The curious case of Kassius Ohno

[Stopspot]

The fall of the total package? ​

Ohno, the former Chris Hero of independent wrestling fame was one of the hottest signings of 2012. Brought in with a lot of internet hype to what was then called FCW. The man was an independent scene MVP, hyped as one of the best ring workers out there and a damn good speaker. People didn't think he would be in developmental long before rejoining his former tag partner Antonio Cesaro and his independent friends like Punk and Daniel Bryan on the main roster. Here we are over a year later and the knockout kid is still in developmental and quite frankly isn't doing his best.

Ohno's NXT work if I may say so myself has been underwhelming. He's an insanely athletic guy, being able to bust out some good high flying moves considering his height, wrestle physically and stiff, wrestle technically and with the use of power moves, his indy repertoire showcases this. But his NXT run has except for at the start (the Richie Steamboat feud) and the Regal feud been very underwhelming from the in ring point of view. His NXT matches have been slow and relying on a lot of rest holds, something that goes against his supposed knock out artist gimmick. He doesn't seem motivated to work.

The same problem can be seen in his promos. On the independents Ohno was one of the best talkers, busting out catchphrase filled old school style promos about concussing with kicks and KOing with elbows. But his NXT promos have not delivered, and it cannot really be blamed on scripts since NXT doesn't use them, instead using bullet points and topics. Ohno just doesn't deliver promos with his old flair.

tying in with his ring work is his shape. Ohno has never been the most cut or chizzled guy but his look right now needs improvement. He's out of fucking shape without sugar coating it. He has low handles and what risks becoming man boobs. I'm not saying he needs to go Triple H or Mason Ryan but he could get more defined and lose some weight, WWE has coaches for that sort of thing to help him if he just put the effort in. Not to mention his ring gear has been ugly since signing which only adds to the bad look.

Ohno is very close to the total package in abilities and potential, but he is nearing 35 years old and it pains me to see a guy I want to see succeed just do nothing and seem unmotivated down in developmental. Some would say to just debut him on the main roster to get him motivated, but I would prefer to promote someone who is working his ass off 110 % in developmental rather than someone who thinks he doesn't need to give his all to earn his keep. We don't need another Kaval.

What would you do to fix the Kassius Ohno "problem"? Gimmick change? repackage or something else?

Discuss.

 

[DK JAMES]

Solid thread. Been wanting to discuss this for a while and I liked reading what you had to say. I don't think Ohno is losing touch in any way, he just needs to find somewhere he works in WWE. A gimmick change possibly, maybe a heel turn even. He's not necessarily bad at NXT just average is the word to describe it. He is pretty old for someone in developmental and I'm not sure if he'll ever make it up to the main roster honestly. Seems WWE is focusing on young guys recently. If Ohno isn't called up to the main roster this year or at least improves a lot, I have no hope for him.

 

[Stopspot]

Solid thread. Been wanting to discuss this for a while and I liked reading what you had to say. I don't think Ohno is losing touch in any way, he just needs to find somewhere he works in WWE. A gimmick change possibly, maybe a heel turn even. He's not necessarily bad at NXT just average is the word to describe it. He is pretty old for someone in developmental and I'm not sure if he'll ever make it up to the main roster honestly. Seems WWE is focusing on young guys recently. If Ohno isn't called up to the main roster this year or at least improves a lot, I have no hope for him.

Most of his NXT run was as a heel. I don't see how turning back after just turning would be fresh.

 

[Varus]

You're right man. When I heard he had a match with Regal I was so pumped to watch it. Then I finally found it and was bored out of my mind seeing it. I just felt they could've done so much more with that match. I watched a bunch of his Indy promos a while back and each and every one of them delivered,now his mic skills are just mediocre. I'm still a huge fan of his, just a little disheartened that's all.

 

[DK JAMES]

Most of his NXT run was as a heel. I don't see how turning back after just turning would be fresh.

Shit, never saw his heel work in NXT. Alright I retract that statement. Maybe he just needs a gimmick change then.

 

[THG?]

Apparently, he's supposed to get called up during Summerslam time, so I presume it's going to be something fairly big.

 

[Stopspot]

Apparently, he's supposed to get called up during Summerslam time, so I presume it's going to be something fairly big.

source on that?

 

[THG?]

source on that?

I read it a couple of months on PWMania.com, I can't really be asked to look for it again, but I'm sure if you search for it on Google, it'll appear. But just rumors of course.

 

[Leo C]

Yeah, I was thinking about this the other day. I think the two biggest problems are the apparent lack of motivation and the place his character is at. The lack of motivation, if it's indeed there (and given his talent it has to be the reason he's at this state) is the worst one, could see him having an ego and I'm not really sure how to solve that without promoting him. Now, the other thing is his character, I mean, he's just turned face but I'm feeling he lacks character, or character depth. He's a KO artist, OK, can't remember any promos about that, or that being the focal point of anything. I think when you add up his unmotivation over being in NXT with the fact his character isn't main roster ready you get what he's doing these days.

 

[Cloud]

Hell stick him in a tag team with Team Hell No disbanding it could work.

 

[Crayo]

I put it down to ego and the fact he's probably just fed up. It's not a bad thing to have an ego though; Punk has been a victim to his sometimes. Like you said, he's been there for a while, and was tipped as one of the best independent wrestlers, he's bound to be fed up. He probably feels he deserves to be called up and is wrestling with frustration instead of passion. Perhaps he needs some "man management" (football thing), where someone takes him under his wing and develops the flaws and gets him motivated again. Regal would be my pick to do that, but they have worked together already and it seemingly hasn't changed much.

I much prefer him as a heel, and would want him to debut as one. It's probably difficult to really show yourself in a face tag-team in NXT used to job to the big stars like The Wyatt Family though. Again, he probably feels he is above that, which again isn't necessarily a bad thing. Honestly though, him taking the title off Big E and using that as a motivator would have been better than Bo getting it. inb4 Bo lovers come @ me.

 

[Snowman1]

Fine thread, as with all the rest of the Kassius threads I have the same complaints. He went from a mess of a Mike Knox-esque mad scientist mixed with KO artist gimmick to being the dude that got beat up by the Wyatts. Yippie. They have to give him some kind of character he can work with, generic aggressive KO artist heel wouldn't have been too bad had Wade not stolen his finisher. There's the student of the game intelligent babyface they may play up but that sucks! There's nothing you can do with that. Step one is find a character.

As a guy who hasn't seen any of his indy work, I'm not looking forward to seeing him on the main roster. Then again after the face turn has he had a singles match? Don't remember. Think he had a squash where he impressed with his athletic ability (again he's 35 so that'll fade away in a few years), but nowadays he's just setting up the hot tag to Corey. Lazy work or archaic tag script? He looks terrible, haven't been impressed with his mic work (not terrible but meh)...

He had a good match with Richie iirc and his match with Regal was great, weren't the rest jobber matches and setting up hot tags? Just feel like after a year of New NXT I haven't seen much of anything this guy can do in the ring.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

Bring him up as the next member of Zebs army. Tag him with Cesaro for a while then there's a built in split feud that will elevate them both.

 

[Stopspot]

I would like them to repackage him and really lay weight on the knockout artist gimmick. Give him ring gear that actually looks like pro fighter gear, only adapted to wrestling. I'd be okay with the love handles if he rocked MMA style shorts. Put some focus on the tributes he's done to Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali for nearly ten years. give him one of those boxer style robes and a Don King style manager to walk him to the ring. Ohno can still cut promos but he's proven on the independents that he works well playing off of managers like Larry Sweeney and Haggadorn. Then have him work more strikes into his ring style and focus on knocking people out. Don't take pinfalls, but ten count knock outs. Sell the pro fighter/knock out artist aspect and that he can knock anybody out. Then a more higher pace ring style, less cravat rest holds since they slow the match down. He could build heat with the crowed getting the 10 counts give him some arm candy. Have him do some squash matches KO'ing guys building back up to the main event and couple it with a win at all costs cheating every chance he get heel tactics if he's a heel.

 

[Leo C]

I would like them to repackage him and really lay weight on the knockout artist gimmick. Give him ring gear that actually looks like pro fighter gear, only adapted to wrestling. I'd be okay with the love handles if he rocked MMA style shorts. Put some focus on the tributes he's done to Mike Tyson and Muhammed Ali for nearly ten years. give him one of those boxer style robes and a Don King style manager to walk him to the ring. Ohno can still cut promos but he's proven on the independents that he works well playing off of managers like Larry Sweeney and Haggadorn. Then have him work more strikes into his ring style and focus on knocking people out. Don't take pinfalls, but ten count knock outs. Sell the pro fighter/knock out artist aspect and that he can knock anybody out. Then a more higher pace ring style, less cravat rest holds since they slow the match down. He could build heat with the crowed getting the 10 counts give him some arm candy. Have him do some squash matches KO'ing guys building back up to the main event and couple it with a win at all costs cheating every chance he get heel tactics if he's a heel.

There, not hard. I was wondered why they didn't do KO finishes for him since the guy's gimmick is knocking people out. That had me baffled for a while.