Funk, Will it Keep Rolling? (Brodus Clay)

[Steve-O-Matt]

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Now, you can't deny it, the Funkasaurus has made some progress in his career since NXT and yes, it's even progressed from following around Del Rio for... Some reason. Funk was on a roll, there is no doubt about it! But is Funk still rolling? And will it keep rolling for the fore-see-able future?

We all know that when it comes to ANY gimmick, any of them can become world champions, it all comes down to the individuals capabilities in sucking the life out of the gimmick and keeping the juice fresh.

Best example: The Undertaker, a man who is so talented, his talent is practically as supernatural as his gimmick.

Now, I'm not saying Brodus is as talented as the dead man, but it is possible for the Funkasaurus to become a world champion... YEAH I said it. BUT the only way to do this is to make the gimmick work for Brodus, tweak it, constantly change it, take a step back and think of what's working, what's not working. He also needs to craft it to HIS style in such a way, people will think it was HIS idea for a gimmick, not creative! People need to remember that Brodus Clay is the Funkasaurus, NOT the Funkasaurus is Brodus Clay.

Brodus will not make any progress with what he has at the moment, it's the end of it's... Freshness. It's needs tweaking, it needs changing. He can still be the Funkasaurus, he just needs to update it. Instead of having the EXACT SAME entrance as his debut, have a normal entrance to some funky music, he doesn't need to put on his own side-show which will inevitably get fast-forwarded by us, that's imposed by the writers and we can tell that.

People get completely f***ed off when things stay the exact same over a long period of time, take for example: John Cena. He's has the EXACT SAME gimmick with no tweaks, no changes, NOTHING for the past... Maybe 6 years. And people are booooored, they've had enough, no one likes him, it's only the new audiences that like him because they haven't had the longevity of it chip away at them. I'm sure the kids who liked him 6 years ago, for the majority, can't stand him now! That's the thing about wrestling.

I can go on and on, but this is a Brodus thread and should remain as such. I WANT you guys to discuss Brodus' future... Or lack there-of with the current stance of his gimmick.

 

[Brewski]

You really just answered your own question. Brodus' Gimmick is beyond stale. I turn the channel whenever he comes out unless he's wrestling somebody I really like. He's going nowhere and I really think he'll need to be repackaged before becoming a serious contender on any level. He's just been stagnant for far too long.

 

[JohnJohnson]

First I want to point out that, while it's true people get upset when something stays the same for too long without being tweaked, I can't agree that Cena falls into that category. His character has changed a lot over the years. We had orange shirt Cena, green shirt, red shirt, puple shirt, black shirt. Hell he even changed shorts colors. Obviously I'm being sarcastic, but yes you are exactly right weith Brodus.
When Brodus first redebuted with his current gimmick, I actually laughed out loud, and I'm not the type of person to laugh at anything corny the WWE does. I would actually start watching Smackdown and fastforwarding to his segment because I liked his first match with the whole talking to the crowd thing. I watched his second match and thought, "hmm seems like the first, but it's good." Then his third, fourth, fifth, etc. and he is doing the exact same thing. It's boring. How can I take him seriously as a contender if he can't/Won't be allowed to wwork a real match. He is basically like Cena starting his "five moves of doom" at the beginining of the first bell. So I think his ring work needs some good freshening up. Give him a few more moves, let his matches last longer, and give him legitimate opponents like Big Show again.
Then his gimmick needs enhancing. It's the same every time. The EXACT same. I find myself just watching his dancers. Change it up some. I think he should still have the Funkadactyls if only just to keep them out of Divas matches. But maybe just have them walk to the ring with him, maybe one in each arm, and drop the goofy, fake, cheesy smile. Maybe walk with a little more swagger. Maybe his Funkadactyls can use their dancing during the matches to distract oppenents or refs. He can still be a face for the kids. Maybe the ref reacts in a comical way to the distraction, while Brodus uses some cheap shot and looks at the audience and says "SSSHHHH" or something, I don't know. Anything that would give me some type of indication that I'm not watching a re-run.

 

[ThePrawnCurry]

Brodus simply does not have the wrestling skills to hang with the top-tier. He cannot be expected to surpass his gimmick as the gimmick is probably a step above anything he could manage by his own fatass

 

[themusicman]

I think when it comes to Brodus creative have a real issue. I mean think about it, loads of people were calling for him to come in as a dominant heel monster, in fact they even ran a few videos suggesting that would be the case, but the problem is, do WWE need another 'monster'? As of right now they have Big Show, Kane, Ryback and Big E Langston (ok I know they debuted after Brodus but they are currently both v relevant on T.V.) The Undertaker will be back around The Rumble in time for Mania and to a much much much lesser extent The Great Kahli. How would Brodus make an impact in that group? I enjoyed The Funkasaurus when he arrived but as was said at the time, no-one with that kind of gimmick is going to win world titles in this day and age. He is popular with kids and v family friendly, I personally dont have a problem with that and think we need those sorts of characters around, so I predict Brodus bouncing around on programmes like Superstars for a while before one of two things happen 1) WWE try and turn him heel (and probably fail) or 2) TNA TNA TNA!

 

[a7xoff]

The first time Brodus appeared with his funk gimmick I was surprised, amused, etc. He came out doing some crazy dance, stealing the Cat's music, and seeming like a totally backwards character. Then he turned it on in the ring and won what amounted to a bunch of squash matches and made it look easy. Since then though, he has kind of leveled off at a point where he is still able to squash the lower card wrestlers, but never seems to be able to do anything against the upper card. One example of that was in his match at Survivor Series. He and Tensai were both eliminated, but Brodus was the only one eliminated from his team despite being by far the largest on the team.

So what to do with Brodus? As someone mentioned earlier, I would not mind at all seeing him become somewhat of a comical heel. By that I mean I wouldn't mind seeing him do heel maneuvers (ie weapons, thumb to the eye, etc) and then playing it off to the crowd not in a typical heel fashion, but in a weird it wasn't me or did I do that kind of fashion. It would be something interesting I think. Let him keep his dancing with the kids, and what not just as a wrestler, perhaps even just against guys that are higher on the card, have him do something entertaining and new. Funk is stalled right now, but I think if WWE plays it correctly he can get back on a roll.

 

[Mustang Sally]

With Brodus Clay, WWE knew they were creating a gimmick with a limited shelf life. Really, it's surprising they've carried it on this long, but they've been able to keep it going by abbreviating it (no longer forcing us to watch the whole dance routine that originates as he emerges from the curtain) and tweaking small aspects, like having the girls get physically involved, as they did on Smackdown last night.

Of course, the earliest acknowledgement that the act was getting old involved Brodus starting to lose matches. Was the first loss at the hands of Big Show? I can't remember one before that, but it was logical and good. As it is, he's now serving as the victim of guys he used to defeat. Heath Slater, for example, was one of Brodus' early patsies, but after Heath got his 3MB gimmick, he was the one to beat Brodus. And after all, Clay was never going to be a champion, was he? These things go in cycles.....and Brodus Clay is cycling down.

It's going to take some good creative work to keep his character viable. Somewhere along the line, they're going to have to get rid of the girls and find a new direction for Brodus. A heel turn seems to make sense; it's where Clay came from in the first place and where a guy with that enormous body probably belongs.

 

[I'mTheJanetty13]

If Clay can move merchandise to kids, he'll stay the course. He'll be comic relief like Santino and may get the odd IC title reign here or there. If he loses steam with the kids, he'll get a heel turn. I'm ok with either. I think a heel Clay and Sheamus beating the hell out of each other could make for some enjoyable matches.

 

[Pedigree1]

As my other half brain said a.k.a Mustang sally has already stated a heel turn makes sense for him. Lets face it folks his gimmick is old stale and rather boring. Funk is on a roll(No his roll has already stopped). But then again WWE creating this gimmick with a extremely short shelf life they knew what they were doing. A heel turn is in his best interest the only thing that can save him. The girls or whatever you call them are gonna be on their own soon enough.

 

[Denny Crane]

He would be perfect for a Connor O'Brien debut where he beats down Brodus and kidnaps him and Clay re-debuts as simply Brodus and as the new member of The Ascension. Let them work on it on NXT and if they look good, u have a real intimidating tag team.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Brodus has gone as far as he's going with his current character. It's just not going to work. Brodus' character is a very, very very kid friendly, mostly, comedy character and those are not guys that you generally see heaving up in the upper mid-card or main event scenes.

I don't think we'll see the Funkasaurus stick around for all of 2013. Eventually, I expect Clay will be repackaged. I will say this though: Brodus Clay is someone that's shown he can be far more than the cookie cutter, stereotypical monster that a lot of people seemed to want him to be. The Funkasaurus character has shown that Clay can very much overcome whatever limitations that some people imposed on him. In the long run, I think this character will ultimately prove to have been a good point in Clay's career. He took what he was given and has done that absolute best he can with it. And you know what? All in all, he's gotten over pretty well. As much as it galls people to admit it, the Funkasaurus could be very good for Brodus in the long run.

 

[SaveUsCMPunk]

Poor Brodus Clay rarely seems to even make it on TV and up until recently, all he did was dance and job. Right now we get to see him wrestle the likes of JTG in matches which I feel are a bit too competitive. (JTG is a jobber and always will be. He should be totally destroyed by someone like Brodus.) Sure Brodus isn't progressing, but at least he isn't jobbing. (Which makes me happy since I'm a fan of his.)

He never really recovered after losing his first match against Big Show. (A pinfall loss after a failed bodyslam attempt?! WTF is this ****?) Big Show knocked him out as he was helped to the back and Brodus never even attempted to get revenge! Then there were more losses to people like Antonio Cesaro and Heath Slater. If Brodus was around twelve years ago, he would've been a midcard champion. (As much as I loved the Attitude Era, the IC title changed hands way too often back then.)

So what to do with him? I guess like everyone says, turn him heel. I thought he was a pretty good heel in NXT and I enjoyed watching him squash jobbers on Superstars. (Plus his heel theme late last year was bad ass.)

 

[Kelso1ftw]

He was great at first, I thought it was hilarious in the fact of how they built it and this is what they debuted. I just agree with a lot of people saying he got stale and overall hasn't changed in the 3/4 of the year he has been on TV with the gimmick. A good heel turn would be great for him right now, and I think could make a good run with a mid-card title, but him with the WHC or WWE title? I don't think so. We need to see what he can do as a talker and how he can hold a feud before we can start with that discussion.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Well first off I never see Brodus Clay being World Champion as the Funkasaurus. I think there is a reason WWE hasn't even given him a US title shot. IMO he has never been all that special & hasn't really improved much at all since NXT.

I think WWE just likes him for his size & different look he has. But I don't see WWE taking advantage of his size. & while it would probably get boring to have just another dominant big guy, I don't see any other way he will ever become champion of anything.

But for some reason I don't really see WWE wanting to change his persona any time soon. I think WWE likes him as the Funkasaurus & even if he appears to be doing nothing in WWE, he has a fun song & dance number & get's a small reaction no matter what because of the intro to his song with the "Ladies & Gentlemen...".

So I honeslty just see WWE using him like a much more underrated & underappreciated Junkyard Dog. Where he will never win any titles or really advance because WWE doesn't see much more potential in him but they will continue to milk him for every penny he is worth, making all the "What the Funk?" shirts they can before releasing him & making him extinct.

 

[MoxViolence]

matter of time before it got stale. no one really cares about brotus anymore. they say that not every big man needs to play the monster role which is true. but at this point, i dont see any other option. yea the kids dig it and in this day and age, maybe thats enough to keep the character around. but truth be told, it got stale...quick.

 

[DirtyD79]

The problem he's encountering now is he hasn't really done much over the past year. He's not in any real storylines. He doesn't have a feud or anything going on. They need to give him an actual feud.

 

[Fear&Loathing]

The biggest dissapointment in recent history. WWE hyped his debut up for weeks just for him to debut as a mockery. I think the monster heel would have been a much better way to get him over. There is still time just turn him heel and have him smash his way through all competition instead of dancing with it! No more mr nice guy Clay would work. He has the potential!