, be a Rosebud” quickly caught on and those who didn’t follow in his long line of party animals that included cosplayers, men dressed in colorful suits and someone dressed up in a bunny suit, well you were ridiculed for being a sourpuss. This leaked over into social media when several people who disapproved of this persona saw their profile pictures stamped with a LEMON label.
It was in this moment that I realized something; I was having fun again. I felt liberated and eager to keep watching as a man with a soul patch that is slightly to the right hopped around to music that sounds eerily similar to The Fratellis Chelsea Dagger. A man that hopped onto the apron, stood on the ropes and fell back into his posse of crazed and energetic folk. A man that in just two appearances on WWE television managed to get the WWE Universe on his side, chant his theme and respond to his promos that actually involved and encouraged their participation. He turned the wrestling ring into a place to dance, sing and have the time of your life.
Then, it came… the IWC — The Internet Wrestling Community. Over at the wrestlingforum.com, some reactions included:
RBrooks: “As much as fans seem to love the character, the guy is f***ed. I almost feel sorry for him.”
truk83: “Wrong guy for the gimmick. I get the character, but he just makes it look generic. They should have used someone else for this character. He doesn’t look the role.”
true rebel: “It’s a comedy gimmick that’s the problem. Kruger was a great gimmick and he played it well. I see no reason to change him”
DetroitRiverPhx: “Adam Rose is 35yo, he probably would be happy just getting a comedy run on the main roster. Obviously the Leo Kruger character was seen as a dead end for him – I blame the booking but fans never really latched on to it.”
dxbender: “Just sad to see Kruger go from what seemed like some South African hunter type of guy to some random party guy? Obviously a comedy gimmick, but should’ve gone to someone else, Kruger gimmick was fine if they actually gave him something to work with. Though this new gimmick… I feel like he’ll just end up doing absolutely nothing relevant on RAW/SD. He’ll be another 3MB, Fandango type person which sucks, cause even though he’s not right guy for the gimmick, I like this gimmick so much more than 3MB,Fandango. There’s so many superstars that right now if I could,I’d replace half the WWE roster with the NXT talent and you’d have an insanely stacked show in both RAW/SD”
Twitter wasn’t much better
Iggy Azalea Updates @trillestfaggotThe PG era sucks so bad and Adam Rose is just making it worse
PunkBryan82 @PunkBryan82How to bomb Adam Rose‘s debut even more… put him in a segment with Vickie Guerrero #SmackDown
Bruce Blitz @BruceBlitz Don’t know what planet everyone else is from but in my world a man prancing like a girl sucking on a lollipop makes your product look pussy.
cmpunkfan01 @StamDefiance
I don’t like Adam Rose or Bo Dallas or Paige or Russev like wtf NXT
VintagePipeBomb @VintagePipeBomb
@NewAgeInsiders Leo Krueger had much more potential to be a great strong mid-card talent. Adam Rose screams silly feud/segments.
For those who wondering, Leo Kruger was who Adam Rose once portrayed in NXT. Think Kraven The Hunter from Spiderman, in a sense. A drifter/hunter type that was known to be a lone wolf and a bit unhinged. He was also quite big at the time too, which plays into some people’s beef about his look changing, not just in attire but in physical appearance as well. The problem wasn’t Leo Kruger the personality, but Leo Kruger the guy that is big and… he’s big. I had the chance to watch some of his matches and outside of a man who came off as a little crazy, was nothing more than some big guy who destroyer smaller guys.
But now… Now Adam Rose is so much more than just some big guy. He’s charismatic, he gets the crowd smiling, laughing (in a good way) and enjoying themselves. During his debut which involved Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter, I found myself laughing at his mannerisms, the way he interacted with both Swagger and Colter as well as the crowd and then the tossing of Swagger to the outside of the ring followed by his posse joining him in a dance and celebration. My wife then turned to me and said, “I think this is the most fun I’ve seen you have in a long time when watching wrestling.” It was. I didn’t care about someone missing a bulldog set-up or a superstar flubbing their lines during a promo. All I saw was a character who made me laugh and was interesting.
Put aside your keyboard toughness, IWC. Learn to watch the product with some optimism and you’ll soon find yourself opening up to the possibility of having yourself a good time. Admit it, Damien Sandow dressed up as Magneto to confront Dolph Ziggler and Hugh Jackman was absolutely hilarious. Forget about who’s getting buried and how far Ziggler has fallen off the radar and watch three individuals trying their best not to corpse because, well you know, they are having a blast with it. You should learn to have a blast with it too instead of taking to the interwebs where you make your latest complaint about John Cena winning (LOL) or how the Divas division is your best opportunity to take a pee break.
Adam Rose has sparked new life in me and soon, he will get you all on his side. Quit being a Lemon. Be a Rosebud.
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