Is Adam Rose ruining your party?

[MartialHorror]

I was not a fan of the Adam Rose party gimmick, primarily because I dislike those kinds of comedic gimmicks. I was glad when he started to turn heel, but even then, he continued to bore me. There was a rumor that he'd adopt his NXT Leo Kruger persona, which I'm not familiar with, but from what I've heard that would be a stretch.

Then he apparently started working this gimmick with Maddox about being a body builder tag team...I could get behind that, if they had more muscle, but I can't tell how good it was as I believe it never appeared on TV. Then he started his artist spiel, which never went anywhere. In fact, the Rosa Mendes love story also vanished after boring everyone- although to be fair, they had a lot more chemistry than Ziggler and Lana, while not eating as much screen-time.

And now he's become a 'party pooper'. Obviously it's designed to make kids giggle and Uso kept laughing when he debuted it on Superstars. The strange thing with Adam Rose is that while I'm not a fan of him, he's actually pretty good on the mic and he plays his roles well enough. I have no idea whether he's a good wrestler since he usually either wins or loses quickly, but...I still find him to be boring. This kind of buzzkill gimmick can be funny (I liked 'Right to Censor'), but it's doing nothing for me. Adam Rose is probably my least favorite person on the roster...even though his talents stand out more than others.

What about you guys? Do you like his new gimmick? Did you like one of his other gimmicks? What can make Adam Rose start to stand out?

 

[xRob13x]

To be honest, I wish he'd stayed in NXT. When he first re-debuted after changing the gimmick, I was ready to hate it. My opinion changed from his first trust-fall crowd-surf. His whole gimmick was perfectly suited to the smaller NXT crowd and while there were some comedy elements to his matches, he's actually pretty solid in the ring as well. Sadly, like a majority of the other NXT call-ups, it didn't transfer well to the big shows, whether that's because of the gimmicks themselves or because the creative process is worlds apart is up for debate.

As for standing out, I'd say pair him up with someone for a tag-team. They can keep this Right to Censor-lite thing going and work into the tag division pretty well. Or they could if they would bother doing anything creative-wise for more than two teams at a time.

 

[hatehabsforever]

I'm totally apathetic to Adam Rose in any of his various versions, and that's never a great thing for a professional wrestler. I cannot comment on his Leo Kruger NXT version as I never saw that. However, any version of Adam Rose I have seen has done nothing for me positively or negatively.

I'm not saying the guy should be future endeavored or anything like that, as he is probably a good low card/talent enhancement guy to have around, as any company needs their share of role players like this. But that's all I see from him. I don't care if he's a party animal or a party pooper. I don't care who he teams with or who accompanies him to the ring. I don't even care if he recreates Leo Kruger. I don't love him or I don't hate him, I just don't care about him at all.

As long as the goddamn bunny stays away, it's all good. But I simply don't see anything big for Adam Rose in the foreseeable future. If ever.

 

[stingray11214]

I enjoyed Adam Rose's Rosebud gimmick until Steph buried him on RAW. Then, it just got ridiculous. His "Party Pooper" gimmick make me say "Get off my screen!". Let's all be real about this: If it were not for his "E:60" expose, Ray Leppan would be long gone. His characters are more suited for RoH or the Indies, and not the typical WWE Universe fan. Trips and VKM were not not about to let themselves be nominated for "Scumbag of the Year" for Future Endeavoring a guy whose son is being fed by a G-Tube, which would have been both a PR nightmare and bad for business. So, they keep him around, even though he is just not right for the WWE Universe.

 

[Prince Vee]

Regardless of the gimmick he's going to adapt, he's merely a comedy jobber. WWE had trademarked him in that way so I don't want to comment a lot on this. And to the OP's question about his wrestling ability, I would say he's solid in the ring. Back in FCW, he was the Heavyweight Champion and had rocked many good matches. He's good on the mic as well but WWE apparently doesn't love his South African hybrid accent.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Never cared much for his wrestling, but I didn't mind the party gimmick and found myself enjoying it more often than naught. Sometimes I feel we the older fans are too hard on comedy characters. They're there to balance the moody shit. Sure, they're not likely to do anything but get a chuckle or two from us, but they have a place and I thought Adam Rose did his job as well as he could. Hated the heel turn, and the overt attention the Bunny received.

 

[Hard Hit Prince]

I completely agree with @hatehabsforever's point of view. Adam Rose doesn't do anything for me. If he's on my television, I don't change the channel but I don't really pay that much attention. When he debuted I thought he was fun, the same way I thought Fandango was fun. But then (2 weeks later of the exact same thing), I just turned off and I don't really care for him, as a babyface or as a villain. The gimmick doesn't have a lot to tell and WWE clearly have nothing for him, so he'll be in this spot probably for the remainder of his career. He's 36 years old, it's not like he has the potential to be a 'future' star.

Not everybody can be a main event talent. If it were up to me, he would be NXT exclusive with the Leo Kruger character, because at least he was interesting (or boring, the opinions differ) and he could wrestle and help other guys get to the top.

 

[Slash-LN]

I hated the rosebud gimmick so much.
I never saw the Leo gimmick because I wasn't paying attention to NXT much at the time.
Haven't really seen much of the new gimmick outside of the one clip I saw of him telling Nikki her party sucked so I'll reserve judgement until I see it more.

Comedy characters do have their place in wrestling though.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I wanted to like Adam Rose so badly. I'm admittedly a fan of Russell Brand's Aldous Snow character whom Rose's character is blatantly based upon. On paper it has potential, but Adam Rose is no Brand. Couple that with WWE's inability to hire college students on the cheap who can actually construct a proper story and you have a recipe zero crowd reaction.

All this is generally no fault of his own. Why didn't he and the rosebuds get along? They should have been a cohesive unit, that would have been entertaining. The Bunny? Who the hell was The Bunny? And why didn't they get along? So moronic and all due to creative, not Rose.

There's no payoff, no comeuppance when you're feuding with your own entourage consisting of a rotating cast of developmental talent and locals. Adam Rose in that joke of a Royal Rumble. What a load.

Now they're trying this party pooper gimmick, an opposite to his previous character. It's funny but it's going to have progressively diminishing returns until it's irrelevant. How many backstage parties can Adam poop on before Triumph calls and wants his stupid gimmick back?

I hope this works for Rose. He's talented but as been said he's on the wrong side of 35 to be having these gimmick issues. Personally, I'd book the party pooper to have a tag partner, revealed as having been the Bunny (Brad Maddox?) and the two continue to poop on the tag team division together. At least we'd get some resolution to dumb plot lines and Rose can find a place on the roster.